John Velazquez, winning rider aboard Messi (No. 2): "When he ran for the first time at Belmont he was last at the quarter pole and he came running. Going a little shorter today I was a little worried about it, but they were going so slow and he was pulling all the way to the half-mile pole. I got stopped at the half-mile pole and I thought it would be hard not to let him go and catch up. Once he got going - at the quarter-mile pole - it took him a little bit to get going, but once he switched [leads] down the lane I thought he was going to get there. It was little by little, but he had a nice kick coming home."