Sandy Adkins (assistant to Gerry Aschinger, winning trainer of Dramedy)

On the decision to run Dramedy at 1½ miles for the first time “Every time he’s run, he’s closed at the end and been hard to pull up after going a mile, a mile and a sixteenth. So a mile and a half was perfect. When they said the mile went in 1:40, I said, ‘Oh my gosh. We’ve got this.’ Because I knew (jockey Joe Bravo would) have a ton of horse, and he did.”

On Dramedy having found a niche at 1½-mile races

“Absolutely. I wish they wrote them more often.”

Joe Bravo (winning rider)

“Man, don’t you love horse racing? You never know what to expect. This horse, the first time doing the distance. I take my hat off to the whole team. Do you know how hard it is to get a horse ready for a mile and a half? He just thrived on it. Turning for home, he was like, ‘C’mon guys. Let’s go.’ ”

On whether he could hear rivals gaining ground near the finish “It wasn’t as important if I heard them. I’m glad he heard them. He was just kicking off down the lane. It was pretty nice.”

Julien Leparoux (rider of runner-up Dynamic Sky)

“We came running. The winner kind of got loose and was like 15 (lengths) in front. We were catching up, just maybe one or two (more) jumps and we beat him. I had to ride my race. (The connections) wanted me to cover him up and then make a run. He did good, ran a good race. Too bad the winner kind of got loose on the (backstretch).”

Javier Castellano (rider of third-place finisher and beaten favorite Unitarian)

“I had a good trip. The slow pace early in the race did not help me. My horse didn’t change his style; he likes to come from behind. He did the best he could to get there. I saw those horses (far out in front) and in my mind I expected them to come back but they didn't. The winner had just enough left to hold on for the win.”

Luis Saez (rider of fourth-place finisher Biz The Nurse [IRE])

“I had a pretty nice trip. I was in the clear the whole way. I thought I had a lot of horse but when I asked him to run it (felt) like he stayed in the same spot. I thought the (leaders) were going to stop.”