Norman Casse (assistant to his father, Mark Casse, winning trainer of Classic Empire) “This is a very, very talented horse. The day after the Hopeful (G1) (when he wheeled at the start and lost his rider), we got right to work on him. We put blinkers on him; we breezed him out of the gate several times. It paid dividends today. We’ll more forward from here. You’ve got to think this horse has plenty of room to improve.”

Julien Leparoux (winning rider)

“Today he broke sharp and was all business. He ran a big race. I was a bit surprised to be where I was, but he did it easy and he was happy where he was. He got a little bit tired at the end, but he hasn’t been running for a while, so we expected that.”

Ricardo Santana Jr. (rider of runner-up Lookin At Lee) “He ran hard. He’s a really nice horse. He kept running. He tried. The track is really fast today so that didn’t help us either.”

Brian J. Hernandez Jr. (rider of third-place finisher Wild Shot) “My horse ran great. It was his first time going two turns and he was the only one on the lead that stuck around at the end. It was only his third start, and he was coming from a maiden going three-quarters to a Grade 1 against proven horses. It was his first time going long, and I think if I’d taken hold of him I’d have gotten in his way more than anything, so the best thing to do was let him go on.”

Joe Bravo (rider of fourth-place finisher No Dozing) “He was knocked around leaving the gate; took us out of position. He went wide both turns and still finished very hard. Watch for his name in the future.”