132ND BELMONT STAKES

June 10, 2000

Pat Day

Berbely Lewis

Robert Lewis

D. Wayne Lukas

PAT DAY: I'd love a glass of water.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: My name is Wayne Lukas, and I ran a horse in the Belmont today, for those of you who didn't notice.

PAT DAY: 197, I do know how to count.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Coke never tasted better.

PAT DAY: Thank you.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: The evaluation two weeks out to the Belmont was not so much how he was doing, the horse was doing obviously very well, we were looking at the horses that were going to go in the race. We were not making our decision on the Derby winner or the defection of the Preakness winner. More or less we were looking at the situation as it might unfold. We didn't have any grandiose ideas we could come in and overwhelm this deal. In fact, we didn't even feel like we could do what he did as easily as we did it. I think it was important to me to play the cards dealt. The more I looked at the abilities the other horses had, the more confident I grew at least we could have something to say about the outcome.

PAT DAY: I had ridden him a couple times this year. He ran fourth to War Chant in one of those races in California, didn't get of beat that bad. They put blinkers on him. Next time he was enthusiastic. I rode him in the Lexington. We had a troubling trip. He was running in the finish. Unshaded didn't finish, beat us that bad. He made a sweeping move that day and got clear of us early in the Lexington a mile and 16 short return to the wire there. By the time we got on track, the race was over. I think like a lot of horses, there's no plausible excuse for his poor performance in the Derby. Today, coming into this race, obviously I was coming, a lot of Mr.`Lukas' decision to come. One thing I learned over the years, you can't count Mr. Lukas out in one of these major fixtures. He said the horse was training well. He was coming up here to participate and do the best we could, and in the paddock talking it over we felt that the speed, we come off the outside OF Hugh Hefner. One thing Wayne told me, try to have an energy-saving ride. Try not to use him anymore than we have to. He would prefer to be in the clear going into the first turn. Hugh Hefner was able to outfoot us. This horse was very relaxed, coasting along very kindly all the way. Took me to the lead, you know, going into the far turn and then at the head of the stretch I hadn't asked him for anything. I wasn't sure how much I had. I didn't know for sure exactly what response I was going to get when I picked up and called on him. We had a good cushion on the field. When he changed leads, I gathered him up and called on him. He responded. And I felt at this point they were going to have to come running and running hard if they were going to catch him. I would shove at him and smooch at him, he pin down, and you see his ears come back up. This wasn't the bottom of this horse. I have to commend Wayne Lukas on his ability to bring this horse up to the races and his courage to put him in there and take a shot. I think he read his horse well. Mr.`Lewis was telling me on the podium out there, last year, Wayne watching the way this colt got over the ground, this is the Belmont horse. He's here and bears it out. My hat's off to Wayne. Again, congratulations to Mr.`and Mrs. Lewis. I had pleasure to be part of the team.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Exactly. We felt this might be his best race. You know, you're going to say, how could that be. I told Bob Lewis last fall I thought this horse would be a horse, probably would be a factor in the Triple Crown series. Obviously wasn't in the Derby, but I felt pretty good about him. I told Bob he will run an exceptional race in the Belmont with the configuration. The thing that comes up with these races, especially with the classic, I'm finding more and more. Even in the prep races, as you people analyze this and you look at it, you say, well, High Yield, a ground-saving speed bias rail and that becomes the story line in the Florida Derby. Well, the story line is really that if the speed is fast and the rail is -- speed is holding and the rail is the place to be, that's where you put your horse and that's what you train to do. You have to adjust to the situation. When we made the decision to come here, we spent more energy analyzing the other horses in the race. I did personally and I knew what my horse could do. Sometime it's more important when you're training the horses to know what the other guy can do and/or can't do. It kept coming up positive. Not a win. I'm not predicting a win. I said before we didn't have any grandiose ideas of sweeping this thing, but the more you analyze your opposition, I'm sure Phil Jackson is going to do that tonight.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: It wasn't that hard a race. He can stand.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: All of those that statistics sooner or later become, you know, just a statistic. It makes for great copy and you can analyze this stuff and say that no horse did this or no horse skipped that and this one and that, in the final analysis the horse is the most important ingredient in all this. The trainer and the rider come secondary, trust me.

PAT DAY: Amen. Amen.

BOB LEWIS: I certainly have to say to all of you, the heartaches and trials of our previous runs in the Belmont with Silver Charm and Charismatic and not making the Triple Crown, a lot of that is erased by this victory today because on Wednesday morning prior to the draw I called Coach Lukas and said, hey, coach, you sure we're doing the right thing here? And I was getting a little weak-kneed and Wayne, you know, in his own way, reassured me that absolutely we were doing the right thing. So here we are and Pat brought us a victory and we're so grateful to both of you, Wayne and Pat, believe me.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: He didn't wink it very much. I said absolutely. He said, good, you're driving the bus, go on with it.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Bill, he was an extremely gifted horse from the first time we ever breezed him. He is one of those horses that just impresses you in the morning to no end and every time he works faster than most of our horses ever do. I even said to my wife this morning, she said, can you win that thing today? I said absolutely. She said, what will it take? I said, all I have to do is see this afternoon what I see every week in the morning. If I can get the same thing I get in the morning in the afternoon, we're going to be a factor in this. This is a very, very gifted horse who has a great stride. I'll leave it up to Pat to back me on that. When he is moving, he is very fluid. He's throwing up some 1:10 works and that's totally out of character for me, Bill.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I was terribly disappointed in Derby. I looked at that. I was actually, you know, very distraught we didn't get a better effort. I thought we were going into Derby in pretty good shape. The Derby this year was a strange race in a lot of ways. I again think one of the attributes of all the trainers that have won this or any of these classic races, I think you have to have undying confidence in what you're doing and in your horse's ability. I think you can't waiver. I don't think you can come over here and say, maybe we'll go, we should go, I don't know. I think you've got to believe in what you're doing and let it all hang out, and go for it. I never did lack any confidence. I knew if I got what I saw in the morning in the afternoon, we would win some races. I told Bob and Beverly that over and over. I said this horse has got a brilliance, you don't believe.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: In a little bit of a way. On the other hand, Bob and I talked, we decided, without much discussion, we would skip this with High Yield and go to the Swaps Stakes. We would bring this horse in as our Belmont horse, which we had talked about almost a year ago in being our Belmont horse. Due to some of your colleagues, every time I read about this horse in the press in the spring, everybody told me if I would stay under a mile I would be in good shape.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: The Triple Crown is always going to be a tough test? I think I made the observation at the Smithsonian seminar one night. You don't run three tough races. If you're going to be effective in the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby, the first leg even skip it and go to the Preakness, you are really in your probably fourth tough race and many cases with the first structure we have and the emphasis we put on the preparations with million dollars and three quarter million dollar purses. Maybe when you get to the Belmont our fifth tough race, I think that's going to be a sign of the years ahead. In order to win these things there's so much emphasis on them. You have to get ready in the Kentucky Derby and you go to the Preakness in two weeks and here in three weeks. It's always going to be touch, demanding. We're going to have horses that are not going to make the trip. I hope that was heat exhaustion we had today.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Always going to be a tough, tough series.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I don't think so. My theory has always been take what's right in front of you. I don't think you pass up the Derby to wait for the Belmont, or pass up the Preakness and, you know, come to the Belmont. I think when a horse is good and he's doing well, lead him over there and give him a chance to perform, because so many times you will point a particular horse. Take the Pegasus horse, for example. If Neil would have skipped the Preakness and said I'm going to wait for the Belmont, and he's still going to do what he did in the stall and miss two legs, I think you take what's in front of you. It's tough. The sport gets too shaky and you just can't predict. And they're not wind-up toys; when they're good, run 'em, when they're not, rest them.

BOB LEWIS: Barely.

BEVERLY LEWIS: Not very easily. Wayne did make a comment though, way back, two year old Commendable had beautiful movement and he could also run all day. We also hope he could run fast all day. I guess that's what he did today.

BOB LEWIS: That's exactly right. You know it, I'm sure you perceive it as being a very grueling situation for the owners, as you referred, but being here at Belmont Park, being able to have in our short span of racing, Beverly and I to have had the number of horses that Wayne has made available and others as well. It's just absolutely incredible to think of the number of -- and today we ran, five weeks ago we ran our 45th horse in the Kentucky Derby, two of the horses that we have run ran in all three legs in the Triple Crown. Yes, we wound up with some heartbreak at the end, but when you're playing with fire, you have to get used to that. It happens. We couldn't be more thrilled.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Only two guys asked me anything all week. It was Gary and Bob, I think, the only two guys that came by the barn and asked anything. That was the question. Hear me out, Gary, if I say this wrong, I said that I thought this was a very, very solid three-year-old crop and that as the season went along, that they would continue to beat -- that they would beat up on each other. There was going to be a lot of sorting out. To answer your question how I rank them, I think the three who won the three classics, put them one, two, three, shake them out, doesn't make a difference. We'll have to go to the second season, as you all call it, and find out what it looks like in the Swaps, the Travers, the Haskell probably and maybe the fall championship series. I think you'll find I'm going to make a prediction. I think when we get into the fall series, the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the championship certificate is in the fall, I think you're going to find out the three-year-olds are very good. They're going to more than hold their own against the handicap division.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: We have that interlocking fiber-like brick, rubber brick we put in the paddock, the only draw back, easy to keep clean, nice for the women with their high heels. The only draw back, when a horse steps on it, it is absolutely no slippage. No slippage when he puts his foot down. If he puts it down and picks it up, it's wonderful. We have found all across the country with everybody that has had that, if they turn, the shoe just stays there and he took it off just as clean as a whistle, all eight nails, just perfect as they come. Had it right there, it laid right there.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Left front.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: It didn't bother me too much. What you do, I glanced to see if he took a hoof off. He twisted it off like you pulled every nail and rasped off the clenches. All 8 nails were sitting in the shoe. I think the blacksmith was a hell of a lot more nervous than I was, water was rolling off him. I said NYRA was going to pay you, don't worry. I was trying to calm him and kid him a little bit.

BEVERLY LEWIS: Are you saying we ran with three shoes?

D. WAYNE LUKAS: We started off with all four. He twisted it off in the paddock.

BEVERLY LEWIS: Paddock?

BOB LEWIS: You didn't put another one on?

D. WAYNE LUKAS: We shod him right there. See how incidental, the owner didn't know.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Always. I love it. I think all my life when they say you can't do something, it drives our organization. I feed off of that. I motivate my help off that. Whenever you say you can't do, like Tabasco Cat, to run a mile and a half. Can't get Commendable to go here and there. We feed off that and we love it. I said to Bob and Beverly about an hour before the race, we do our best work when they don't expect it.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: When you get to the third leg, you know, it wears on you like any sporting event in a championship series, the constant questions and repetition and everything. It was a welcome change really for us to be over there and not have anybody come by and just be able to do our thing and pretty much that was kind of welcome. We had more than our share of the interviews and exposure. It was really welcome. I enjoyed it very much.

BOB LEWIS: We did not.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I didn't see it either.

BOB LEWIS: We were in Saratoga at the time.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: We were all there.

BOB LEWIS: Really, this is the first win we've seen.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I'm flattered, but I didn't think about it, no. In fact, I didn't know that statistic and I hope this isn't the last time we all get together in one of these classics. We're going to continue to try to win some more, but that is flattering because of the man that held it.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: When do they run the Dwyer? No. I would say we'll probably split. Without talking to Bob and Beverly we'll certainly get into this a little bit. We'll probably split High Yield and this horse off. One will go in the Haskell, one in the Jim Dandy. That would be my guess. We'll split them off, because of the magnitude of the Travers. We'll run both or one. And I think this horse is really coming on. This horse had a five-week break since the Derby to here. But I'll be the first to recognize the Belmont is not easy on him. We'll see how he pulls up. I'll probably say probably the Haskell which gives us another five weeks.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Right away. We started thinking about it when we were watching him cool off.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: We committed this horse in my mind. I hadn't had a chance to talk to Bob and Beverly. But I had told Mike, one of my assistants who was with me at Churchill, and I told him, I said that we'll go with High Yield to the Swaps, but we'll commit this horse to the Belmont.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Last fall he didn't shin buck but he heated a little bit in his shin. We very rarely ever shin buck a horse. I think some of that is because we stop immediately. He carried a little bit of heat in his shin. We decided that we were going to go for the classics and that was the ideal time to give him a break.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Bacon and eggs, beautiful. One of the biggest decisions, one of the things that went into the decision that was paramount to what we did, was to get Pat Day. I'll be very honest with you. I really wanted Pat Day. I'm not saying we wouldn't have run without him, but we really felt good when we got him.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I think he did. His agent told me. His agent said I'm afraid to get off your horse because he said sure as hell you'll win it if I do. I'm going to stay with you.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Absolutely. I never bought into the hype in the spring. I said that from the get-go. I thought we had a great set of three-year-olds. I didn't see a spectacular horse like Secretariat. I saw a horse win a derby by a length and a trip. Talented, good, tried, talented horse in good time. I didn't see the invincible horse that we put on that pedestal, frankly, and I say that with all respect to his ability and my good friend, Neil Drysdale, and so forth. I thought Red Bullet was a horse for a day. He ran a beautiful race. Right spot for the right time. I said all week not just saying it now. I thought this thing was going to be difficult to sort out and these horses are going to go out each year time and time again. We'll have different results. There's probably a fourth one sitting out there, sitting out going to come up. In fact, I might have one.

PAT DAY: This horse took me to the lead about the half mile pole, I guess, went on by Hugh Hefner very easily, nicely. Well within himself. Cruised on around the turn as per my instruction in the paddock. Wayne told me to have an energy-saving ride best I could. Not to use him more than I had to and not to use him until I had to. When we come off the turn leaving a little bit to change over his right lead when I gathered up the slack, shoved him a little bit and got a favorable response. I felt that point in time the way he was moving, unless they came, they were going to have to come running to get past him. His ears would pin back, he'd drop down and accelerate for a little bit. Then he would throw his ears up. He still wasn't at the bottom of the well when he came to the wire. I felt very good all the way down the stretch. I felt like if anybody came to him and offered a challenge that there was some reserve there that he was going to resist with.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Did I see it like you did? I thought the last four or five strides he opened up again. I don't think they were closing.

PAT DAY: They were closer to him at the eighth pole.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: That's what I thought. I thought he had it in control at that point. I didn't see the whole thing. I saw the last one hundred yards.

PAT DAY: I didn't have any job offers.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Yes, you did.

PAT DAY: Maybe I did and I don't know about it.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Doc told me you had some options.

PAT DAY: To be honest and candid, which is the way I like to play the game, I came up here based on Wayne's confidence. I hadn't been on his colt. I hadn't been on him since the Lexington Stakes. I was disappointed in my performance. I didn't get him clear till inside the eighth pole. Lexington is a mile and a sixteenth. You have a short mile. He didn't get clear to the eighth pole and he finished up strong. I didn't know why he ran so poorly in the Derby, but I came up here based primarily on the fact that Wayne thought he was training well and deserved an opportunity. One thing I've learned over the years, you can't discourage Wayne any day of the week, especially on Saturday afternoon in a feature race. So, you know, I came up here and I throw the leg over this horse in the paddock expecting a big effort and I got exactly what I was expecting.

PAT DAY: He knows better than to do it in front of me. I get a big head.

PAT DAY: I like that.

PAT DAY: We certainly had got along well today. I didn't know if I could have said the same thing after the Lexington Stakes, due to the fact I had him in traffic and didn't get clear until too late, didn't give him every opportunity he probably deserved. You know, when horses run as nice and kind underneath you as this horse, I don't know it's necessarily my style, I think there's any one of a number of guys that put on his white pants that could have rode this horse and got the job done.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: The horse I gave Pat today was different than the horse I gave him in the Lexington.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: That wouldn't make a difference in our decision. Obviously we like to see the Preakness and the Derby winner in here for the goodness of the game in the big picture. We at no time would have made our decision based on whether those two horses went. I told Bob that. I said, Bob, the fact that first one defected had no bearing on our decision. When the second one defected, we were already committed. I would like to have seen them all in there. I think we ran a good horse. I think we would have beat any of them. We'll have to show that down the line. I think we would have beat them.

PAT DAY: He was aggressive on the bridle. He was doing what I wanted him to do. I wanted him to maintain an even pace and I wanted him to stay relax. Obviously, going the half mile pole when he crept up on Hugh Hefner on his throat latch, you know, and was wanting to go on. I was not going to wrestle with him at that point to drag him back off to staying second. I felt as long as he was moving smoothly and comfortably underneath me, he wasn't all out to do it, that it would serve my purpose better to let him do that, be comfortable. And, as a matter of fact, you know, as soon as he got past that horse, he relaxed more. He was happy. You know, my whole thing about race riding is try not to compromise the horse's action. Try to get along with him. I've been highly successful doing that. I was a happy camper all the way. When he showed he wanted to go after Hugh Hefner, I let him do it. When I called upon him on the turn, he came to the wire. He was a happy horse. I guarantee he is a happy horse in the barn right now.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: When you train horses, the only thing in these classics I focus on is whether I'm seeing the same thing during the race by the moment of the horse's stride the way he's getting over the ground that you're used to seeing in his daily workouts. If you see that, boy, your confidence goes sky high. If you see a horse going down the backside like he was going today, I know that's the horse I normally see in the morning. Then you really get comfort. I was running in the trustees' room, air conditioning. I didn't want to go in the box. It was hot. I was standing there with about four perfect strangers, didn't want to create a scene. I turned to a woman I never seen, I think Commendable is going to win the Belmont. She went to jumping up and down. She said, how do you know that? I said I trained him. She almost passed out.

PAT DAY: And the second part of that question --

PAT DAY: We discussed it momentarily in the paddock. This horse had shown that he tactical speed obviously. He starts back. He was on the lead-in the race in California, you know, I felt like Hugh Hefner on the outside would show the speed. We talked about it in the paddock and thought that's where the speed would come from. We thought they'd let him run away from there. The main thing impressed upon me, you know, if several horses outfooted us to try to get in the clear, don't get him all covered up. He seems to be intimidated. When he does finally get cleared, he comes hard. So, you know, we talked. Wayne said, you know, at some point in time Hugh Hefner will more than likely will be in front of you. At some point in time if you can work your way to the outside of him kick along and do your thing.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I went in the sale and just bought him.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I rated him. I think he was around my third or fourth rated horse at Keeneland and I was a little bit surprised that we got him as cheap as we did. I thought he was a little better specimen. Evidently, he slipped through the cracks on some of the other agents or trainers. But we had him. I think he was our third rated horse or something and High Yield was my number one rated horse that year and he was, I think, third, but we were surprised we got him as cheap as we did.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: He got covered up. He wasn't seasoned enough. You know what he didn't have is the seasoning under him. You guys make a big point of that and you're dead right on that issue. I think seasoning is a factor. I was high on him, even convinced Greg Bark of USA Today to pick him. He didn't have the seasoning and he didn't have the trip. It wasn't Pat's fault either. He got smothered. Next thing you know he was covered up and he never got into the race.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I'm a terrible handicapper. I'm not good at that at all. What I do try to do, I try to handicap the ability of the other guy's horse, what I think he can do and can't do. In other words, I try to handicap from the standpoint can he catch up before two lengths in front of the quarter pole. Can Aptitude come from 7 or 8 and catch us if we turn the corner in 1:38 and 4, that type of thing. That's the way I analyze the race. I'm a terrible handicapper. I had a hell of an omen Thursday morning. My good friend and I, Bobby Frankel were standing out having coffee, you know. I said did you enter in the race? I said Bob, I'm in. I'll make their hearts pound for a little way and you can take over from there. That's it?

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I think what happened today, you saw what I've been seeing all along. I never lost confidence. I think that's one of the strongest attributes a trainer, not only me, anybody, can have. You have to believe in your horse. I never lost faith. He showed me too much. He was too brilliant. Even as a two-year-old and I think he just put it all together. If I can get him to do again a couple of times, I think we've got something. That's out there in front of us to work at. He put it together today. He was strong throughout. He rode superbly. That was a Hollywood script. It was what we talked about exactly. It happens that way and you count your blessings and we'll take this one and we'll go to the bank on Monday smiling.