home jobs contact us
Our Clients:
Browse by Sport
Find us on ASAP sports on Facebook ASAP sports on Twitter
ASAP Sports RSS Subscribe to RSS
Click to go to
Asaptext.com
ASAPtext.com
ASAP Sports e-Brochure View our
e-Brochure

BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS


October 25, 2003


Joe Iracane

Steve Margolis

Satish Sanan

Cornelio Velasquez


ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA

ERIC WING: We're back here in the interview room with the happy connections of Cajun Beat. Standing room only up at the desk. Before we go to the questions, let's take a look at the Breeders' Cup Sprint. Cornelio Velasquez, feel free to talk through this.

Q. Were you worried about the pace right here?

CORNELIO VELASQUEZ: I knew I had a lot of horse. He closes easy. He was a lot of horse. I had a lot of horse under me today.

ERIC WING: First, obviously a very happy scene. We have Joe Ircan up on stage and John Iracane off to the side. Obviously you're very exhilarated at this point.

JOE IRACANE: Yeah, we can't say enough about the race. We're just thrilled. So happy to be here. Just absolutely happy to be here. We want to thank Satish and his family. And Cornelio and Stephen Margolis did an unbelievable job with the horse, bringing him along. So I guess everything lined up for us and we're very thankful for the situation that has come about right now.

ERIC WING: Satish, I didn't mean to leave you out of that jubilant equation. But you were here last year celebrating a win by Vindication. Breeders' Cups are starting to get -- you had Cash Run before that, Breeders' Cups are treating you pretty well. Tell us about your association with the Iracanes and how that came to pass.

SATISH SANAN: Well, Joe's an old friend and Joe loves racing just like I do. A few years ago he was at the farm, he had come to the farm and Cam and Joe came and this horse, it was a tough horse to train. So we gelded him and Joe said, could he have a piece of him, and I said sure. So Joe bought half and he put it in Joe and John's name, and we have had a few others. And he's a lucky son of a gun, every time he buys a horse. So he's lucky and I think a lot of credit goes to Steve. This horse, when he was with Cam, he was training well, he won big races. But I think he's a changed horse ever since Steve's had him. He's improved many, many, many lengths. And I think he's improved five, six lengths since the last race.

ERIC WING: Steve, congratulations.

STEVE MARGOLIS: Thank you.

ERIC WING: You got this horse four or five races ago. Earlier in the year he was starting out at least a little bit on the Triple Crown trail. And when was the decision made to just stick to sprinting and what was the key to the horse from what you could see once you got him?

STEVE MARGOLIS: Well, he had run a bad race in the slop at Church Hill and just came out of it really body sore and stoved up and I got the horse from Cam and I did some work on him and gave him some time. He's a little horse, doesn't carry a lot of weight. So you have to not drill him and run him too often and train him too hard. But over his last couple races he's just gotten stronger and better each time he runs. His workouts have shown it. That's why we took a shot and came here today.

ERIC WING: Cornelio, go ahead.

SATISH SANAN: I tell you he was a little bit reluctant. I said, "God damn it, we don't get too many opportunities, let's go for it." That's exactly what I told him. And I'm glad I did.

ERIC WING: Cornelio, congratulations on your first Breeders' Cup victory and in fact it's Steve's first in his first attempt. But Cornelio, Breeders' Cup Sprint is famous or for being such a cut throat battle, speed of the horses all over the place. Your horse, A, just won in 107.4 which is only one fifth a second off the fastest Breeders' Cup sprint ever, which was run by Kona Gold. B, he looked like the proverbial winner every step. Did you feel like you had the race won down the back stretch? It just looked like you had so much horse under you.

CORNELIO VELASQUEZ: My horse, he got a little brave. He was in a position and on the pole. The last pole I think may horse he went easy. A lot of horses, a lot of horses are on top of me. Thank you for the owner, the trainer, to give me a chance.

SATISH SANAN: You're a great rider. You're going to be one of the big riders in the future.

ERIC WING: Questions for the Iracans or Mr. Sanan or Mr. Margolis or Mr. Velasquez. Was the horse, Steve, gelded after you got him?

STEVE MARGOLIS: No, he was gelded before.

SATISH SANAN: He was gelded at the farm.

Q. Was it this race you had to encourage Steve to go in?

SATISH SANAN: Yeah.

Q. Where did you want to go?

STEVE MARGOLIS: We were thinking about the Francis Dash at Maryland, but they told me, yeah, the horse ran a big number on the speed figures and they follow the speed figures more than me and they said he ran a huge number. And I said, well, sure, we'll train the horse for a while. And the horse kept training better and better after he came out of the Kentucky Cup Sprint better than he went into it. After he started training, we said, let's do it. And I said, okay, let's go.

Q. (Question asked in Spanish.) I asked him what went through his mind the final hundred yards and he said, "I knew I was going to go easy."

ERIC WING: Thank you for the translation.

Q. Steve could you talk a little bit about what's going through your mind as your horse is moving around the far turn and it looks like he certainly had a shot to win it all?

STEVE MARGOLIS: Yeah, he was well placed. Cornelio did a great job getting him in good position and his fight with Scott Lake's horse. When they turned for home I could see he had a lot of horse. He opened up and I was yelling and he kept going. He just -- the horse has improved from race to race. He's gotten stronger and better and more confidence. He's just a wonderful horse.

Q. Last year following Vindication's win you were here and saying that you felt this was in some ways a vindication of what you have been doing all along in the horse business. Does the victory today serve as even more of that or does it have a different meaning for you?

SATISH SANAN: I think this victory, I think it's both. I think it's a little bit of a vindication of our program. We are very committed to the game as most of you know. And a lot of people were second guessing whether we were committed to the game or not. But I think more importantly this horse was not given a lot of credit earlier on. As I said earlier, ever since it's moved to Steve the horse has improved a lot. New connections, new trainer, new jock, it's just tremendous. Steve's done a great job. And I think you're going to see an awful lot of both of these guys in the future.

Q. Question of the Iracans. I believe you own a horse with Rick Pitino and Dick Vitale, It's Awesome Baby, which is appropriate words for today's experience. Have you heard from either of them yet?

JOE IRACANE: Actually I did hear from coach. He left a message on my machine that I looked 25 pounds heavier on the television camera than I should. He said, "If I were you, I would let Satish take the front and you take the back row." That's what I heard from him. But as far as It's Awesome Baby, we're having a lot of fun and hopefully we're lucky. I would rather be lucky than good anyway and I've been pretty lucky.

ERIC WING: It doesn't get any more awesome than this. Congratulations to all five of you and your families in just a convincing win in the Breeders' Cup sprint. If there ever was one. And good luck down the road with Cajun Beat.

End of FastScripts...

About ASAP SportsFastScripts ArchiveRecent InterviewsCaptioningUpcoming EventsContact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297