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BREEDERS' CUP WORLD THOROUGHBRED CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 5, 2010

CHURCHILL DOWNS, KENTUCKY

ERIC WING: Live again in the interview room. Now to celebrate the winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, and undoubtedly a champion was crowned in the process. Awesome Feather maintaining her undefeated record, now 6 for 6. Only 13 more to catch Zenyatta.
With us left to right is trainer Stanley Gold; owner Fred Brei of Jacks or Better Farm; rider Jeffrey Sanchez, who is a perfect 1 for 1 now in Breeders' Cup mounts. And with us to help assist with the translation for Jeffrey is his agent, Pedro Garcia. Thanks, gentlemen, for being here.
First of all, Stanley, congratulations. Your filly had certainly won with devastating ease down in Florida. Skeptics, of course, thought maybe coming up here, she'd be taking on the big girls, and perhaps not fare as well. Talk about your confidence in your filly as she stepped outside of Florida-bred competition to meet the best in the world.
STANLEY GOLD: Thank you. I guess I had the same doubts as a lot of the people had. But I knew she was ready to run the best race she could, and I was confident she'd give us 100 percent. And I thought we'd see if she was up to the task, and she was.
She didn't disappoint anybody. She did what we thought she could do, and she is of that class.
ERIC WING: Second consecutive race, incidentally, where owner, trainer, and jockey all celebrating their first Breeders' Cup victory. Kind of a nice thing. Fred Brei of Jacks or Better Farm, you've been to the Breeders' Cup before but hadn't tasted victory. Congratulations.
Tell us about the scope of your operation, for those who aren't familiar with Jacks or Better, and really the odds that were overcome just by you sitting here on the victory stage.
FRED BREI: We're a small breeder. We only have 14 to 16 foals a year. You know, we foal the mares on the farm, raise the foals, take them to our training barn, break them, get them ready to go to Stanley at Calder. And we do it year after year hoping we're going to get the good ones.
So far we've been very fortunate in doing exactly that. When I send them down there to Stanley, they're fit, and then he has to teach them manners.
ERIC WING: Pedro, would you ask Jeffrey to tell us about the trip out there aboard Awesome Feather.
JEFFREY SANCHEZ: (translated by Pedro Garcia) She break good and she want to put a good position. When the filly made the move, he wanted because he knows she can come from the behind. And it was good.
ERIC WING: And can you ask Jeffrey about the thrill of having such a great achievement in your career, what this victory on one of the sport's biggest stage means to you.
JEFFREY SANCHEZ: After this race, the only other race he won was in Grade 2 in Calder with Manuel Azpurua for $500,000, a nine-mare affair. Good horse too.
ERIC WING: And last for Jeffrey, when Awesome Feather came up alongside R Heat Lightning. R Heat Lightning did seem like she was digging in. Were you ever concerned that Awesome Feather might not get the job done?
JEFFREY SANCHEZ: When Johnny's horse goes out, he tried to not bump with him because maybe he got in trouble with the rail. And he let him go free to the wire because he know she's a good filly and she likes to run distance.
ERIC WING: Stanley, were you concerned at all in the stretch? Looked great turning for home, and then it looked like the battle really began.
STANLEY GOLD: I knew she'd finish, and I saw she was strong. Looked like she got bumped a little in the stretch, knocked threw her off stride just a hair. She went back in to win. That's what she's showing us. She's got a lot of heart and grit, and she doesn't want to quit. She bested her. That's all.
ERIC WING: And we'll be happy to take questions here, either upstairs in the press box or here.

Q. Mr. Brei, you often developed good 2-year-olds and then sell them. What made you keep this one?
FRED BREI: We kept her because we wanted to win this race. She is in Fasig-Tipton sale for Sunday afternoon.

Q. Will she stay in?
FRED BREI: She will stay in that sale. Our reason for that is quite simple. I prefer to race in south Florida. Stanley doesn't prefer to run all over the country running, and so we're better off to let somebody own her that will run her where she needs to run.

Q. Will it be a sad day to watch her go?
FRED BREI: Absolutely. Watching her go will be very rough. Okay.

Q. This is for trainer Gold. Coming into today's race, you had won five in a row, and the fifth win had the largest margin. It was over today's distance. At what point did you think she had Breeders' Cup potential?
STANLEY GOLD: Well, I guess I hoped all along, but after the last one, I figured she's at the point where that's where the competition is. It was the logical step to go from. The timing was good because we'd planned on it. The distance was right. We planned it that way.
We brought a fresh horse here, and we figured she was ready to run her best race, and she might as well run against the best company.
As far as whether I knew she was going to be the caliber or not, I was hoping. Now I know.

Q. Fred, did you share those same concerns? Were you more or less confident?
FRED BREI: It's been a wild filly, okay, from the standpoint -- I have a friend of mine in Ocala by the name of Karen Dunn, and I told Karen back about the 1st of January that I thought we could sweep the Stallion Stakes with this filly. Karen looked at me and kind of chuckled inside like, you're crazy, Fred, and we did it.
She's just always been all her own. I've never put a horse alongside of her that can out gallop her, which we do a lot in original training. You know, she's just been that kind of filly.
Do you ever say, gee, in December she's going to go to the Breeders' Cup in November? Obviously not. I mean, that stupid I'm not, but I've always felt this was a very special filly.
ERIC WING: Any extra pride, Fred, in being not just the owner, but the breeder?
FRED BREI: Oh, absolutely. We bred and own her sire, awesome, of course. And we bought her dam as a yearling and raised her. So when you have a double homebred, that's as good as it gets.

Q. Stanley, you kind of, after Jackson Bend and saw what he did and after he moved on, can you foresee what Awesome Feather might be able to accomplish down the road?
STANLEY GOLD: I guess as a 2-year-old, she's hit the pinnacle right now. The next thing you would hope is that she could win the finest 3-year-old filly races and continue on like that. I guess she's got to run with the best because she is the best. So you would go for the best races as a 3-year-old.
The counterpart of The Derby, Triple Tiara.

Q. How old are you? When did you start riding? How did you get started in the business?
ERIC WING: The question for Jeffrey is how old is he? When did he start riding? And how did he get started in the business?
JEFFREY SANCHEZ: He start riding at 19-years-old in Puerto Rico, and he's got now five years riding.
ERIC WING: 24 then. Any more questions -- yes?

Q. Stanley, will you feel sad when this horse goes to the ring? And also for Fred, did the price, the reserve, just go up?
FRED BREI: I'm going to answer first. Okay. The deal was, and Stan knew well, we win the race, she goes to the ring. We run back in the pack, she goes home. That's the difference, you know, in all reality, of the filly.
When she's a Grade 1 winner, which she is now, I would assume an undefeated filly that won the Breeders' Cup will be the juvenile champion. And at that point, she needs to race where all the Grade 1s are, and that's why she's going to filly.
The reserve hasn't changed. It's high. It's always been high. The only difference is whether she was going or not because -- we'll just leave it at that. Okay.

Q. Stanley, what about not having her again after Sunday?
STANLEY GOLD: There's the sport of racing, and there's the business of racing. We just reached the pinnacle of the sport and the elation that I get from it. I guess I just end up on the short end of the stick on the business end. I'll miss her, but that's the business. I understand it. I'm just happy to do what I did with her.
ERIC WING: Stanley, if she does go to a new barn next year, what will you tell Awesome Feather's new trainer?
STANLEY GOLD: Probably nothing because he probably won't have me anything. They didn't ask me anything about Jackson Bend.
ERIC WING: Well, Stanley Gold, Fred Brei, Jeffrey Sanchez, and Jeffrey's agent, Pedro Garcia, congratulations. Great victory. A championship, and you should all be very proud of what we saw out there from Awesome Feather. Still perfect after these six starts. Congratulations.

End of FastScripts

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