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BREEDERS' CUP WORLD THOROUGHBRED CHAMPIONSHIPSNovember 2, 2013Chris DunnJeremiah EnglehartRon PaolucciARCADIA, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we're joined now by the winning owners of Ria Antonia who gets put up in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Congratulations. On the right we have Ron Pelucci, and on the left is Chris Dunn. Hopefully we'll be joined by trainer Jeremiah Englehart shortly. But let's start with these gentlemen. Let's see, Ron, let's start with you. What can you tell us about the thrill of watching your filly come down the stretch and also getting a little bit cut off there or bumping a few times? Just tell us your feelings on the stretch run? RON PAOLUCCI: Well, first of all, it was very, very‑‑ just being here is exciting, and then I picked her up at about the 3/8ths pole, I told my buddy, she's coming, man, she's really coming. As she kept coming, I kept screaming louder and louder. I actually thought visually from where I was standing, we won it. But everybody's saying we lost by that much. And my phone's ringing like by 30 people saying that horse came over, claim file, claim file. So I thought with the margin of victory it was the right call. It was a very tough call though. If we had lost by half a length, it wouldn't have been the right call. But when you lose by an inch and a half, it's probably the right call. THE MODERATOR: Can you tell us when you got this filly? RON PAOLUCCI: Actually, Chris Dunn from Jackson Bloodstock founder, I had watched her. I bet on her‑‑ or not bet on her, I was watching her at Woodbine, and she ran a very good race against the boys. And I had her in my stable notes, and Chris Jackson, the Bloodstock agent called me and said this filly is for sale. Well, I had already bought one previously from the same guy, and we haggled a little bit on the price which will remain silent to this point. We got it done. The first thing I did was call Jeremiah Englehart. Jeremiah is tremendous with young horses. I mean, I've watched him bring horses up and I just think that he is tremendously good with young horses. He can get one there just as good as anybody that I've seen around. So that's how we came to where we were at. We only had her in the States for about seven, maybe eight days before the Frizette, and she wasn't cranked up. How can you be cranked up after vanning and‑‑ I pointed towards this race when I bought her. I know everybody thought I was crazy, but I told Jeremiah we're going to get this filly to the Breeders' Cup. I said you should see the stride on this filly. She covers ground like crazy. CHRIS DUNN: The dirt workout up in Woodbine was convincing as well. RON PAOLUCCI: She actually worked two days after I started negotiations on the dirt, and the guy raised the price 30% on me. She worked 46 and 2. CHRIS DUNN: That's what got me into the horse. RON PAOLUCCI: Then I called Chris and said I need a little financial assistance. THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by trainer Jeremiah Englehart. Congratulations to you on your first Breeders' Cup victory. Tell us your impressions when this filly came to you, and especially after the Frizette and the decision to keep on going for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: We had her, like Ron said, for seven or eight days before the Frizette. So I didn't really know. I knew she was a very nice mover on the racetrack. We breezed her. She worked well. She beat up on the company that she was with that day, unintentionally. But I was saying before this week before this race that in the Frizette that I really didn't know her that well as far as her running style. She was more, we told Jose in that race, take her back, we want to make one run. But in doing that, that's not her style. She wants to be a nice, long hold and kind of just‑‑ she's got a beautiful stride on her and she just grinds it out. In that race, she rated and Jose took her back. But she doesn't have that real quick turn of foot. So that was kind of against her in that race. Knowing that coming in here, I thought she'd improve coming into this race, but she didn't have the resume as some of the other horses in this race. RON PAOLUCCI PELUCCI: The one thing that nobody realizes is I've been watching these races for two weeks. That is the first horse that I can remember that wasn't on the lead turning for home that won. Look at Goldencents; he burned it up yesterday and kept going. Every horse that was on the lead went wire to wire. I mean, what she did was against the track today too. She got tired a little bit at the end, but she was huge today. THE MODERATOR: She really kept trying and trying. She was giving it all in the final 16th. Jeremiah, can you give us your impressions of that last 16th of a mile? JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: I don't usually root that much for my horses. But when I saw her, I was looking at the infield TV and I saw Javier get her in a nice position to make a run down the backside and was kind of picking horses off one by one. And I'm thinking well, she's 29‑1, she'll probably fade here at some point because I was getting excited. Then when I saw him, he still hadn't cracked a whip yet, that's when I knew that she was going to finish. She was turning for home. I thought it looked like we were going to win the race, and I'm thinking, oh, my God, just remember, keep your clothes on, act professional. But it was special because my wife, Robin, was there. I don't know. I guess when I saw she was second, I was a little disappointed because I thought we were going to win. But I was happy. RON PAOLUCCI: Right, but happy. JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: Then when I saw Anthony told me that she got bumped. They've got to claim file. I was going to go over and make sure and talk to Javier and see what happened. He said, that's the first thing he said when I got back is you know, we got bothered. So I started watching the replay. The first time I saw t I really thought the horse had to come down, trying to keep a middle of the road look at it. But she bothered us enough where I think if she doesn't make as much contact with us. RON PAOLUCCI: It was a separation after the bump. Like if you watch the head on, the separation after the bump, they went out about three or four lengths. I think that's why they finally took it back down. You know, the one thing, when I listened to Mr.Big Show, which I hope I get on Monday, one thing about 2‑year‑olds, you're always looking for 2‑year‑olds that progress. Every buyer she ran she went number, every rag number she went better, every Jerry Brown number she went better. Every race she improved. And she made a huge improvement to the dirt. When I bought this filly they chastised me because they said I would have been the second or third favorite at Keeneland on the turf. And I said this is a dirt filly, she's going to the dirt. There were a lot of people. I said that after the Frizette, they were talking about me on a few stations how could you not take her on the turf? I said I'm a riverboat gambler. I believe in the horse, and I believe in the trainer, and she's staying on the dirt. Jeremiah and I talked about blinkers too. I said let's put blinkers on her, but it's her choice; he said let's do it. THE MODERATOR: What affect did that have today? JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: I don't know if she had to be more focused, but I think she was better with the blinkers. It's hard to say, because I've always had‑‑ RON PAOLUCCI: She was better (laughing). JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: She was much better with the blinkers. I can't wait for the next time for Ron to give me some more information so we can do it again, yeah, a lot better with the blinkers. THE MODERATOR: Can you tell us more about how she came around the last few weeks, not only on Steve's show, but there were a few folks that commented this week about how striking she was in the morning. JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: I was telling Dave about my Twitter account, I have 443 followers, and Samantha Siegel, she put something on and said she's a really nice filly. And Michelle, you said something on the HRT program. I got the impression from her all week, just the way she was training. There's actually a picture. Doug O'Neill posted a picture of her and Goldencents that we're training side by side one morning, which was kind of cool. So I tweeted back and said, I see Goldencents can do it, maybe Ria‑‑ maybe she'll rub off on Ria Antonia. She put in a real good week. THE MODERATOR: Ron and Chris, could you give us a little bit more about your background and how you got into racing? CHRIS DUNN: I've been in racing about seven years now. I'm based in New York. Grew up in Saratoga, so horses have been in my blood for life. I've been pretty much playing the claiming game for the last few years.  I met Ron about a year plus ago, and we started getting a little more aggressive with some of our claims and obviously buying horses privately. It's been a really exciting year. We have a few horses in our partnership, and I guess we have a superstar now. RON PAOLUCCI: For me, I've been in the business about two years. I have about 50, 60 horses. I'm a little on the aggressive side with a lot of things. JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: A lot (laughing). RON PAOLUCCI: But like Chris said, I've kind of stepped it up. The first filly I bought for 2500, she won her first three races and ended up winning 13 out of 15 races. JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: That was the worst thing that could have happened for her. RON PAOLUCCI: Right, right. And I've just been gradually stepping up. Honestly, I take trainers that I really relate to from a personal standpoint. I put what they do on the track second. Jeremiah is a quality individual. He's a great dad. He's a good husband. I mean, to me, that's as important as anything, because that rubs off on your horses. Being with him has been tremendous. Believe me, we've had a few ups and downs because we're both type‑A personalities, but we've always come back together. And we've never lost our friendship even through the trials of a few horses that we had that we kind of‑‑ I mean, I've done that with Asmussen and Amos and everybody else too, so don't feel bad. JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: I don't. That's good company. You should give some to Pletcher too. It will be better company. THE MODERATOR: When you win a race like this, not to get ahead of ourselves, but you can't help but think about the spring and the road to the Kentucky Oaks. Your thoughts on that? JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: Yeah, I didn't have a dream, but I was thinking about it, well, if she won this race. I'm a big believer in planning and setting goals. That, to me, would be our goal right now, the Kentucky Oaks. So now you try to plan from there. Give her a little rest and figure out a campaign. Try to find her at two other wins somewhere because she's only won two. THE MODERATOR: It will be a hard race to fill. RON PAOLUCCI: I'm sure she's going to get a little break. She's definitely deserved it after that. I'll listen to Jeremiah and see what he wants to do and we'll go from there. But the one thing that was kind of funny through the whole thing, was Al, who is sitting in the front here, he got Javier to ride this filly for me. We were driving in the car from ThistleDown to Keeneland, and we were on with every jockey agent in the country. We called his agent to get another rider because we thought he was riding for Pletcher. He called back and said, hey, I saw that filly. I'll ride her. I said I want you to work her first and make sure you like her because I want the rider to have confidence. I said if you don't like her after you work her, please don't ride her. Move on and ride somebody else or whatever else. So that was kind of funny. As we were going from ThistleDown to Keeneland to Northfield, so we were getting the whole circuit. Q. Where does she go from here? RON PAOLUCCI: Well, I'm going to the bank. She's going to rest (laughing). Xpreessbet, get that check ready, please. THE MODERATOR: Jeremiah, where specifically? JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: If I had my way, I'd probably want to take her to Newcastle, let her cool off for a little bit. RON PAOLUCCI: Well, you have your way. Do what you want. JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: All right. THE MODERATOR: Well, congratulations to all of you. Q. Jeremiah, talk a little bit about your father and your background and making the move from Finger Lakes to this stage. JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: Obviously, my mom and dad are both trainers at Finger Lakes. My mom's name doesn't get put out there, but she's the blood, sweat and tears behind my dad's operation. When my dad ran, when he first moved down to New York, I saw he had success with his clients. My ultimate goal was to try to have a string because two strings, one at finger lakes and one in New York because it's not a bad trip for me. It's five hours. Really, I'm very lucky with the clients I have. Ron, last year or the year before he kind of really helped me out down there and putting horses in my barn and we kind of kept going with it. But without my mom and dad and my whole family, I mean, we have a whole family, very close family. RON PAOLUCCI: It's a great family. I know them all and it's honestly a great family. You find somebody that says something bad, especially about his dad. I mean, his dad‑‑ I know Jeremiah because he's a little younger, but everybody I talk to in the business. They told me to go to his dad. His dad said I really can't take you, because I've got Maggi Moss and everybody else. JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: Well, I probably should be thanking my dad right now, I guess. Dad, if you're listening, thank you very much. RON PAOLUCCI: One thing too, last thing and I know I've talked a lot. But his assistant trainer, Elizabeth Dobles, she is unbelievable. I mean, the care that she took care of that horse when she was out here, I mean, everybody. I got so many people emailing me and texting me about how good this filly looks, not just on the track but off the track. JEREMIAH ENGLEHART: Elizabeth Dobles. Without her I'd probably have three horses of my own at Finger Lakes right now. RON PAOLUCCI: She's very good. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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