EMERALD DISTAFF
3-YEAR-OLDS & UP, FILLIES AND MARES
21st RUNNING, AUGUST 14, 2016
1 1/8 MILES IN 1:47.59

JOCKEY ESWAN FLORES, PERHAPS A PIE, WINNER: “The training has been the difference for this horse. Chris (Stenslie) has got a good team going on in her barn. Having that said, the horse has been running good for her. She’s got confidence. We had a good route, and she just took me home. Chris and I agreed that if we were in the front, we could stay there and get a good pace on the other horses and make a good run at them.”

JOCKEY MARIO GUTIERREZ, ALL STAR BUB, THIRD: “I thought I ran out of horse. I thought in the stretch I was going to go by them, but my horse kind of stayed at the same rhythm. I think that the winner held onto the lead pretty nicely, but I thought I had enough horse to blow by them on the stretch; I just kind of stayed in the same spot.”

JOCKEY ROCCO BOWEN, PRINCESS KENNEDY, NINTH: “It was a big race. I’m just trying to be safe. There’s always another day. She tried. This horse is an honest filly. Horses are sensitive, especially fillies. You can’t have another horse contact them so much, and expect them to continue to try. So I kind of took her out of the race. I was just trying to jostle her back and get her relaxed, and I had her quite relaxed after the bump at the start. My boss told me that we have to be extra patient. After that happened, I got a little impatient, but stuff happens out there.”
–##–