I was a little concerned about that coming in and he might have been wondering what he was running on, but he liked it. Frankie [Brothers] did a great job getting him ready. The track can be tiring but he was fit today and ready for it.

I inherited the lead about the middle of the first turn, and he was running real easy. Then on the backside I don't know if he lost interest, but I really thought I was out of horse. About the half-mile pole I had to pull the stick out and go to work on him, and he responded.

I sacrificed a little ground going into the final turn trying to not stop his momentum and that probably hurt a little in the short stretch of this race. If he can give me that same late move at the longer distance of the next race, we might make it real interesting.

If he can give me that same late move at the longer distance of the next race (the Rebel), we might make it real interesting.

He made me work harder than I think I really had to because he wasn't going to let them by. I was asking him for everything, but obviously he had something left because he felt that horse [Pair of Kings] coming?the horse kind of carried him to the wire.

Our game plan was to come out running, make them commit, and that's what happened. It almost turned out like we drew it up. We wanted to make them run, make them commit to go by you, get to the outside and then put in a very nice run and that's exactly what happened.