Todd Pletcher Quotations

We're just trying to take it one step at a time.

She was a bad girl at the gate and we're going to try to fix that. When she runs Friday, we'll blindfold her coming to the gate and then load her first.

She took to the turf course well and turned in a big race, which she's shown she's capable of doing on certain days. She got a perfect trip and delivered with a perfect run down the lane.

Since the sale, he's been at Ashford, resting and doing a little jogging. We're in no hurry with him, although I still think he's the precocious type. We're just going to let him get settled in and take it slow.

Six furlongs is a better distance for him, and he's a New York-bred - he runs for bonus money.

She's a filly that's shown quality without having to be on a sloppy track to do it. Like everyone else, I'll be interested to see if she's able to do the same thing on a regular, fast track.

Obviously we know we?re in a position that he has to win the Classic to even think about that. If that happens then you can start looking at it a number of ways. He?s running against the strongest field any 3-year-old has run against this year. If he?s able to get it done, let?s soapbox then.

Obviously she had a terrific trip. She took to the turf course here well and delivered a big race.

No final decision has been made. He is going to come here with the possibility he could run in the Kentucky Derby. We will make the decision from here.

Pollard was tough, durable and consistent -- a real warrior, the type of horse everyone would want to own. He gave you everything he had.

One of the reasons why we're a successful team is that we're generally on the same page. It's not very often that we go to the paddock and I'm thinking I want to go to the lead and he's thinking he wants to come from last.

I felt like if we can get this horse straightened away and focused and he matures, then he can be any kind of horse.

He has a forward style. He might not be on the lead, but he'll be close to the pace.

He gets on six or seven horses a day and joked about a comeback. He asked to ride this one, and I have total confidence in him.

He lost a lot of ground. I thought he ran a big race.

He lost all position at a pivotal point in the race. He just didn't handle the second turn. But if there is a good time to get beat, this was one of them.

He might appreciate the longer stretch at Hawthorne.

What impressed me was he looks like he's kind and rates well, and that should help him stretch out.

He was a fresh horse and ran exactly the way we wanted him to.

He can run from off the pace if we need to do that, but maybe letting him be a free-running horse is his best style. We're certainly not going to try to take him off the pace. The most likely scenario is he's going to be on the lead, but if somebody else wants the lead then that's fine, too.

Keyed Entry is an exceptionally gifted horse. He's got loads of speed, he's very willing and he's obviously done everything we've asked him to do so far.

I thought we would be the early speed. When she hopped at the start, it concerned me a little bit. She recovered quick enough to put herself in good position.

I thought the Jim Dandy was a breakthrough performance for him. Any time you dominate a race like that I think it's a pretty big deal.

I think this is probably the best race she's ever run, which is saying a lot because she's been such a very good, consistent mare. It seems like the older she gets, and more mature she gets, she seems to be able to rate better and better. And that was the key to delivering this performance today.

I thought he worked real well. I think he really likes this track. We decided to train here because if you get rain, it's a little more consistent surface. And hopefully after the Blue Grass he'll be back here.

We'll point for the Met Mile. That's been the plan.

We'll play things by ear. She hadn't run in a while, so having this race under her belt should help her.

We were hoping that, as she got older, she would fill out and get stronger, ... Fortunately, that has been true. She has proven to run well at the longer distances.

We are committed to the Tampa program for Bluegrass Cat. With him running so well in the Sam Davis, it was logical to come back. And with it being a month apart from the Tampa Bay Derby, it just all made a lot of sense. That part was easy.

What I really like about them is they're 7-for-7 since I had the two. They like to win, that's obviously the most important thing.

We considered all the options, the pros and cons. The weather looks, temperature-wise, like it will not be poor. And we don't have to worry about the rain with him.

We wouldn't be here if it was still a one-turn mile. We need some two-turn experience.

The race (Davis) seemed to take nothing out of him and his energy level has been good since the race. It was just what we were looking for.

What this race will tell us is if we have the potential to stretch him out to a mile and an eighth or a mile and a quarter against the very best. I would be surprised if he didn't run well at a mile and a sixteenth. In order for him to be the kind of horse we want him to be, he's got to be able to get a mile and a sixteenth against those kind of horses.

Everything unfolded the way we thought it would and the way we hoped it would. This was a home run. The Jim Dandy was the kind of performance that propelled Flower Alley to the next level.

They are bubble-type horses that need to step forward and have a big showing in the Florida Derby to step into the Kentucky Derby picture. They did what they needed to do to get to this point.

It's going to be great. As long as the racing surfaces are good and the saddling environment is okay, I'll be happy.

At the end of the (Wood), he was still only beat two lengths. Even though he tired, I've got some mixed emotions on whether going a mile and a quarter is what we should do. By the same token, I'm not able to identify why we should not necessarily go.

His best distance is probably a mile-and?an-eighth to a mile-and-a-quarter. It's good to see that we can stretch him out from here.

He's a pretty forward horse and the key is just really if they can relax just enough to make their speed dangerous and keep carrying it.

If it happens fine, if it doesn't then we'll go on somewhere else.

If he were to win the Sprint, I think he puts himself in position to make a strong case for not only horse of the year, but champion three-year-old.

I don't want to get in the way of Johnny with his Kentucky Derby mounts. This was a particularly hard decision, because anyone who works or trains or is around Keyed Entry knows how good he is. You'd want to stay with a horse like that as long as possible. He's undefeated. He's training super. In a perfect world, Keyed Entry would already have gone two turns, so Johnny could have made a better comparison with Bluegrass Cat. Bluegrass Cat already has been a mile and an eighth, and he's already been a mile and a sixteenth this year. I think it came down to that.

He's matured physically and mentally and handles the distance. He's the whole package.

How much it affected his performance I don't know.

He accomplished everything we hoped for except winning.

He ran much-improved races last fall and has continued to develop physically. They stamped him as a horse moving toward the top of the handicap division.