Corey Lanerie (winning rider of Pick of the Litter)

“I had a great trip. My horse broke really good. My plan was to try to get behind Departing; I thought he was the horse to beat and to try not to let him get out of my sights. I wanted to stay kinda close to him and see what I had turning for home, see if I had enough to go by him or not.”

“This horse has always shown in the past that he had the potential to be a really good horse. For some reason, it wouldn’t just all click at one time. (Trainer) Dale (Romans) and I kept talking, ‘We know he’s a good horse.’ We didn’t know why he’s just not getting there, but we knew he could do it. Today he put it all together.”

Baldemar Bahena (assistant to winning trainer Dale Romans)

“He always trained good. We always thought he was a good horse. Dale and I talked about running him in this kind of race, so we gave him a shot.”

On what he told jockey Corey Lanerie before the race “Nothing. He rode the horse before so he knew what to do.”

Robby Albarado (rider of runner-up and 2-1 beaten favorite Departing)

“We just got outrun and beat today.”

Rosie Napravnik (rider of third-place finisher Long River)

“We had a decent trip. The horse was really sharp and didn’t really relax as well as I’d like him to, but he ran on well. I thought the horse was good enough to win but he didn’t get beat far.”

Shaun Bridgmohan (rider of fourth-place finisher Code West)

“The horse to beat (Departing) was in front of me, and I had a nice tracking trip in behind him. There was no obstacle in my way. I was just drafting in behind them, waiting and biding my time. I thought I had every chance. He tried hard and gave me everything he had.”