Photo of Meditate by Courtney Snow for Past The Wire
Keeneland News Release
~ Aidan O’Brien
~ Ryan Moore
THE MODERATOR: Ryan you’ve been aboard this filly for all but one of her starts. She’s obviously extremely consistent. Seemed like you had a ton of horse the entire way. Take us through the trip.
RYAN MOORE: She was always very comfortable. And she started well. She’s got a lot of pace. There’s a bit of speed inside of me that went forward early. And I thought we’d just come back. And the pace steadied once we got around the bend.
And I just walked myself out wide. I was following a filly I didn’t want to be following, but the pace was slow so that brought me far enough. She had them covered very quickly. And the race was over a furlong and a half out and I felt she had a lot left. She was probably just a level above all of them really.
THE MODERATOR: Seems like when you took her out in the clear she just exploded down the stretch.
RYAN MOORE: Yes, she did and then she waited. So there’s hopefully more to come.
THE MODERATOR: Aidan, I was surprised to find out this is your first win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. You’ve had a lot of success in the Breeders’ Cup. What made you think that Meditate would be the one for this particular course?
AIDAN O’BRIEN: The last place she got, Ryan maybe New Market run her back a little bit quick after Decora. And at Decora, it was very bad ground. And Ryan was very happy with her.
But I think I might have told Ryan to ride her too forward. We went back to New Market quick after Decora, and that probably took — we felt there were excuses maybe the choice she got these. And we gave her every chance since New Market not to come back here. But she kept passing all the tests.
And her course stayed very tight. She was doing everything right. Marina is in charge of her. And Brett, who rides her every day, and walked her out is very happy with her.
Then speaking to Michael the last week or ten days, we were thinking of bringing the filly called Neverending Story, a filly that ran in France.
And Michael just thought that maybe this race would suit this filly better. And I had Michael discuss with Ryan before the race that he felt if she didn’t get a mile around here, that we wouldn’t train her for Guineas.
Obviously what she did — Ryan rode her very patiently to get the trip. I think now we will be training her for the Guineas, I think.
Delighted really. Like I say, Ryan was very patient. He let her go to sleep the first half of the race because of where she was drawn. He saved all the gas all the way. And we were delighted as a result. But we always felt she was very high class, really.
THE MODERATOR: Do you think the ground over here was definitely something that helped her a lot? She liked the firmer turf course?
AIDAN O’BRIEN: I think she’s fine on the ground. But Ryan said to me, when he came in, listen, we just need to ride her more patiently. And I think probably for me that’s how I would have learned from listening to Ryan after the race and what he felt today.
So that’s great. So at least we know that she will get a mile but ride her patiently. Maybe I was giving Ryan the wrong instructions in telling him to be riding her too forward. I suppose when she went up and tripped that suited her better, Ryan, really.
RYAN MOORE: She really showed her class today.
THE MODERATOR: You have so much experience on her, been on her for all but one race. You think you learned a lot from her in those races?
RYAN MOORE: Learning a lot. Always. Trying to anyway.
Q. Definitely a different style of race here, with the nice win. So can you describe what her qualities are that allows her to race in this different style and get this much better result at a longer distance which she didn’t appear on paper to be suited for?
AIDAN O’BRIEN: I suppose she’s very known (indiscernible) big influence. It’s the first year we’ve had high-quality 2-year-olds by him. We were a little bit worried were they all going to be real sprinters or were they going to stay further than five, six, or seven.
She’s out of (indiscernible) mare from a (indiscernible) pedigree. We were finding out really (indiscernible) know endeavors out of mares, stamina mares stay. So obviously looking at the fillies there, we found out that she’s going to get a mile as a 3-year-old.
She’s a very good mover. She’s a very good mind. She relaxes very well. And I think Ryan would have probably always thought that she was a lovely uncomplicated filly.
Would that be right, Ryan?
RYAN MOORE: Absolutely, very straightforward, does everything you want her to do. She’s just got an awful lot of class and I thought she was a level above these. She was dominant, really.
Q. You mentioned the blood horse. No Nay Never, the sire. Do you see any of him in her and what qualities that she’s picked up?
AIDAN O’BRIEN: I suppose from — this is the first year we had No Nay Nevers of this quality obviously. Brownbeard — was it Brownbeard? Blackbeard, the horse that we were going to run in the Sprint that won Middle Park, he was coming to that. Obviously he got injured. They have enough ladder speed. They have great minds and good personalities. And very exciting horses, really. And seeing this filly do it over a mile even makes them more exciting really.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
