GRADE I, $300,000 AMERICAN PHAROAH STAKES

JOCKEY QUOTES

JUAN HERNANDEZ, MUTH, WINNER: “He surprised me the way he relaxed today because he is normally a really aggressive horse. Out of the gate he’s fast. Bob and his team have been working with him trying to get him to relax. I saw him during morning workouts, and they put him behind a horse and he relaxed really well, down the stretch he would come and catch the other horses. Today I think it paid off because he relaxed really well and was travelling really well. Around the turn I swung out to get him in the clear and as soon as I did that, he passed his company in the stretch like in the morning.

“I think this is the best horse I’ve ever ridden so far, I mean Cave Rock was one of the best but this one is pretty close, hopefully we can stay healthy and we can get him in the Breeders’ Cup.”

TRAINER QUOTES

BOB BAFFERT, MUTH, WINNER: “Wine Me Up looked like he was really worked up behind the gate, he was a handful. He broke like a shot so (Ramon Vazquez) let him go, he did the right thing, he didn’t take anything away from him. I love the way Muth settled, when I saw that I thought well we’ll see how good he is and I think Juan just helped him a lot today. It is nice when you have two nice colts. (Wine Me Up) definitely earned his way into the Breeders’ Cup. We still have Prince of Monaco too. We just have to keep them healthy.”

NOTES: The winning owner is Zedan Racing Stables, Inc.