JOCKEY QUOTES

HECTOR BERRIOS, THE CHOSEN VRON, WINNER: “This horse is very professional, very easy to ride. They went slow early, but he relaxed and we got a good position at the top of the stretch. When I asked him, he responded well.”

TRAINER QUOTES

ERIC KRULJAC, THE CHOSEN VRON, WINNER: “He’s an athlete. An extremely gifted athlete and a lot of times you lose races because of a horse’s temperament, this, that or the other. Luckily, he has always been good in that department. We’ve been trying these different things to challenge him and he just passes the test every time, almost.

“His lone turf race was after a long layoff, he had incredible trouble, he was blocked and boxed, and he only got beat a head. That was a Cal-bred stakes race against some of the better Cal-breds. We won in Los Alamitos in another Cal-bred stakes, so this was the next Cal-bred race and there was only one way to find out if you can do the hill. He passed the grass already in the Del Mar race, so this was a logical race for him to show up in.”

NOTES: The winning owners are Sondereker Racing LLC, Eric J. Kruljac, Robert Fetkin, and Richard Thornburgh.