$100,000, IRISH O'BRIEN STAKES QUOTES

JOCKEY QUOTES

FLAVIEN PRAT, ALICE MARBLE, WINNER: “This mare always shows up and she’s such a nice horse to be around. She’s really cool to ride and she does everything right. She ran her race again today.”

TRAINER QUOTES

PHIL D'AMATO, ALICE MARBLE, WINNER: "Just coming off a nice dirt stake win definitely welcomed the dirt. In small fields like this, they are going to race ride you as much as they can, and they did. Edwin (aboard Feeling Grazeful) went up there on the lead, and Umberto (aboard Taming the Tigress) was on the outside trying to put the pressure on early, and Flavien just stayed composed as always. Nick (Alexander’s) other horse (Rose Maddox) ran really good. Fortunate to have the Grazen exacta.

“I keep wanting to stretch her out, the last two times I’ve run her, Flavien says, ‘Please stretch her out.’ So, I gotta find some race long to take a shot in. She’s got that nice tactical speed and can kind of carry it. I think she’d appreciate the two turns.”

OWNER QUOTES

NICK ALEXANDER, ALICE MARBLE, WINNER: “I was actually focused on ‘Rose’ and she had to take up pretty seriously, I think it spoke well for her. I think she (Rose Maddox) has a bright future. It is just a relief that we beat the Smiling Tiger horse (Taming the Tigress), I didn’t want to run three Grazens behind her…That worked out well.

“I’m just a very lucky guy that Grazen came along. He was bred almost by convenience. We bred his (dam) to Benchmark, just because it was a 15-minute van ride versus five hours for the other choice…(Grazen) has changed the game for me.”

NOTES: The winning owner/breeder is Nick Alexander.