$150,000, DON VALPREDO CALIFORNIA CUP SPRINT STAKES QUOTES

JOCKEY QUOTES

HECTOR I BERRIOS, THE CHOSEN VRON, WINNER: “Today he handled pressure from the inside and outside. Maybe at the end he was a little tired from the early pressure, but he showed a lot of heart.

“He's a good horse, and maybe with more distance he will be a bit more comfortable and it'll be much better."

JUAN HERNANDEZ, BIG CITY LIGHTS, SECOND PLACE: "That was a little tight, but I knew I didn't catch the other horse. I liked my horse and the way he raced today. I can always trust him to go to the lead, but today he broke a step low. When I asked him to pull back a little bit with me, he responded, relaxed, and finished really well. We just couldn't catch the winning horse."

TRAINER QUOTES

J. ERIC KRULJAC, THE CHOSEN VRON, WINNER: “It was kind of a different spot for him to be on the lead, and he was focusing on the other horse. I think he responded just in time not to get beat, but the rider (Hector Berrios) thought he had something left galloping out. It was just different tactics that Hector chose to use. We broke so well, and we avoided traffic, we hooked a horse (Resilient) that was very determined pretty much the whole way. And a little shout out to Richard Mandella, ‘Richard, You’re getting closer! That three-year-old is a nice horse.’

“Good three-year-olds are hard to come by, they are very few and far between. I’m getting old and it’s been a while since I’ve had a good horse. It is just a combination of physical talent and intestinal fortitude and intelligence too and he has it all.

“We plan to not put him up against too much, I mean eventually we will have to try again, but he is better now than he was when he ran in the Pat O’Brien, that was a deep loose track and he doesn’t like that. So, we just enjoy them one at a time.”

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