26 Quotes by Barclay Tagg

Last year was a lost year for him, and we're lucky anything worse didn't happen.

Richie said he started to idle, and then Richie panicked and cracked him. You really don't want to hit him any more than you have to. He got him running again, but I think it caught him off guard.

I didn't want to bring him back going a mile and one-eighth in the Hal's Hope because there are some hotshots in there who might make him overextend himself, and I didn't want to knock him out. He's really not a six-furlong horse. I would really have preferred to start him at seven furlongs or a mile, but I wanted to get a competitive race under his belt, and whether he wins or loses, it shouldn't exhaust him.

He hurt his back last year, and we had to completely stop on him. He looks good and strong now, and he training better than ever.

He has to be in tip-top condition. I'm not going to put him into a tough race. Probably good judgment and good sense would say not to run, but there is only one Kentucky Derby and he's done everything we've asked of him, so you think you have to give him a chance.

He galloped out strong; he came out of it well. He's doing really, really well. I hope he runs well.

He was full of himself. If everything looks good on Wednesday (of Derby Week), I'll enter him and if everything looks good on Thursday, I'll ship.

He didn't go quite as fast as he did last time. This is what we wanted.

He kept going lame. He was going through growing pains, I guess.