An Interview With:
BRIAN MEEHAN
ERIC WING: Okay. Live in the interview room with the winning trainer of Dangerous Midge, the Breeders' Cup Turf winner, Brian Meehan. Just FYI, Frankie Dettori was here for about 12 seconds and then realized he had a very soon to depart plane to catch for Rome, I understand. So Frankie has ‑‑ is not going to be here at the winner's podium to take any questions, unfortunately. But we do have Brian Meehan, and we're happy about that.
For Brian, this is his second win in the Breeders' Cup Turf. Of course, he captured it four years ago here with Red Rocks, Frankie Dettori, the rider there, just for everybody's information.
Dangerous Midge, first by 1 3/4 lengths. Second was Champ Pegasus, who was 2 lengths in front of the third place finisher Behkabad. And Behkabad was 1/2 length in front of Winchester, who came in fourth. Enough of the housekeeping.
Brian, congratulations. My first question to you is ‑‑ now, granted, you have a team of horses coming to the United States for the Breeders' Cup, but in selecting Dangerous Midge to come here, you had to know on your side of the pond, as they say, that you might likely run into the Arc winner and then an unlucky fourth place finisher in the Arc. Why were you confident enough to bring Dangerous Midge over, first of all?
BRIAN MEEHAN: You know, he's always been an improving type of horse. We always felt all the way through that he was going to get there. His last start at Newbury, he was really impressive, and that really made my mind up.
ERIC WING: Tell us about the decision to equip your horse in blinkers this time for the race today.
BRIAN MEEHAN: Well, he generally wears blinkers for his last piece of work at home, just to sharpen him up because he can be a little bit lazy. And I just felt that the tight turning track, which would be the first time for him, that it might help Frankie. And that was it.
ERIC WING: When you looked at the race, when you studied it, did you see an apparent lack of early pace by at least American standards and then think that maybe a forward position, one perhaps aided by blinkers, might be a good thing?
BRIAN MEEHAN: Yeah, that was always a possibility a few days ago when I spoke about it with Frankie, the fact that there was no pace, or lack of pace. He's the sort of horse that was always going to settle wherever he was happy or wherever he was comfortable. It wasn't really a concern for me, no.
ERIC WING: Since we don't have Frankie with us, can you share with us what he told you about the ride and the performance?
BRIAN MEEHAN: Well, he told me about five times that he loved me, and we haven't had much out of him other than that really. So, no, we haven't discussed the race at all yet.
ERIC WING: Incidentally, that is Breeders' Cup win No. 10 for Frankie Dettori. That's second all time behind Mike Smith, who has 13.
Q. What's it like to be able to call upon Frankie Dettori as your backup rider?
BRIAN MEEHAN: You know, it's awesome, really. We all know he's a world, world class rider, and Breeders' Cup means so much to him. But he rides a lot for me at home, and we have a good relationship, good understanding. It means a lot having him for sure.
Q. And can you tell us, Brian, a review, especially for the American audience, what happened to Martin Dwyer and why he wasn't able to ride Dangerous Midge as he has in the past.
BRIAN MEEHAN: Unfortunately, Martin, about four weeks ago fractured an elbow off a maiden runner of mine at Lester. It was actually about six weeks ago. He had hoped to be back, but he's had a complication and unfortunately had to have another operation on his elbow last week. So disappointed he's not here riding Dangerous Midge, but he's been involved all the way through, obviously riding the horse and since his accident.
ERIC WING: How does the feeling today compare with Red Rocks in '06?
BRIAN MEEHAN: Don't know. It's different, I guess, really. To come back and do it a second time feels amazing. You know, you just have to ‑‑ I have to thank my team. A lot of hard work goes into getting a horse like this together and bringing him along through his paces and certainly bringing him out here, shipping him out here.
And the owner for letting me, you know, get in his wallet and spending the money and bringing him out here. That was a big deal. But certainly the teamwork is ‑‑ gives you great pleasure when they go over the line, and you think about the effort that everybody's put in.
Q. Brian, by not having Martin on the horse, do you actually give Frankie any instructions how to ride the horse because probably this is the first time of Frankie being on the horse?
BRIAN MEEHAN: Not really. He rode the horse for us twice at home. Both times Martin was there, and really the way to ride the horse was discussed between Martin and Frankie.
Q. Could you speak a little about the owner, where he is from, and how many horses he has, things like that.
BRIAN MEEHAN: Yeah, Iraj has got about five, six horses with me. He's based in Britain and Dubai. It's unfortunate he couldn't make it today. He had thought he was going to be able to make it and then plans had changed, and he wasn't able to get here.
I trained for him for four or five years. He's a thoroughly enthusiastic racing man, loves his horses. Family get involved. It'll be a real pleasure.
I spoke to him briefly there a second ago, and he's really pleased. As I say, it takes an enormous amount of effort to get a horse here, but it takes a lot of money as well. You know, that's a big gamble. It was never a question. Once I wanted to do it, he was right with me.
Q. Would this be his biggest win, as far as you know?
BRIAN MEEHAN: I would think so, yeah.
Q. Just one other quick question. You saw the horse warming up. Was he acting up a little? I mean, he seemed to be tossing his head quite a bit and looking around at a lot of stuff. But at the same time, he seemed pretty settled all week. Was that any concern to you?
BRIAN MEEHAN: Yeah, I was a little upset when he got upset. When the horses come out of the paddock and they get onto the track at home, they turn and they canter. He went quite well with his pony all week, and I thought that would negate that with him. I had a horse man on board, and it wasn't really an issue.
Q. The Racing Post had been carrying stories about your excessive optimism about Dangerous Midge's chances, and the (indiscernible) supposedly is not a strong indicator of the horse's ability. What was that special thing about the horse that gave you so much confidence that you were positive the last two weeks?
BRIAN MEEHAN: Well, first of all, when you train a bunch of horses, you have to be over optimistic about them because, if you aren't, you shouldn't be training them. The second thing is at Newbury, I think, when he showed his speed from the turn, from the end of the turn to the finishing line. I mean, Martin Dwyer said that it was like riding a sprinter, and he was electrifying that day, and I think he was pretty much the same today.
Q. Have you and the owner talked about whether the horse will run again or go to stud?
BRIAN MEEHAN: Oh, no, I would imagine he'll run again. We have to discuss whether he would ‑‑ may take in the Japan Cup, but I would think the Shema Classic would be his next target.
Q. Were you worried about any other conditions on the ground by shipping him over? Even though Workforce had won the Arc, were you concerned by that at all?
BRIAN MEEHAN: I wasn't concerned about the ground. I mean, I knew what to expect. It's a damp time of the year. It could be a little loose on top because it's a firm track. You know, we came to Louisville. We didn't go to Newmark or to Newbury. We came to Louisville. I was aware of what to expect. You know, that was fine.
Incidentally, I thought the track was in very good condition all week. It got a little bit loose on the turf with the amount of runners, but it looked fantastic. And I thought the dirt track was really good too.
ERIC WING: Are you surprised that Workforce scratched?
BRIAN MEEHAN: I don't know really. They were training him there all week. He looked fantastic. I didn't speculate all week really. I was focused on my four, and I had enough to do with that lot really.
Q. Congratulations.
BRIAN MEEHAN: Thank you very much.
ERIC WING: Brian Meehan, you are a Churchill Downs Breeders' Cup specialist. Congratulations on winning with Dangerous Midge.
No comments:
Post a Comment