JOCKEY QUOTES

COREY NAKATANI, UNBRIDLED’S NOTE, WINNER: “I felt I had the race. My horse, he’s such a real nice horse, a real game horse. I want to thank Mr. McCarty (the owner) for letting me have this opportunity with him, and Steve (Blasi, assistant to Steve Asmussen.) You know, it’s been a tough meet for us but they are very good horses. Sometimes they’re not on their game, and today he wasn’t on his best and he was still able to get the job done. The turf was a little soft, had a lot of cut to it and he kept switching leads on it. He’s better with a little bit of a target but the pace scenario just didn’t pan out like I thought it would. He ran a tremendous race either way.”

TYLER BAZE, CHIPS ALL IN, SECOND: (Did you think you got the head bob?) “You know, I wasn’t sure. Three or four people asked me and I just didn’t know what happened. This horse ran his heart out. He gave me everything he had; if he would have had a race under his belt, he would have won easy. He just is a really hard-trying horse, just a pleasure to ride.”

TRAINER QUOTES

SCOTT BLASI, ASSISTANT TO STEVE ASMUSSEN, UNBRIDLED’S NOTE, WINNER: “He’s a nice horse. We’re just trying to get find a good race back for him and get him started for the year. He’s a pretty versatile race horse. It looks like his numbers are comparable on both dirt and turf. It’s just nice to get a win in him.

“It doesn’t really matter. He can run on dirt and turf. We’ve got a lot of options. We’ll just see how he comes out of it, and I’m just glad to win a race, honestly. It feels good to win a race.”

(Going into today, Asmussen had two wins from 23 starters this meet).

NOTES: The winning owner is Mike McCarty of Austin, TX.