Click here for a replay of the race and the post-race interview with winning connections.

Al Stall Jr. (winning trainer of Bo Cruz)

“It was an experiment (cutting back to 7 furlongs), obviously, but it worked. We just had a gut feeling, watching him train and the way he’s built, that 9 furlongs might not be his game, so let’s go all the way back. There’s a lot of opportunities in this neck of the woods all summer long – seven-eighths and 1-turn miles – so we took a chance. He always leaves there running. Sometimes he outdoes himself and stumbles a bit. But he didn’t outbreak himself today. He was on his toes and put himself in the right spot. We learned a lot, and the experiment really worked well for us.”

Jose Ortiz (winning jockey)

“I knew he was cutting back to 7 furlongs (so I wasn’t surprised that he was sharp). (Trainer Al Stall Jr.) did a great job sharpening him up. He put me in a great position. He helped me a lot and we had a beautiful trip. He kicked on very nice. As I told Al, we had everything come our way. He’s a nice horse and he did everything right. He kicked on really nice today. The half mile was pretty easy for him. He was just galloping along the backside and I felt like was sitting on a lot of horse.”

Tyler Gaffalione (rider of runner-up Minnesota Ready)

“Horse broke alertly, put himself in a great spot. He traveled great throughout, just not enough pace. The speed got away from us.”

Irad Ortiz Jr. (rider of third-place finisher Wico [IRE])

“Broke good. I had to take a hold (in the early part of the race) and check a little bit. I slowed down a little bit and the winner just kept going on an easy pace. (He) was hard to catch up to.”

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