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

Brett Brinkman (winning trainer of Alva Starr)

“I had no fear (about her coming from off the pace). Everybody calls her a ‘need the lead’ horse but she’s not. She’s really not. Definitely (coming from off the pace benefited her), the way they stacked up down the backside. Without a doubt. It was a great race. She’s pretty good. She’s a Grade 1 winner; what can I say? The special ones win Grade 1s. She has her distance limitations, there’s no doubt. We’ll see where we go. Hopefully, we can capture another one and keep going.”

Tyler Gaffalione (winning rider)

“No, (coming from off the pace wasn’t the plan), but there was a lot of speed up there and I didn’t want to get into a four-way battle. She relaxed for me and when I called on her, she responded for me. All the credit goes to the connections. They brought her over here ready to run, and I just had to steer her around there. I peeked over at the screen at about the eighth pole and I saw somebody (Vahva) was to my outside, but my filly was still running at that point and I was fairly confident we were going to be able to get the job done.”

Irad Ortiz Jr. (rider of runner-up Vahva)

“I had a beautiful trip but I just got beat. Nice filly. She did everything right, I’m very happy with her.”

Luis Saez (rider of third-place finisher Red Carpet Ready)

“She broke pretty well. She came to the stretch, and I thought we had a chance to get there. But the winner came in front. She tried."