Bob Holthus Quotations

There are a lot of complicated estate tax matters to consider but I think the children are going to keep Lawyer Ron, at least through the Kentucky Derby. Mr. Hines absolutely didn't want to sell this horse. This was his Derby horse.

When you put up a million-dollar purse, naturally, you're going to try to win it.

Since about the first of December, he's just turned into a man. He's really developed. He's a beautiful animal now and he's probably 75 to 100 pounds heavier than he was the first of December. And with all of the racing and training, that's kind of remarkable.

If they have enough money to get in, they're going to be there.

I'd like to sit behind two or three horses not far out of contention. He has tactical speed. You can put him where he needs to be.

I'd like to lay third or fourth, three or four lengths off the lead.

I don't think an off-track would bother him.

He hadn't run in about four weeks, so we wanted to get a good work in him, and he finished good.

He doesn't have to win this to go to the Kentucky Derby, but you would like to go there on a winning note, that's for sure.

He doesn't have to be in front, but he's got enough natural speed to lay fairly close and stay out of trouble.

He galloped out pretty strong. He felt good when he came back. He was playing around the barn. It didn't take too much out of him.

He flies to Kentucky Monday morning. Odds for the Kentucky Derby? I think he will be no worse than second choice. Of course, I might have a bias.

He's just progressively got better. He's improving every day. We don't know for sure where he's going to stop, but we hope that he's got a lot more left.

He wasn't taking any deep breaths when he came back. He's a dead-fit horse.

I thought he did a super job. He's got a lot of confidence in the horse.

I think you'll see a little different race out of him.

I think trainers and owners have found that Arkansas is a pretty good place to keep a horse in the wintertime. People would like to be in Florida, but I really think horses do well here in the winter.

Lawyer Ron is coming up to the Southwest perfect. I suspect he will take some beating. His natural speed gives him an advantage.

I think everybody in the grandstand wished me luck. I was glad he was able to uphold his standing and didn't disappoint anybody.

I think he's matured physically. He was kind of an immature colt when we first started racing him. It seems like around the first of December, he's just turned into a man. He really developed. He's a beautiful animal now. And he's probably 75 to 100 pounds heavier than he was the first of December. And with all of his racing and training he's had, that's kind of remarkable.

I think this is a big accomplishment. Everything went about as well as we planned. Once he made his move, he pretty much had it made.

We don't have to do a whole lot with him. We feel we're in pretty good shape.

Tomorrow, he will probably go two miles because he was pretty full of himself this morning.

We race in the midwest and we don't get as much respect. We've been racing here for over 50 years, I'm pretty used to that. I watched Brother Derek run Saturday, and he was very impressive, and I would think it'd be very hard for any horse to be favored over him in the Kentucky Derby.

The only thing I asked of John was try not to get trapped on the rail. Give him a place to run.

The races don't seem to take a lot out of him. He's durable and bounces back quick. Two days later, you don't know he ran.

With Red Raymond, post position doesn't matter a lot. I just hope he can get a clean trip when he's ready to run.

Especially at this time of year. An outbreak is something you're always going to worry about.

I've been at it for quite a while, but it's still a thrill. It's been a pretty good ride.

I've never had a horse work that good. This is probably the most talented horse I've ever had.

The California horse is going to be tough. We'll just have to try to run him down.

You run each race in a different way. The first time we ran here, we felt he could go to the lead and still beat them, which he did. A lot of people, I think, thought that that's the way he had to run. But it's definitely not. You can do about anything you want with him. He's a pretty kind horse.

About a week from next Saturday, he'll have his only kind of serious work. That and a lot of long gallops will be what we'll do with him.

It was kind of what we wanted him to do.

I'm glad Lawyer Ron didn't disappoint the people. It was a little tight on the first turn. But once he made the lead, I was confident, even though there were still 5 furlongs to run.

I'm kind of surprised there are no shippers. But I don't think my horse scared them away. Everyone is looking for graded-stakes winnings these days. If the Southwest was graded, you can bet they'd be coming out of the woodwork.

I'm very happy with the draw. If Lawyer Ron could win this, he'd be one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby. It's your lifelong dream.

If you lined up Lawyer Ron and Red Raymond and had to choose which one would win the Kentucky Derby, it would be Red Raymond. He's a good-looking horse.

His desire was to breed horses, and he did a very good job of it.

His goal was to breed a good horse and he accomplished it. He enjoyed this horse.

He's the most talented horse I've had at this stage in his career.

He's an amazing horse. You could have lit a match in front of his nostrils after the Rebel.

He said absolutely that he didn't want to sell him. Right now the kids are following their dad's wishes. I'm sure they will keep him through the Kentucky Derby and then if he gets that far, they'll have some decisions to make.

He's in his stall in Churchill Downs. We walked him here this morning before he left. ... They said he unloaded good.

He always breaks well, and he's going to be close to the lead if he's not on the lead.

This horse, I think he has much more talent than any other horse I've brought here.

The children have the grief of losing their father. And they are going to have some decisions down the road as to what to do with the horses. Several of them seem to be interested in keeping them.