Dan Hendricks Horse Quotations

Lying in a hospital bed, I had a lot of time to think about everything. When you look at a horse race and you look at the fighting in Iraq, it puts things into perspective.

If a horse wants to be sent out there and be ridiculous, let him. We'll be close. Everybody knows what our style is.

I might be more excited if the gray horse won this time.

You always hope to get a horse that just keeps improving. Each week, each race, he's done that.

The races are two weeks apart, so he would have four to six weeks from the Futurity. It will depend on the weather, and whether he needs four or six weeks between starts. He's a good horse with minimal wear and tear going into the new year.

Everything with the horse seems to be right where we want it to be. He's fresh and going into the race with what I hope is a lot more in reserve. He seems to be advancing -- and he needs to.

Don't kid yourself, all we think about is winning the Derby. If you ask 1,000 people on the street about horse racing, they're going to say Kentucky Derby and Bill Shoemaker.

It's going to suit a horse that comes from off the pace. I think he can sit off the pace. If we get the suicidal pace, it's going to hurt us.

It's fun , all the media and hype, but we have a nice horse here, and we're going to enjoy the Santa Catalina. I'd like it to be a nice, easy race, not a taxing race.

That horse might still be a better horse. I didn't know I'd get an easy lead. When I saw him out on the lead easy like that, I was confident and happy.

He's more of the laid-back type but when it gets to this grand scale and we're on the top in the horse racing world, he gets very excited and very much enjoys it.

The fractions were a little soft and I thought Stevie was a little closer than I wanted him to be but it worked out. Alex had a lot of horse. He knows the horse and he rode him perfect.