MIKE SMITH (Jockey of Lion Heart, second) - "He heard the crowd roar and thought it was time to go. I had a great trip and had every opportunity to beat him, but Smarty Jones just had another gear today. I thought I had enough horse (to hold off Smarty Jones) at the 4 ½. I tried to get away from him and he hung with me, so I knew it was going to be a dogfight to the end. Everything worked to a 'T', but I didn't win."

KENT DESORMEAUX (Jockey of Imperialism, third) - "I'm the kind of jockey who likes to run out of horse at the sixteenth pole, then get into my bag of tricks and figure out a way to get them to win anyway. But today I went under the wire with a horse with a ton of run left in him. The reason that happened was that all around the turn - for about 200 yards I'd say - I was about frozen in my position. The horses all around me weren't going anywhere. I finally decided I had to go out and around, and when I did, the horse cut it loose. But I'd given him too much to do. I didn't want it that way, but it turned out that way."

JOSE SANTOS (Jockey of Limehouse, fourth) - "I thought we were going to get third. He ran a heck of a race and handled the track great. I took a little hold of him going into the first turn because I wanted to be somewhere in the middle of the pack. He is a very classy horse and I am proud of him."

SHANE SELLERS (Jockey of The Cliff's Edge, fifth) - "He just didn't handle the track at all, not one bit, and he had to overcome a horrible trip. There were 16 horses in front of me bumping around. It's the greatest race in America, and the toughest race to win. I had a chance to get him up in contention at the quarter pole. I was following Tapit, because I thought he was a colt that could close and he came back in my face. I had to swing out; I couldn't go inside. When I called on him, he just went to swimming."

DAVID FLORES (Jockey of Action This Day, sixth) - "I had a good trip and my horse made up a lot of ground. But the track favored the speed horses today and I had to come from so far back. He tried very hard and ran a good race. I'm very happy with his effort."

ROBBY ALBARADO (Jockey of Read the Footnotes, seventh) - "I ranged up to them at the three-eighths pole to try to get him into contention, but he couldn't match strides with the leaders."

EDGAR PRADO (Jockey of Birdstone, eighth) - "We didn't have enough time to warm up. By the time we were on the track, we were going to the gate. Because he wasn't warmed up enough, he broke slow, and then I had to follow the crowd."

RAMON DOMINGUEZ (Jockey of Tapit, ninth) - "He was a little stronger than I would have wanted early on. When I asked him to pick it up on the backside I knew we were in trouble because he was struggling to pass horses."

VICTOR ESPINOZA (Jockey of Borrego, 10th) - "I had a good trip, but I just didn't have enough horse today. He was coughing pretty badly after the race. I don't know for sure, but I think something was wrong."

NORBERTO ARROYO JR. (Jockey of Song of the Sword, 11th) - "He didn't handle the track. He was getting stuck on the ground. He was doing the same thing warming up about four or five times. After the race, he stumbled three times and I had to pick him up. He tried to make a run around the half- mile. He made a run for about an eighth of a mile, but he flattened out after that. I had no horse after that."

ALEX SOLIS (Jockey of Master David, 12th) - "I was in good position all the way. But he started slipping and sliding. He wasn't handling it. At the half-mile pole he really got discouraged and it was all over for me from there."

JOHN MCKEE (Jockey of Pro Prado, 13th) - "I wanted to be right off Smarty Jones and that is where I was the whole way. But at the quarter pole, he got away from me. I was laying third and I was hoping he was going to make a big run. We had no excuse."

JOSE VALDIVIA JR. (Jockey of Castledale, 14th) - "He broke just a tad tardy today and he immediately started climbing and switching leads. I knew about a sixteenth of a mile out of the gate that I was going to be in trouble. Usually I just take a hold of him early, but I had to ask him going past the wire the first time. He hated the mud flying back in his face. He's a good, good horse and I think a return to sunny California will help him a lot."

RICHARD MIGLIORE (Friends Lake, 15th) - "I didn't have much horse at any time. He just was never in the bridle."

PAT DAY (Jockey of Minister Eric, 16th) - "He just got tired at the head of the stretch. He was there one step and the next jump he wasn't."

JOHN VELAZQUEZ (Jockey of Pollard's Vision, 17th) - "I had a hard time to get him going and pushed him to try to get into contention. We moved up on the backstretch, but that was it. He didn't like the track at all."

COREY NAKATANI (Jockey of Quintons Gold Rush, 18th) - "Considering the outside post we got a pretty good trip. We lost some ground and there was a little bumping around us. On the backstretch he was going really nice. I really don't know what happened. Hopefully he'll come back fine."

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