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

John Velazquez (winning rider of Kappa Kappa, his sixth stakes winner of Keeneland’s 2025 Fall Meet)

“She showed a lot of heart. She found herself at the three-sixteenths pole in front, the other horse (Vodka With a Twist) passed her and then she came back and put up a good fight. This is her first time being here (at Keeneland), so you could see she was looking (around) a lot from the three-eighths pole to the five-sixteenths pole and I kind of waited for the horses inside of me to get head-and-head with me, and when we got to the quarter pole she waited. She got surprised by the horses outside. Finally I went back to left-handed and she responded nicely. Very nicely done.”

Butch Reid (winning trainer)

On what he learned about Kappa Kappa today:

“Certainly gameness, that was the one thing. She’s been beating up on horses in the fields pretty easily up in Philly (at Parx Racing), so she certainly showed some gameness today like we hoped she would.”

On whether the battle in the stretch was cause for anxious moments:

“It certainly was, but then when I saw her digging back in — I knew she had the talent but obviously she showed today she has the heart to go along with it.”

Glenn Bennett (of winning co-owner LC Racing)

“I was dying (watching the stretch battle), but the way she fought back, it was awesome. I couldn’t be more excited. She’s just a great filly. It’s unbelievable (to win at Keeneland). It’s the first time I’ve been here and the first time I’ve raced a horse here. (The filly was named) after Kappa Kappa Gamma, my daughter’s sorority at Villanova, so that’s how the name came about.”

Tyler Gaffalione (rider of runner-up Vodka With a Twist)

“Everything went great. She broke alertly — she put me in a great spot. She traveled really well throughout the race. Coming into the stretch, she kicked on nicely. I thought we had put them away, but the filly on the inside (Kappa Kappa) just battled back. Nothing against my filly, she ran a really good race today.”

Junior Alvarado (rider of third-place finisher Ragtime)

“She didn’t break today. I tried to see if I could get through traffic somewhere to cut the corner a little bit, but I didn’t have any chance. I had to swing around and lost a lot of ground. If I had a little more ground left before the wire, I think I could have closed.”