Quotes from the $150,000 JPMorgan Chase Jessamine (G2)

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

Brad Cox (winning trainer of Aunt Pearl [IRE])

“(After her career debut), we were hoping (she was this good). She showed us a lot of talent in the mornings. I told someone after the race that that’s the first time we ever cut her loose. She’s very gifted. She’s got a lot of natural speed – :46 and change, carrying speed two turns like that in the second start of her career – she’s obviously very special. It was a big effort.

“She’s been here for like three days. She settled in extremely well. We schooled her a couple of times. We try to keep her busy. She’s a filly with a lot of energy. Our team’s done a very, very good job of managing her over the time we’ve had her. I’m very proud of her, and congratulations to the connections.”

Florent Geroux (winning rider)

“I was going faster than I thought. Looking at the fractions, I was ‘Wow.’ I thought they would be much slower than that. She has short legs, but they move very fast for sure. I’m very impressed with her. 

“We always loved her from the beginning. We thought she was a very nice filly. I had to make her work a little bit today down the stretch. In her first race (at Churchill Downs on Sept. 1), she didn’t get anything out of it. She was pretty much on cruise control the whole time (while she won by 5 lengths). If we want to be a factor in the Breeders’ Cup, she needed to do a little something today. She was very impressive, and I’m very pleased with her.”

Michael Hernon (co-owner of runner-up Spanish Loveaffair)

“The winner ran huge and set a stakes record so all credit to her. Our filly ran big; this was a step up in class. Now she has graded black type.

“We expected (Spanish Loveaffair) to run very well today. We knew the winner would be tough. We just wanted (Spanish Loveaffair) to hit the board. She did that and was well clear of the third filly. We are optimistic that we have a very good filly going forward.”