Quotes

It was perfect,” said Ortiz, the 2017 Eclipse Award winner as North America’s outstanding jockey. “She broke good. She was on the lead for a little bit then the 4 horse rushed through it. I just sat off her a little bit, when I was ready to make my move, she was there for me the entire time. Nice filly.”

Jose Ortiz,, Rider of the winner

We’re going to prep them all now at Royal Ascot and bring them to Ky Downs, the way it is working out,” joked Ward. “I had a lot of confidence in her going to the Royal Ascot race. Mr. Ramsey has a yearning desire to win over there, and I was second the first year we went with Cannonball. Of all the ones I ever brought since, this is the one I thought would win. There are so many things that can go wrong before, even during the race. But there was a filly that lost a shoe in the paddock, so she was walking behind the gate with 27 other horses for about 20 minutes and she just sort of got hot and nervous and the gate opened and she got left at the gate and forget it. Fortunately for us today, she rebounded and won a big purse for Mr. Ramsey and we’re on to the Breeders’ Cup now (Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint).”

Wesley Ward, Trainer of the winner Moonlight Romance

She had trained beautifully,” said David Carroll, assistant to trainer Mark Casse. “Mark took her up to Saratoga to breeze her on the turf and she breezed beautifully. So it gave us a lot of confidence. Obviously until you do it, you don’t know for sure. Florent gave her a great ride and it was just a shame to get beat. Congratulations to the winner. We’re very, very proud of her.”

David Carroll, Trainer of the runner-up Valadorna

The horses came in early, they went to the training center (at Keeneland) for a couple of days because this place wasn’t open,” he said. “We shipped in, got a couple of gallops over the track. (Assistant trainer) Aime Dollase did a great job, she was here the whole time. Everything looked really good when we got here. The horses were happy. I never won two in a row like this, in stakes. It’s pretty good.”

The Ladies Turf was the 19th career start for the 5-year-old mare, who won for the fifth time in her career. She came into Kentucky Downs off a four-month layoff following a last-pace finish in the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby day.

“The owners are pretty happy right now,” Baltas said. “We’re just very grateful. She was actually coming off a layoff so we gave her some time after the Santa Anita meet. She was a little sore, just body sore and needed a little break. I got her back at the beginning of Del Mar, so I got like four or five works on the grass at Del Mar. We were looking for a race, and the guys said let’s send her here. They found the spot. We were thinking the Ladies Sprint or here. We thought this would probably be better, the mile. It was an owner-trainer decision and just worked out.”

Richard Baltas, Trainer of the winner

I’m riding good horses, that’s key,” said Van Dyke, fresh off his first riding title at a major California track when he won the Del Mar crown. “My agent is doing a fabulous job getting me on nice horses and I’m capitalizing on it. I was being patient with her. it’s a long stretch. I felt I had a lot of horse underneath me and I was waiting for the right time, thought that was the key to asking.”

Drayden Van Dyke, Rider of the winner Insta Erma