NOTES FROM THE HONEYMOON STAKE

BRICE BLANC, SPANISH QUEEN, WINNER: “She keeps improving. Richard has done a great job. He takes his time and he’s been trying to get her to settle down and take everything in. She’s getting more and more professional. She has so many gears, she has a good turn of foot and she puts me in good spots as well. She’s done everything well and she even seemed like she was a step better than her last race. She just needs to keep improving, she’s special.

“She handled herself really well today, she’s a fireball though.

“She helped me today. Ninety percent of horses wouldn’t have gone through that hole but she didn’t chicken out on me; she’s got a big heart and I was able to maneuver her.

“I was loaded the whole way, she was galloping. I was just like ‘I hope something opens up because I could see (Richard) pulling out the rest of the hair that he does have!’

“She’s just got it from the start. She’s professional, she loves racing, even when she started working. She’s getting better and better.





TRAINER QUOTES



RICHARD BALTAS, SPANISH QUEEN, WINNER: “She has a helluva turn of foot. Brice made a good move there at the top of the lane. I thought he was going to go around, which probably wouldn’t have mattered but he did make a helluva move there splitting horses.

“She’s always breezed like a good horse. She just lowers herself and she gets it.

“Brice has been on her every time to breeze her and I think she’s the kind of horse that needs the same person to get used to because she can be a little difficult.

“I think maybe she’s just had more experience going farther. I thought last time out, that horse (Spirit of Xian) walked on the lead and she got pressured today which helped us out. She got an easy lead last out and we were tracking her that day.

“We’ll just have to play it by ear. I wasn’t even planning on this race but I let the horse tell me what to do and she was begging me to go out there. If she comes out of the race good and she really wants to go, then maybe we go in the American Oaks, (Grade I, $400,000, 1 1/4 miles on turf May 30) because it looks like we’re the horse to beat.





NOTES: The owners are Harry Bederian, Harout Kamberian and Hagop Nakkashian