BLUE NORTHER STAKES QUOTES

JOCKEY QUOTES

FLAVIEN PRAT, LA VILLE LUMIERE, WINNER: “I was in a good spot and the filly in front of me, she wasn’t going anywhere she was getting out so I got myself in trouble, got us in trouble. I was hoping the outside horse was going to run but they kind of got the jump on us. I knew she was going to finish but I didn’t know if I would be able to catch them. The pace was slow. I was happy where I was, I really thought that Latte Luv was getting out and would kick on turning for home and I would be able to go inside of her but she was done a lot earlier than I thought.”

TRAINER QUOTES

MICHAEL MCCARTHY, LA VILLE LUMIERE, WINNER: “It was a fantastic performance, she trained well since the Breeders’ Cup. She’s versatile. This today was kind of a breakout performance for her. It’s nice to get a black-type win. I told Flavien just to go ahead and get her out of there. She kind of steadied and I thought maybe she is a little better outside of horses, but it goes to show you. He found a beautiful spot down the rail and she responded. I think at Del Mar (GIII Jimmy Durante) she kind of got caught behind some horses and a slow pace. She wasn’t really able to use herself. Keeping her on the grass for now but we have a lot of options coming up in the next couple of months. We’ll see if we can catch a short field on the dirt, maybe we will go back on the dirt. We’ll take advantage of a great and sound filly.”

OWNER QUOTES

HAL MINTZ, SABBY RACING LLC, PART-OWNER, LA VILLE LUMIERE, WINNER: “Very excited for this filly. She had been knocking on the door the whole year and we were trying to get her a big win before she turns three and today we were able to do it. Flavien broke alertly today and put her in a good spot behind the speed. You can’t make them go faster on the front end and unfortunately coming into the stretch there was no where to go. But once she was able to get clear she was able to kick on and show us a nice turn of foot so that was great. Once we got clear I knew she was going to get there.”

NOTES: The winning owners are Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Sabby Racing LLC and Ken Reimer.