It would've been nice to win today, but there's bigger things down the road, as well.

Most horses, you're not plotting more than the next three, four weeks. It takes a special horse, and special (human) connections, to not panic and do something to jeopardize getting there. You want each race to be a little better than the one before, with the hope that he'll peak in the Kentucky Derby.

In our mind, he's ready to win. Is this the end goal? No. We definitely want to win this and we think he's ready to win, but the first Saturday in May is our long-term target, that's for sure.

Merv hates losing. He's a guy who expects excellence every time. We were pretty darn confident that we were going to get it done today. It's a hit, but he'll be all right.

There'd definitely be disappointment. At the same time, our main goal is that Triple Crown run. If he gets a good race Saturday, and he comes out of it well, we'll be able to feel good.

We gelded him a few months back because he's so high-strung. This race is attractive because it's in our backyard.

He just kind of ran so flat in the Oak Tree Derby that we gave him some time off. We were scratching our heads, pretty confident that he was better than that. Corey gave him a great, patient ride today.

He ran huge. Anytime you get Brother Derek out there on the front end going 23 and change, you know you've got trouble. One of our concerns was that he'd get an easy lead and when he does he's a tough horse. My horse ran a good race. You don't want to peak too early in the year.

When it didn't rain much, the track looked good, we went.