THE MODERATOR: Congratulations to More Than Looks. Big win in the Breeders' Cup Mile. Anthony Bartolo, introduce your partners up here.
ANTHONY BARTOLO: Douglas Duncan, Scott Clifton. Just thrilled to be here for this.
THE MODERATOR: Let's talk about More Than Looks. Only two races this year. He had a very unlucky trip last year in the Breeders' Cup Mile. Talk about the campaign leading up to today.
ANTHONY BARTOLO: Well, unfortunately we were injured early in the season, so that was a major setback. When we had our first race that we were looking to point to, unfortunately came off the turf. He's a true turf runner. At that point we had to call an inaudible and Cherie did a great job with that.
We ended up stepping into with Fourstardave, Grade I there. Big ask in the first try, but he ran a heck of a race in that run.
We always had the thought that three races in we were going to land on the Breeders' Cup after this whole injury thing. So for him, the way he was coming into it form-wise, we just needed some speed up front. In the Coolmore, there was no speed. We almost got there.
With this, if there was a little speed up front, we felt like we could run them down. We truly always felt he was the best turf miler in the country.
DAN BLACKER: Proved it today.
ANTHONY BARTOLO: That's what we needed (smiling).
We had everything fall in line. A tremendous ride from Jose. Cherie and her team have done a tremendous job. We have a great group of partners that have joined us from a long time.
Basically with that being said, a horse like this is really special. So to come back a second year and be able to have this opportunity has been really wonderful.
THE MODERATOR: He's very lightly raced, not necessarily by design. What do you consider next year?
ANTHONY BARTOLO: I'll let the higher-ups make those decisions. But basically we intend to run him as a five-year-old. Again, the campaign was short this year, so I think we're just on the rise.
THE MODERATOR: Victory Racing, tell us a little bit about how this partnership came together.
ANTHONY BARTOLO: Sure. About I guess 2015, Doug, Scott and I, we went to Keeneland, got together with our guy Chris Brothers who was buying horses for us at the time. Fantastic. God bless you, Chris.
We started buying some horses, basically went from there. It's grown as a partnership. There's probably a couple hundred partners that are minority partners that have been involved in our horses along the way.
To have a Grade I win, which is our first Grade I, so this is tremendous. More Than Looks has really helped put us on the map. We've had good success before, but this is the pinnacle really, so...
THE MODERATOR: You said you beat the best over here, but you beat a lot of good Europeans today as well. This is the World Championship Breeders' Cup.
ANTHONY BARTOLO: It's a thrill.
I have to make a shout-out to Maude Walsh, our partners relations person. She is the best in the business. You have to love the fact that Maude is on the team.
DAN BLACKER: Let me give a shout-out to Anthony Bartolo for making all this happen.
ANTHONY BARTOLO: Thank you, brother.
Q. You mentioned numbers. How many people own a share of this horse?
ANTHONY BARTOLO: Basically in this horse in particular, there would probably be about 12.
Q. What was it like as you're waiting the inquiry?
ANTHONY BARTOLO: Inquiry? I didn't even know there was an inquiry. No, I didn't think there was. I knew it wasn't our horse, that's for sure, because we were on the outside. That would have been heartbreaking (smiling).
Q. First two times you got beat by Carl Spackler. How does it feel...
ANTHONY BARTOLO: Redemption is a big deal. With his running style, which is difficult, closer, everything has to kind of fall into play, right? We know he likes a fast track, a fast turf, a firm turf. Basically a couple times he got a little bit of a softer ground, going without speed in front of him.
When it all came into play and lined up, Jose, having a jock ride a horse back to back was a big deal because we haven't had that prior. He knew the horse. A fantastic ride.
Everything was wonderful.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations.
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