Dan Hendricks
Dan Hendricks
Dan L. Hendricksis an American Thoroughbred horse racing trainer...
couple either grade matters next race san santa stakes weather weeks
The next race will be either the San Rafael Stakes (a Grade 2, $150,000 race Jan. 15 at Santa Anita) or your race. It's $100,000 more up there. The grade isn't important; what matters to me is another $100,000. We'll see how he's doing for the next couple of weeks and how the weather is.
couple easy ready
He'll take it easy for a couple weeks, then have a couple of breezes and be ready to run.
broken carry hit jump knew landed life messed momentum rode wrong
I just went over a jump without enough momentum to carry myself over it. I landed wrong and hit the ground. I rode all my life and never had a broken bone. I knew it wasn't life-threatening, just life-messing-up. I knew right away that I messed up and that life was never going to be the same.
confident easy horse lead might saw
That horse might still be a better horse. I didn't know I'd get an easy lead. When I saw him out on the lead easy like that, I was confident and happy.
beginning fresh pressed run
I'm not pressed to run him. He doesn't need to run. He's fresh and he's a three-year-old at the beginning of the year, and it's a long year.
advantages either fun goal hope juvenile race ultimate works
I have some advantages going into this race. I just hope that it all works out. The Juvenile was a one-turn race; this is different and it's not the ultimate goal for either horse, but it would be a nice, fun race to win.
asked fit looked santa since stretch week worked
It looked like he was galloping, and I thought he was going way too slow. But he went :49 1/5, and I asked him to go :49, so he got it pretty close. We just wanted to stretch his legs, get over the track, and do a little something because it's been a week since we worked him at Santa Anita. He's fit from his races; I didn't need a lot. It was just a little something as much for us as for him.
fresh worked
It worked out really good. We had him a little fresh by not doing as much work.
depend four good horse minimal needs races six tear wear weeks whether
The races are two weeks apart, so he would have four to six weeks from the Futurity. It will depend on the weather, and whether he needs four or six weeks between starts. He's a good horse with minimal wear and tear going into the new year.
ask bill derby horse kentucky kid people street winning
Don't kid yourself, all we think about is winning the Derby. If you ask 1,000 people on the street about horse racing, they're going to say Kentucky Derby and Bill Shoemaker.
harder race toughest train training win
We'll have to train a little harder now. We'll be training for the toughest race to win in the world.
advancing fresh hope horse needs race seems
Everything with the horse seems to be right where we want it to be. He's fresh and going into the race with what I hope is a lot more in reserve. He seems to be advancing -- and he needs to.
gets longer planned quick run takes
Everything takes longer to do and you can't just run around and do quick little things like you used to. Everything has got to be planned out. That part of it gets old.
education grade race
Every race is an education for a race horse. But this is a $750,000 Grade I race.