TDN Podcast With John Sadler

John Sadler snaps a pic of Accelerate at Lane's End | Sue Finley photo

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After he won the Grade I Breeders' Cup Classic with Accelerate (Lookin at Lucky), John Sadler said the story wasn't about him. He wanted all the glory to go to the horse. But he was only partially right as Sadler was widely admired for how he guided Accelerate's year and for how he withstood the scrutiny that came with an 0-for-41 record coming into the Breeders Cup. Sadler was this week's guest on the Thoroughbred Daily News Podcast, brought to you by Taylor Made. Excerpts from that podcast are below.

TDN: John, when you heard those words from announcer Larry Collmus, “And Accelerate wins the Breeders' Cup Classic for John Sadler,” what's the best way to describe your feelings? Relief? Excitement? Exhilaration? All of the above?

JS: All of the above. It was very clearly all of the above. And probably a few we can't even verbalize. All of the above was the way to describe it.

TDN: Some Breeders' Cup winners in recent years have retired immediately after the Classic. Others have gone on to the GI Pegasus World Cup. You and your owners, Hronis Racing, are saying that the Pegasus is next, and $9 million, that's an awfully good reason to go on and run one more time. But could you just explain the thinking behind the decision to run again?

JS: What we said is that if the horse shows us that he wants to run again and trains up well for the race, we're going to give him a chance to do it, because it's such a big purse. The Pegasus is a relatively new event, so everybody is just kind of learning about it, but we're trying to follow the similar path that Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) did last year. Accelerate went to Lane's End in Lexington, Kentucky on Sunday after the Breeders' Cup. Accelerate is still there for a few days of showing, and then he'll be back out here in California. That's the tentative plan, but the plan will always be what's best for the horse first. So we get him home, get him back on the track; he'll tell us if he has one more in him.

TDN: Not that you weren't already a respected figure in racing, but I think you made a lot of new fans with how you handled the scrutiny that came with being 0-for-41 in the Breeders' Cup. Was that difficult, and now that you've had time to sleep on it and reflect upon it, can you discuss what a pain in the butt it was to have to constantly be asked that question about your record?

JS: With these big events, with a lot of the people that are writing about the races, I understand that was an interesting question, but it really requires a little more depth of understanding to really understand what that means. I think most people that are horse people, that are trainers, would think, they don't get to the Breeders' Cup 40 times. They might have a horse every couple of years or something like that. It's a testament to our program that we've been there a lot. Is Andy Reid not one of the best coaches in the NFL, even though he never won a Super Bowl? We're there every year, we have a lot of horses that sometimes win the prep races, which is “win and you're in.” We're going there without having to pay exorbitant entry fees, so it makes sense for us. And we've had years where we could have won, been second or third, or right up there, and we didn't have some luck. So for us, it wasn't as big a stress. I just tried to tell everybody that we were relaxing and enjoying it, and we weren't stressed out by that conversation, really.

TDN: To your credit, you never seem to get ruffled by the 0-for-41 stat, you never seemed to let any of this get under your skin. You handled yourself as a perfect gentleman throughout. People who know you probably weren't surprised by that, but you're telling me that that wasn't really hard to do? Is that just your nature and your confidence in your program?

JS: Yes, I think it really is. You know what I like to say, especially at these big events, is, 'God, what a good day of racing.' Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), what a champion she is. We saw the two-year-olds, going to be the stars of next year. There was just so much great racing and dynamic performances like Roy H (More Than Ready) and Stormy Liberal (Stormy Atlantic), coming back in winning two years in a row. There were so many great stories out there; I don't want people to miss them. The human interest stories are great, like my personal story, but I want people to be talking about horse racing, how much fun it is, how it was a beautiful day, how the sun came out at Churchill Downs..

TDN: Even after Catalina Cruiser (Union Rags) didn't fire in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, the losing streak never shook your confidence?

JS: Not really, because it's just the way I felt about it. I didn't think that. We've won so many big races before; we've won a $2 million race in Dubai, a $1 million race in Florida. I've won Group Is at Churchill before. I've been doing this long enough, I think I feel good about it. And if it didn't happen, it didn't happen. But if it didn't happen, it wouldn't change John Sadler the person.

TDN: Over your career, you've won so many big races, including the incredible run that Accelerate went on, winning all the major Grade I handicap races in southern California for dirt males. But was the Classic your greatest win, your proudest moment?

JS: I think so. But I'd I like a little more time away from it to think about it. I've had so much fun in this game, and have been blessed to have so many good horses. I hate to put one in front of the others but early in my career I had an undefeated filly called Melair (Debonair Roger). She ran a mile in 1:32 and change, and beat Snow Chief. (Reflected Glory) She was a great horse. Stellar Wind (Curlin) was a great horse. So I'm putting this on the top of the list, no doubt, but I love all the horses that we train and develop.

TDN: After the Pegasus, Accelerate's next stop will be Lane's End, where you'll stand at stud. He's well bred. He's a five-time Grade 1 winner; an awful lot of boxes are checked. I know that you're probably not the most objective person on this, but give us your feelings on the next chapter of his career. Is Accelerate going to excel in the breeding shed as well as he did on the racetrack?

JS: I think he's got a very good chance to be a very good stallion, because he's such a brilliant racehorse. I go back to thinking about Candy Ride (Arg) and what a brilliant, undefeated racehorse he was. Kind of off-bred really, but has been sensational as a stud. They were a little off on Medaglia d'Oro when he first went to stud; they maybe didn't love his pedigree, and he's been awesome. I think that he has a chance to be a very good stallion, and I know he's going to get the best chance he deserves there in Kentucky at Lane's End. The key with these young stallions is to get a lot of the right type of mares to them, and that's why we're so proud to have Lane's End stand him, because they're great at that. They really know what they're doing. They've got the hottest stallion roster in the industry, with Quality Road, Candy Ride, Union Rags, anchoring the proven horses, and then bringing in horses as good as City of Light (Quality Road), Accelerate, and West Coast (Flatter). They're rocking and rolling over there.

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