He galloped out strong; he came out of it well. He's doing really, really well. I hope he runs well.

I didn't want to bring him back going a mile and one-eighth in the Hal's Hope because there are some hotshots in there who might make him overextend himself, and I didn't want to knock him out. He's really not a six-furlong horse. I would really have preferred to start him at seven furlongs or a mile, but I wanted to get a competitive race under his belt, and whether he wins or loses, it shouldn't exhaust him.

But he hasn't missed a lick in his training since getting down here in November, and it doesn't seem like he's lost a step in the morning. I don't know if he's still a Grade 1 horse or not, but if everything goes well Saturday we'll give him a shot at the Donn and see what happens.

This is going to be a big jump for him. I usually don't like to do this sort of thing, but he's got such a good psyche about him. He does things with such ease. Mentally, it's like he's done it 100 times.

Richie said he started to idle, and then Richie panicked and cracked him. You really don't want to hit him any more than you have to. He got him running again, but I think it caught him off guard.

So far so good -- he's done everything we've asked of him. We've had a couple of setbacks. We wanted to run in the Wood. That was our perfect plan, but it wasn't to be. We considered the Blue Grass [April 15], but he needed another week and another breeze. So we decided it was best to wait for this race. We have to win here to make it to the Derby.