Trainer Luis Carvajal Jr. (Imperial Hint): “I was watching the race and it looked like he stumbled a little bit out of the gate but he recovered very quick. I was worried a little bit to see the horses that were coming off the pace but when he opened up I was very confident. After he won his first race I thought he was going to be a nice horse. We just had a couple little hiccups down the road but now he’s doing really well. I have no plans right now. I’m just hoping to go back to the barn and see if he’s healthy and we’ll go from there.”

“This was a very nervous race for me and my client. I had never won a graded stakes race before so after this race, after the way he won, I’d be more relaxed because this is the one tough one to get.

“Improve? He did over the last couple races, but I always thought he was a graded stakes horse. You know, it’s funny, I was walking out of the paddock when the horses were already on the track and hear few people say, ‘Look at the favorite. He’s humungous. Look at the five horse, he’s so small. He has no shot at all.’ But I had in mind, ‘Yeah, but you don’t know the heart he has.’ “

Jockey Julian Pimentel (Imperial Hint): “He’s a very fast horse. He broke a step slow but right away he recovered himself real quick and he just ran fast all the way around there. He just went on about his business.”