When the gate opened, 33-1 shot El Elogiado got out in front to set the pace saving ground on the rail, and dueled with 53-1 longshot Night Patrol through a half in 46.82 and 3/4 in 1:10.90 over the lightning fast main track. At the top of the stretch, the pacesetters were fading out of contention, as 6-1 shot Total Impact, who had stalked the pace earlier, inherited the lead after a mile in 1:35.48. The fast pace set the race up for the closers. On the turn, Jerry Bailey took Pleasantly Perfect out four wide and, bumping with Total Impact at the quarter pole, took over at the 3/16 pole and easily held off the late charge of Perfect Drift to win by a length in a time of 2:01.17. It was 3/4 length back to Total Impact in third, and a long 4 3/4 more back to Choctaw Nation in fourth.
Winning rider Jerry Bailey said, "Sometimes on a good horse, you just want to be the passenger. I'm very happy for the opportunity to ride a horse like this. I just found out about it a couple of weeks ago. He's kind of a big, lumbering horse, but when that gate opens he's very smooth and you love to ride one like him. I wanted to stay busy on him because I was afraid of Choctaw Nation (coming from the back). I didn't want to go by Total Impact and have him (Choctaw Nation) come rushing by me."
Winning trainer Richard Mandella said, "I've been eating my heart out for the last three weeks because he lost the San Diego. I felt responsible for that loss. He shouldn't have a loss in that race on his record. I put too much speed into him before the race and he was too keen. He was too fresh and was rank. And there he was running too close to the lead in that race. He never did that before. That was a worry this time. I had to take that speed down after that race. I tried to keep him steady; I gave him a lot of paddock work. When you have a great horse, it's a great responsibility for a trainer."
Pat Day, aboard second place finisher Perfect Drift, said, "This is just a wonderful horse to ride. He gives you his best. He gave me his best today and I'm proud of the way he ran. Unlike the other day (2nd in the Whitney), he kept to his task today. He was trying hard all the way. This is a classy horse and his people are classy people."
Murray Johnson, trainer of Perfect Drift, said, "Second again, but it took the world's greatest horse to beat him. If I can finish second in races like this, I don't care if I don't win another race. It seems it's going to work out this way. He ran great, did everything right. He just got beat by a better horse. We're going to try to find another two-turn race and maybe win one of these sometime."
Mike Smith aboard third place finisher Total Impact said, "I wanted to be farther back, I didn't want to be up there like I was. But he was pulling too hard. At the 3/8 I tried to get a jump on them. The way those horses close - Pleasantly Perfect and Choctaw Nation - they come so fast at the end that I knew I needed to have some space on them. I did get clear some, but not enough. In the end they went on by me."
Total Impact's trainer Laura de Seroux said, "Oh, I wish he could have got to the inside. My horse laid it down. He belongs with these, and I have a lot to look forward to." Since the Chilean-bred is not Breeders' Cup eligible, de Seroux said he might go next in the Jockey Club Gold Cup and then the Japan Cup Dirt.
