“I do not believe he was a short horse the other day. Maybe I’m wrong,” said Pletcher, who said he would not get more aggressive with Uncle Mo’s training. “Sometimes, making up for if you felt like you didn’t have him fit enough and going the other way would be a mistake.”

"Secretariat lost before the Kentucky Derby," Baffert said Saturday after his Midnight Interlude rallied in the stretch to post a 13-1 upset in the 74th running of the Santa Anita Derby. "I still think (Uncle Mo's) a very good horse and he'll bounce back."

"In the moments after the race, Uncle Mo’s trainer, Todd Pletcher, and owner, Mike Repole, were gracious despite being clearly shocked. Maybe, Pletcher acknowledged, this was the hard race Uncle Mo needed. Maybe he had been too easy on him, and Uncle Mo was a short, or not fit, horse."

"Here is one man's opinion: Uncle Mo's defeat was not as bad as it seems. Shocking? Absolutely. A loss that he cannot recover from? I don't believe so. It's impossible to quantify how much the grabbed quarter affected his overall performance, but I'm going to offer a guess that it didn't have a major impact on the outcome and say that he lost mainly because he was a short horse. No more, no less. For the first time in five lifetime starts he just didn't fire. He was going nine furlongs for the first time and it took more out of him than most of us anticipated, including Pletcher. But let's keep it in perspective; he was beaten 1 1/4 lengths, not 5 1/4 lengths."

"Uncle Mo may, indeed, be the next Seattle Slew and live up to the lofty expectations placed on him. The words Triple Crown were uttered here all afternoon by rival trainers, pedigree experts and breeding farm owners who are tracking the Uncle Mo camp as if they were coaches sizing up a basketball recruit. Every farm in central Kentucky wants to be the one to land the breeding deal for the first Triple Crown champion since Affirmed in 1978. But to be that horse, Uncle Mo is first going to have to run by Premier Pegasus and 18 others on Derby Day."

"... with that dominating victory in the Breeders' Cup, Uncle Mo suggested he could be the most talented youngster to come along since Easy Goer, maybe even Shirley Temple. But that was in November. Now it's time to grow up. If he does, if Uncle Mo improves and develops as 3-year-olds generally do, then he could progress from most talented youngster in years to most serious threat to sweep the Triple Crown. Yes, he's that good, and it's possible."

“There have been horses who have run faster in one race than Uncle Mo. Stevie Wonderboy received about a 0 for winning the [2005 Juvenile],” said Len Friedman, a partner with Ragozin Thoroughbred Data. “But in terms of all of his races at two, I’ve never seen a two-year-old with a line of figures as fast as his. It’s unheard of.”