Before speaking to most of the assembled media following Rattle N Roll's Pimlico Special Stakes (G3) win May 19 at Pimlico Race Course, trainer Kenny McPeek conducted an interview in Spanish.
It wasn't the first time or even the only language outside of English that McPeek has used to speak with the press.
He said learning Spanish, which is common for many trainers, as well as Portuguese, became a matter of necessity.
"I've been speaking Portuguese for over 20 years and I speak it very fluently," he said.
McPeek began traveling to Brazil in 2002 to buy horses including Hard Buck and Einstein. But concerns over transparency with an agent led him to learn the language.
"The only problem is learning Portuguese and Spanish at the same time is a very bad idea," he said.
As long as his horses keep winning, McPeek won't mind doing more interviews in other languages.
A Memorable Trip to Baltimore for Bahde
For owner Richard Bahde, his first trip to Baltimore will be one he never forgets.
After 30 years as an owner, Bahde collected his first graded stakes victory when Taxed charged to a 3 3/4-length victory in the $300,000 Black Eyed-Susan Stakes (G2) for 3-year-old fillies on the May 19 card at Pimlico Race Course.
"I've never been to Baltimore. I've never been to Pimlico," Bahde said. "But I'm very, very happy I came. It's an exciting place and I have to hand it to the people at Pimlico who organized all this. They did a bang-up job. We've never been treated better and I want to thank them for that."
