LEXINGTON, KY. - Less than 24 hours after his impressive and heart-warming Breeders’ Cup Sprint victory under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. Saturday at Keeneland, life was back to normal for the amazing, 7-year-old gelding Whitmore. “He’s a very happy horse this morning,” trainer Ron Moquett said early Sunday. “He ate all his food and went for his spa session and terrorized the girls. Just like normal. Everything is good.” Whitmore’s story has been well documented, his decisive victory in the Sprint after three previous tries regarded by many as absolutely the best story of the Breeders’ Cup weekend. Moquett was still enjoying the euphoria on Sunday morning, trying to find the words to properly describe what he was feeling. “Imagine growing up as a Celtics fan or a Yankees fan and what it feels like when they win a championship,” Moquett said. “Then imagine what that feeling would be like if you were actually a part of it.  "Before I got my trainer’s license, my dream was always to win the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Not the Kentucky Derby, like just about everyone else, but the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. That’s because this is the distance [six furlong]) we run the most. It’s a race that brings together the fastest of the fast. The baddest of the bad. You win this race and for that moment you can rightfully call your horse the fastest in the world. Other horses may get more accolades, but by winning the Sprint that’s what Whitmore is right now, the fastest horse in the world.” :: Click to learn about our DRF's Free Past Performance program. Moquett said he had the utmost confidence that Whitmore was ready for a breakthrough effort Saturday, even though he had finished off the board in his two previous starts. He was a distant seventh in the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga in a race contested over a sloppy track in a driving rainstorm, and a fourth in the Grade 2 Phoenix after a very wide trip here five weeks ago. “A lot of people thought he was declining,” Moquett said. “But I looked back on his second-place finish in the Vanderbilt behind Volatile earlier this summer at Saratoga and think that race may have been every bit as good as any he had ever run, considering the pace scenario and how fast the winner came home the final quarter-mile, like 23 flat. I told anybody who would listen to me after the Phoenix that I had the utmost confidence we could win the Sprint, I knew how tight I had him. I knew what I was bringing into this race.” Moquett said he also knew Whitmore was sitting on a big closing kick as the race progressed Saturday. “I was watching my horse, so I didn’t really know how fast they were going up front,” Moquett said. “Whitmore is very quirky, I can tell by his head carriage where he’s at and the energy he’s exerting, whether he’s on or off the bit. "I did hear them call out a 21 and 2 opening quarter, and horses hadn’t been stopping from that earlier in the day.  But Irad rode him exactly as we told him around the turn and once he got him straight without having to fight him on the turn, I knew he was going to have a big punch. I just didn’t know if that speed-biased racetrack would have a bigger punch than he had. But I thought at that point, if he could get through, that he would win.”          Whitmore’s victory set off an emotional scene in the winner’s circle for Moquett, bringing tears to his eyes as well as the rest of his team, his wife Laura and long-time assistant Greta Kuntzweiler. “I’m the luckiest trainer in the world with the help I have, including my wife and Greta, who has been with me for seven years. I can’t give them enough accolades. The three of us drove the van down with him [from Churchill Downs] for the race and drove him back as soon as he cooled out. We were on the road before the Classic even ran.” Part of the reason for his quick departure was that Moquett suffers from an autoimmune disease that was diagnosed two years ago, forcing him to be even more cautious than just about anyone else who was able to attend the Breeders’ Cup this weekend. “I feel great, I just have to be careful when it comes to COVID,” Moquett said. “All I did was walk over with the horse, then watched the race in the grandstand by myself, there wasn’t another person within 30 seconds walking distance on either side of me. And there weren’t that many people around the winner’s circle afterwards. I did my media stuff, went back to the barn, loaded him up and came home. Other than that, I was never frontside. I never saw another Breeders’ Cup race.” Moquett said Whitmore will follow his usual end-of-the-year routine from here, go to the farm, then head to Oaklawn Park, where he already enjoys superstar status, to prepare for yet another campaign. “My owners are great, they let me do whatever I want with him, and I’m so appreciative of that,” Moquett said. “So we’ll kick him out and when he says he’s ready, we’ll send him back to try to add to his records at Oaklawn next winter. I’m sure there are an awful lot of people there who can’t wait to see him.” At Oakawn, life will be back to normal again for the world’s fastest horse, the beloved old pro Whitmore.