Shug McGaughey

7th-OP, $100K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 4:22 p.m. ET. Set for her unveiling is SANGARETTE (Charlatan), a 2-year-old who was purchased for $500,000 by Tom Durant during the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May sale last year and sent to trainer Ray Ashford. The filly's dam, GISP Sweet Shirley Mae (Broken Vow), produced SW Mae Never No (Ire) (No Nay Never). Sangarette's extended female family includes GSW Chaos Theory (Curlin). Also making the starting gate on opening day of the Oaklawn meet is Don Alberto homebred Eagle Dance (Audible). Trained by Brad Cox,...

As first reported by the Daily Racing Form, Grade I-placed Five Bars (Maxfield) suffered fatal injuries during training Saturday morning at Belmont Park. The incident occurred Nov. 29 after a four-furlong breeze when she fell while galloping out. According to the report provided by the New York State Gaming Commission for the Equine Deaths and Breakdowns database, the filly went down near the seven-eighths pole. "Horse breezed 1/2 mile at the [training track] when [she] suffered a 'Left Front Catastrophic injury'; falling near the 7/8 pole, injuring her neck." The...

Trainers Will Walden and Robbie Medina likely booked their first Breeders' Cup starters with stakes winners at Keeneland over the weekend. Walden earned his first Grade I win when Rhetorical (Not This Time) came home first in the GI Coolmore Turf Mile Saturday. "He ran big and we are so proud of him," Walden said of Rhetorical, who returned to Churchill Downs Saturday night. "He was doing so good and training better than he ever has. We use a lot of metrics with our horses and he was just off...

One of the more meaningful aspects of Saratoga's summer meet is how it brings people together. Whether they're new faces on the scene or returning regulars of the historic venue, they all seem to share the same passion for the Thoroughbred racehorse. It's a place that brings prestige to all who ride, work and walk upon its grounds, felt during the mornings spent on the Oklahoma training track, to the steps taken across Union Avenue, and the palpable excitement that flows throughout the paddock and winner's circle on race day....

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--For 41 straight years, Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey had found his way to the winner's circle at Saratoga Race Course. The way things had been going this summer, he was starting to think his streak of at least one win at the Spa was going to come to a screeching halt. Five Bars (Maxfield) split through rivals late and emerged victorious in Saturday's third race at Saratoga, a $100,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies at 6 1/2 furlongs. When the Stuart Janney homebred won the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is sending a strong contingent to Saratoga Race Course for Travers Day next Saturday. But he won't have a runner in the marquee event, the GI DraftKings Travers Stakes. Baffert said Wednesday that he is keeping 'TDN Rising Star' Goal Oriented (Not This Time) in California. He had originally been planning on shipping the lightly raced colt East but nixed that idea after Goal Oriented worked at Del Mar on Friday. He went seven furlongs in a 1:23.80 (1/2). "He...

NEW KENT, VA-Is it too soon to call 2025 the year of Junior Alvarado? The Venezuelan jockey continued to ride a tsunami of success right into southeast Virginia Saturday, piloting Fort Washington (War Front) to victory in the GI Arlington Million at Colonial Downs. The "other" Claude McGaughey runner, dispatched at odds of 5-1 compared to favored stablemate Integration (Quality Road), has enjoyed a similar run of success once Alvarado climbed aboard earlier this year. After running fifth beaten 2 1/4 lengths to kick off 2025 in the GI Pegasus...

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse needed a very good reason to miss next weekend's prestigious $1-million Listed King's Plate at Woodbine. Actually, he has two of them. Casse will miss Canada's oldest thoroughbred horse race--one has won three times--because he's staying in Saratoga to try and win the $600,000 GI Alabama Stakes for the first time. He will be well represented by La Cara (Street Sense) and Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) in Saratoga's premier race for 3-year-old fillies. The King's Plate at Woodbine and Alabama are both...

A pair of fillies pulled up during races at Saratoga last Friday were sent to Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital for diagnosis of injuries and are both now resting, according to updates issued by the New York Racing Association Monday. Mystifying (Curlin), who was pulled up in the stretch run by jockey Jose Ortiz after sustaining an injury to her left front during Friday's seventh race, was immediately attended to by on-track veterinarians, who stabilized the injury and transported the 4-year-old filly to Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital for further...

Christophe Clement, a native of Paris, France, who started training full-time in the U.S. in 1991, has passed away after battling Metastatic Uveal Melanoma. He was 59. Clement was introduced to the sport by his father Miguel, a French trainer. He went to work for top French trainer Alec Head before coming to the U.S. to work for Shug McGaughey. He made one more stop in Europe, working as an assistant to Luca Cumani before opening up his own U.S. based stable in 1991. Clement picked up his first win...

The stabling area at Monmouth Park opened Saturday morning and trainer Mike Dini had the first horse to arrive for the second straight year as a juvenile from Tampa Bay Downs led the parade into the New Jersey fixture ahead of opening day May 10, the track announced Saturday afternoon. Dini has 60 stalls to fill ahead of the 50-day meeting, and with his current string down in Florida, the trainer says practicality led the decision to start shipping early rather than any pointed intention to be the first on...

To say that Integration (Quality Road) was facing some quality individuals in year's GI Maker's Mark Mile Stakes might be somewhat of an understatement. In that soggy renewal at Keeneland last April, the West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing runner finished third behind Godolphin's Master of The Seas (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), who stole the show following wins in the GI Woodbine Mile and GI Breeders' Cup Mile the previous season. The runner up that day was another Godolphin representative, Group 2 scorer Naval Power (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}), who followed up...