More than 30 years after frequenting the winner's circle together, Shug McGaughey and John Ed Anthony are business partners again and pointing to Oaklawn Park.
Oaklawn is the home track for Anthony, an Arkansas lumberman with three Arkansas Derby victories locally and two in the Preakness and one in the Belmont Stakes. Some of Anthony's earliest success was with McGaughey before the trainer went full time with the nationally prominent Ogden Phipps stable.
The Hall of Fame trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Orb and undefeated Hall of Fame racemare Personal Ensign among others, McGaughey plans a small throng of horses for Anthony at the 2020 Oaklawn meeting. The backstretch has been open for almost two weeks and training began Monday for the live racing season, which begins Jan. 24 and runs through May 2.
McGaughey said the Anthony horses will be supervised by the trainer's son and assistant, Reeve.
"I've got eight or 10 horses for him, and he lives in Hot Springs, and he was looking for someone that would stable there," McGaughey said in a New York Racing Association release. "I'll send my son over there with him, and it'll be his operation and give him a chance to start on his own. That's the reason we're going there, but the purses are enticing."
The McGaughey-trained Stanhope, a 2-year-old Street Sense colt owned by Anthony's Shortleaf Stable, won a Nov. 2 turf race at New York's Aqueduct Racecourse with Dylan Davis aboard. The trainer's 3-year-old Code of Honor, owned by Kentucky breeder Will Farish, is a multiple Grade 1 winner of the Travers Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup at other NYRA tracks.
McGaughey's first graded stakes victory came at Oaklawn in 1978 with Northernette in the Grade 2 (now Grade 1) Apple Blossom Handicap. The McGaughey-trained Vanlandingham, owned by Anthony's then-Loblolly Stable, won Oaklawn's 1984 Rebel Stakes and received an Eclipse Award as champion older male in 1985.
Cigar Mile
With Whitmore entered, Oaklawn racing fans have a strong rooting interest in Saturday's $750,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, New York's last Grade 1 race of the year.
Trainer and co-owner Ron Moquett is sending his star 6-year-old gelding to Gotham after his third-place finish in the Grade 1 $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint Nov. 2 at California's Santa Anita Park. The Cigar Mile, named after the two-time Horse of the Year and 1995 Oaklawn Handicap winner, marks Whitmore's first race beyond seven furlongs since the 2016 Kentucky Derby.
The Pleasantly Perfect gelding transformed into a leading sprinter with victories including the Grade 1 2018 Forego at Saratoga and Oaklawn's Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap in 2017 and 2018. Whitmore's first Oaklawn defeat sprinting came in this year's Count Fleet to Mitole, who capped his racing career with a Breeders' Cup Sprint victory.
Whitmore has 12 wins and nine seconds from 30 starts and earnings of $2,817,600. He shows a 2016 Aqueduct victory, late in his 3-year-old season, going 6 1/2 furlongs.
"I always have confidence in him. It's easy to have confidence in the redhead," said Laura Moquett, assistant trainer to her husband. "He's begging for more distance. He always loves seven-furlong races, and one of his best races was up at Saratoga last year. But, he always seems a little short on mileage when going the sprint route. So, he'll get a little stretch out here to see how he likes it."
Whitmore, 8-1 in the program, is scheduled to break from the rail under Joel Rosario and carry 120 pounds. Maximum Security, disqualified winner of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, is 3-2 favorite in the 11-horse field. Spun to Run, another 3-year-old, comes east after a front-running triumph in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.
Probable post time for the Cigar Mile, Aqueduct's 10th race, is 3:16 p.m. Central.
Sports on 12/06/2019