Cugino winning Churchill Downs’ Audubon. (Coady Media)
“Loved the atmosphere, the people … the whole thing.” Wins are nice, too!
By Tim Wilkin
Trainer Shug McGaughey caught the Kentucky Downs bug last year.
The Hall of Famer made his first visit to the boutique meet in 2023 and he admitted the place blew him away.
“Loved it,” McGaughey said by phone from his summer base at Saratoga Race Course. “I had a really good time. Loved the atmosphere, the people … the whole thing. Since I had never been there, I didn’t know what to expect. It was a little more festive than I thought it would be.”
Last summer, McGaughey had a solid presence at Kentucky Downs, starting 21 horses. He won twice, including the $100,000 Gun Runner Stakes with Talk of the Nation.
McGaughey had such a blast that he’s making a return trip this year. He will be in the house a week from Saturday when Integration, the runner-up in the Grade 1 Arlington Million, runs in the $2 million, Grade 2 Kentucky Downs Turf Cup.
This Saturday, McGaughey’s barn will be represented by Cugino in the $3.1 million, Grade 3 Nashville Derby, the richest race of the seven-day meet.
Cugino, owned by West Point Thoroughbreds and Jimmy Kahig, was scheduled to ship to Kentucky from Saratoga Thursday night.
He will start from post 12 in the 1 5/16-mile race and is the 4-1 second choice in the morning line, set by Kentucky Downs oddsmaker Nick Tammaro.
The Nashville will be Cugino’s first start since June 1 when he was a gate-to-wire winner in the listed Audubon Stakes at Churchill Downs. He was supposed to run in the Saratoga Derby Invitational on Aug. 3 at Saratoga Race Course, but that was race was postponed twice because of weather and run on Aug. 11.
Cugino did not get to run in the rescheduled race because he came down with a fever. McGaughey is not concerned at all about the 90-day layoff.
“Not really,” he said. “He trains aggressively, he has had plenty of breezes and he did not miss any time to speak of when he got sick. It was only a day thing. I think he will be fine.”
Cugino, a son of Twirling Candy, will be making his sixth start of 2023. He has also finished second three times, missing a win by a neck in one and a nose in another.
He will be ridden by Flavien Prat in the Nashville Derby, which will the 3-year-old colt’s first career start at Kentucky Downs.
McGaughey is one of many horsemen that believe a horse either likes the hilly Kentucky Downs course or it doesn’t.
“Yes, but I think there is an in between, too,” he said. “Cugino is a pretty athletic type of horse and I don’t think it would be a problem for him.”
