Cavorting targets loaded Ogden Phipps Stakes

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin on Sunday morning was still excited over Cavorting’s five-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Ruffian Stakes.

He was less excited over the prospects of pointing her to the Grade 1, $1 million Ogden Phipps, which figures to come up extremely strong with the likes of Grade 1 winners Curalina, Stopchargingmaria, Sheer Drama, and Forever Unbridled. Cavorting is also a Grade 1 winner, having taken the Test at Saratoga last summer.

“She came out of the race excellent. It was a ‘wow’ race for sure,” McLaughlin said. “We hate that we have to think about pointing for the toughest filly- and-mare race in the country but we have to look that way.”

McLaughlin, who arrived Saturday from his son Ryan’s graduation at Vanderbilt University in time to watch Cavorting’s win, might have to look for a new rider in the Phipps. Javier Castellano rode Cavorting for the first time in the Ruffian but he is also the regular rider of Stopchargingmaria, on whom he won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff last fall.

Cavorting, a daughter of Bernardini owned by Stonestreet Stables, earned a 97 Beyer Speed Figure for her effort in the Ruffian.