Fast friends Callaghan, McCarthy to face off at Breeders' Cup

ARCADIA, Calif. – As a young man growing up in Newmarket, England, around the turn of the millennium, Simon Callaghan devoted a Saturday evening each fall to watching the Breeders’ Cup races from various American racetracks.

“I was fascinated with the Breeders’ Cup,” Callaghan recalled last weekend outside his stable at Santa Anita. “It was an amazing spectacle.”

Watching the Breeders’ Cup unfold from venues such as Gulfstream Park, Churchill Downs, and Belmont Park in those years helped Callaghan determine that he wanted to be part of American racing.

In the following years, Callaghan spent a few winters working for Todd Pletcher in Florida. One of his coworkers was an assistant named Michael McCarthy. The two became fast friends and stayed in contact when Callaghan emigrated from England to the United States in the winter of 2009-10 to launch his racing stable.

Today, Callaghan and McCarthy are stabled about 200 yards apart and have successful stables based in California. The friendship remains intact, though it might be suspended for a few minutes on Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs. Callaghan, 35, and McCarthy, 47, have runners in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Callaghan starts Bellafina, who will be favored on the basis of three impressive graded stakes wins at Del Mar and Santa Anita since early August. McCarthy runs Vibrance, who was second to Bellafina in the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 29, losing by 6 1/2 lengths in her stakes debut.

“I don’t want him to beat me, but if we don’t win, I hope he beats me,” Callaghan said.

Bellafina is Callaghan’s only Breeders’ Cup runner. Vibrance is one of five contenders for McCarthy. He has pre-entered City of Light in the Classic and Dirt Mile, Liam the Charmer in the Turf, Paved in the Filly and Mare Turf, and Axelrod in the Classic.

They represent McCarthy’s first runners in the Breeders’ Cup. McCarthy worked for Pletcher from 2002 to 2013 before launching his own stable. His quintet of Breeders’ Cup hopefuls represent 20 percent of the approximately 25 horses he has in training.

“I’ll take it,” he said.

“All five horses did not run worse than second in their last starts. They seem like they’re going the right way.”

At the beginning of the year, McCarthy said he had a mental list of goals for 2018. Some objectives have been achieved.

“You set goals for yourself each year,” he said. “We accomplished a few of them. I wanted to start a horse in the Breeders’ Cup. We’re sending five.

“We had horses get good at the right time. We have wonderful support from owners.”

McCarthy nominates Paved as a filly to watch. She was second in the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita on Sept. 29.

“She has run on her mind right now,” he said.

While McCarthy has never had a Breeders’ Cup starter, he is familiar with how runners are prepared for such races – and how to get to them to the winner’s circle. Pletcher won seven Breeders’ Cup races in the years that McCarthy was part of the team.

“There aren’t many people with experience in that area,” he said.

“It would be nice to get it done this year. I’ve been in business for less than five years. Rome was not built in a day.”

Callaghan is seeking his first win in a Breeders’ Cup race with his 10th starter. Of the previous nine, Callaghan’s best result was a third-place finish by Taris in the 2015 Filly and Mare Sprint. Taris was beaten two lengths by winner Wavell Avenue after racing in traffic in early stretch.

“I think Taris was best when she was third,” he said.

Last year at Del Mar, Callaghan started the favorite in the Juvenile Fillies in Moonshine Memories. Similar to Bellafina, Moonshine Memories won the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante and Chandelier Stakes, but she could only finish seventh in the Juvenile Fillies at 1 1/16 miles. She has raced in sprints this year.

Bellafina has been the leading runner in Callaghan’s 40-horse stable this year. She has won three graded stakes by a combined 15 lengths.

“The filly is good,” he said. “You want to be in this position to have one of the favorites for the championship races. It’s something we’ve been working toward.”