Integration looms major player in 2024 turf division

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Integration, the dominant winner of Saturday’s Grade 2 Hill Prince Stakes at Aqueduct, will soon head to Florida for the winter, but it is not yet decided where and when he will make his next start.

While Shug McGaughey said he’s not opposed to considering the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf on Jan. 27 at Gulfstream Park for Integration, the Hall of Fame trainer seemed more focused on races later in the year. McGaughey mentioned the Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on the Kentucky Derby undercard in May as an early season target for Integration.

“There’s a lot of opportunities out there once we get past the next couple of months,” McGaughey said Sunday morning. “Our biggest goal is going to be next spring, summer and fall.”

Integration, a son of Quality Road, improved his record to 3 for 3 with his five-length victory in the Hill Prince. Integration equaled a 38-year-old Aqueduct turf-course record by running 1 1/8 miles in 1:47.06, good for 98 Beyer Speed Figure. Slew the Dragon ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:47 in the Lashkari Stakes here in 1985. Back then, races were timed in fifths-of-a-second as opposed to hundredths.

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Regardless of time, Integration has the looks of a horse who could be a major player in the older male turf division in 2024.

“He’s got all the parts, we know he can run, he’s got a good pedigree and he’s got a good mind,” McGaughey said.

McGaughey said he had always been high on Integration and that he had a few issues last summer that delayed him making it to the races until last August, when he won a maiden race at Colonial Downs. He followed that with a win in the Grade 3 Virginia Derby, also at Colonial.

“He had some little things that got in his way,” McGaughey said. “Once he got training steadily, he was fine.”

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