McGaughey hopes patience is rewarded with Join the Dots
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Join the Dots has been brought along the Shug way. A debut winner in late October at Belmont Park, the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro has raced just once in the meantime, finishing third as an odds-on favorite in her 4-year-old debut Jan. 7 at Gulfstream Park.
“Both of her races have been pretty good,” said Shug McGaughey, who trains Join the Dots for the Courtlandt Farm of Donald Adam. “I gave her a little bit of a break after her second start, and she’s been training well up at Payson. We’re looking forward to running her Friday.”
Join the Dots surely will be a solid favorite again when she faces five other fillies and mares in the Friday feature, a $61,000 first-level race that’s the only allowance on a nine-race card otherwise made up of maiden or claiming events.
Join the Dots, a $700,000 yearling purchase from the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale, embodies the time and care that McGaughey gives his horses. Enshrined in the Racing Hall of Fame in 2004, the 71-year-old Kentucky native is optimistic that Join the Dots is capable of steadily improving over her first two races, when she earned Beyer Speed Figures of 72 and 70.
Javier Castellano will be aboard when Join the Dots breaks from post 4 in the one-mile race on the main track.
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Probably her chief threat is Viva La Red (post 5, Romero Maragh), who got a field-high 79 Beyer in a two-back maiden victory here Jan. 27. Fringe players include Princess Betty (post 2, Jose Ortiz) and Miss Mikaela (post 3, Luis Saez).
The feature goes as race 8 and therefore is part of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 4-9), which can be expected to offer a gross pool guarantee of about $100,000. The Rainbow 6 was emptied last Sunday by a solo winner.
First post is 1:05 p.m. Eastern, with the feature set for 4:44. Mostly sunny skies and a high of 83 are in the local forecast.
As always, at least one Friday race at Gulfstream will be part of the $1-minimum Stronach 5 wager exclusive to 1/ST tracks.
Apart from what’s happening here Friday, McGaughey has been busy making plans for some of the top runners in his stable.
Scalding, who won his stakes debut last Saturday in the Grade 3 Challenger at Tampa Bay Downs, probably goes next in the Ben Ali or Alysheba on the Kentucky circuit.
“I’m pleased with his progression and think he has a chance to be okay,” McGaughey said.
Greatest Honour, beaten five lengths when sixth in the Challenger in his first race in nearly a year, could resurface at Aqueduct next month in either an allowance or the Excelsior. The 4-year-old Courtlandt homebred won the Holy Bull and Fountain of Youth here last winter.
“I thought he ran okay,” McGaughey said. “He probably didn’t have the best of things and the results weren’t what I wanted, but we got a race in him and we’ll build from there.”
Also, Kathleen O., a leading prospect for the Kentucky Oaks, is on target for the Gulfstream Park Oaks on April 2, while First Captain, a comeback winner of a Feb. 27 allowance at Gulfstream, goes next in the Grade 1 Carter on April 9 at Aqueduct.