McLaughlin has more than home crowd going for him

ELMONT, N.Y. – Like most natives of Lexington, Ky., trainer Kiaran McLaughlin is happy to see that after more than three decades, the Breeders’ Cup has finally come to this city’s historic racetrack, Keeneland.

McLaughlin’s six siblings, their spouses, and his mother will be in attendance for the two-day event Friday and Saturday. But what really has McLaughlin jazzed about the 32nd Breeders’ Cup is the four-horse contingent he is bringing, all of whom have a reasonable chance to win their respective races.

Wedding Toast, riding a three-race winning streak, including two Grade 1 scores, will vie for favoritism with Sheer Drama in Friday’s $2 million Distaff. Cavorting, also with three straight wins, figures to be the favorite in Saturday’s $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint. Sentiero Italia will be a midpriced contender in the $1 million Filly and Mare Turf on Saturday. Then there is Frosted, who is coming off arguably his best race in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby last month and is a contender in Saturday’s $5 million Classic.

“This is the livest as a group we’ve had,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin has two Breeders’ Cup wins from 31 starts. He won the 2006 Classic with Invasor and the 2007 Filly and Mare Turf with Lahudood. Both of those wins were for Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Stable. McLaughlin would like to get a Breeders’ Cup victory for Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum’s Godolphin Racing. Three of McLaughlin’s four Breeders’ Cup starters – Wedding Toast, Sentiero Italia, and Frosted – are for Godolphin.

It was Sheikh Mohammed’s Bernardini whom Invasor defeated in the 2006 Classic, wresting away Horse of the Year honors from that 3-year-old.

“Obviously, bittersweet,” McLaughlin said. “We’re doing our thing to win like we always do. You just hate that you’re beating Bernardini that day. But I kept my job, so that was good.”

McLaughlin, 54, has done his job very well in 2015. His $8,665,946 in purse earnings through Sunday is the second-highest for his stable since he started training regularly in the U.S. in 1995. Eighteen of his 86 wins this year have come in stakes, 11 graded.

McLaughlin has taken advantage of unique circumstances to train his horses a bit differently coming into the Breeders’ Cup.

Wedding Toast and Frosted have had the opportunity to train going both clockwise and counterclockwise for the better part of the last two months at Sheikh Mohammed’s Greentree facility, adjacent to Saratoga. McLaughlin believes this helps keep horses sounder by using all their muscles, not just the same ones day after day.

Wedding Toast always trained clockwise, or right-handed, because of a knee issue that limited her to one start in 2014. This year, she is 4 for 6, with Grade 1 victories in the Ogden Phipps and Beldame. She has a tendency to drift out in her races.

“Some of them do better right-handed, and [with her] drifting, we felt let’s go right-handed, and she’s just done really well right-handed,” McLaughlin said.

Though Wedding Toast has done her best work in one-turn races, she is 2 for 2 around two turns and 3 for 3 at 1 1/8 miles. The Distaff will be run at 1 1/8 miles around two turns.

“I wouldn’t trade places with anybody,” McLaughlin said. “I think we’re a legitimate favorite or second choice.”

Frosted, who has unsuccessfully chased Classic favorite American Pharoah three times, has been training right-handed at Greentree since his victory in the Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 19. That race, for which he earned a career-best 106 Beyer Speed Figure, came three weeks after he pressed American Pharoah on the lead in the Travers before finishing third.

That McLaughlin would run Frosted back in three weeks off such a hard race is atypical for him and a testament to the horse. It was McLaughlin’s brother and assistant, Neal, who recommended running in the Pennsylvania Derby.

“He came out of the Travers so well, Neal said, ‘I don’t know if we can wait [nine]weeks for the Breeders’ Cup,’ ” McLaughlin said. “He has had a long campaign, but if you saw him, he looks better to me today than he did anytime this year. He has put on weight and looks great.”

Cavorting, whom McLaughlin trains for Stonestreet Stables, will be the favorite in the Filly and Mare Sprint. She has made a remarkable turnaround over the last four months.

Cavorting finished last in the Grade 1 Frizette last October and came out of the race, run over an extremely sloppy track, a bit off. She didn’t race again until February, when she finished ninth, beaten 24 1/2 lengths, in the Grade 2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream.

McLaughlin noted that that was a day at Gulfstream when several of the main-track races were slow, including the Fountain of Youth Stakes. Frosted finished fourth in the Fountain of Youth after looking like the winner turning for home.

After a break, Cavorting has won three consecutive races and has shown the ability to rate and take dirt. Her aggressiveness in her training led exercise rider Renzo Morales and former assistant trainer Art Magnusson to recommend that she train over the smaller Belmont training track.

“Artie and Renzo felt like she was better over there,” McLaughlin said.

Senterio Italia won the Grade 2 Lake Placid and Grade 2 Sands Point this year before finishing third as the favorite in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland. McLaughlin blamed the lack of pace and a wide trip for her 2 3/4-length defeat and thought it worth another try in the Filly and Mare Turf. This will be her eighth start of the year.

“She was going to have three months off anyway,” McLaughlin said. “It was either we run or stop today; there’s not any reason to stop today.”

Despite dealing with multiple sclerosis since 1998, little stops McLaughlin. He has bounced back and forth between Belmont and Saratoga this fall to oversee the training of his Breeders’ Cup charges. After the Breeders’ Cup, things will remain busy for McLaughlin, with the promising 2-year-olds Mohaymen and Annual Report pointing to fall stakes.

McLaughlin credits his staff – brother Neal and his wife, Trish, as well as downstate assistant Joe Lee – with keeping the 80- to 100-horse stable running smoothly.

“Probably the most important part of it all is the same as a great coach – you need great players,” McLaughlin said. “The owners this year have supplied us with some very nice horses, and we’re having a career year.”