Scratches don't hinder Cugino in Red Bank win
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Ultra-consistent Cugino took care of business Monday at Monmouth Park, capturing the $95,000 Red Bank Stakes by one length.
Trained by Shug McGaughey for West Point Thoroughreds and Jimmy Kahig, 4-year-old Cugino won for the third time in his last four starts and ran his career mark to 12-5-4-0. His only finishes worse than third are a decent fourth in the 2024 American Turf at Churchill, a total no-show over the quirky Kentucky Downs course about a year ago, and a sixth on Aug. 2 in the Grade 1 Fourstardave. Cugino didn’t run poorly there and isn’t far from a Grade 1 turf horse in America, and he had the listed Red Bank over a barrel.
It helped and hurt Cugino’s cause when half of the eight Red Bank entrants were scratched. Fewer horses to deal with, sure, but the scratches took some of the speed out of the turf mile, where on paper Cugino figured to get a dream setup.
Things worked out after all. There Are No Words broke alertly from his outside draw and went to the front. Down on the rail, Paco Lopez fought favored Big Everest into and partway around the clubhouse turn. In seeking to avoid an inside speed duel with his mount, Lopez eventually managed to work back far enough to get off the fence and come outside There Are No Words. But Big Everest had spent too much energy, physical and mental, battling for his head, and when the race’s real running began midway around the far turn, Big Everest bowed out, checking in a distant last.
Samuel Marin sat back on Cugino and watched it all unfold. The race’s opening half-mile went in a solid 46.19, with Marin going comfortably outside longshot Shrug. Marin knows that a jockey cannot wait too long to press the button on a closing horse at Monmouth, and by the three-eighths pole, Marin was seriously asking Cugino. Cugino responded, bearing down on There Are No Words in upper stretch and taking the lead before the sixteenth pole.
There Are No Words, as he always does, finished bravely, but for the 10th time in 28 starts, he checked in second. Shrug ran a good third, crossing the finish a half-length out of second.
Cugino clocked 1:34.52 for a mile over firm turf and paid $4.20. Show wagering was cancelled. Cugino is by the hot sire Twirling Candy and out of Adorable Miss, by Kitten’s Joy. Cugino was bred in Kentucky by Gage Hill Stables and W.S. Farish. The colt’s a model of consistency, lightly raced, with his best perhaps still ahead of him.
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