Kentucky native Kiaran McLaughlin is another who comes from the “D. Wayne Lukas School of Training Classic Winners” and while his best finish in any classic race on his own so far is Jazil’s victory in the 2006 Belmont Stakes (GI), he knows classic winners well thanks to Lukas and most especially some of Lukas’s top runners, such as 1988 Derby heroine Winning Colors and Breeders’ Cup winners Life’s Magic, Lady’s Secret, Sacahuista, Steinlen, Gulch, Twilight Ridge, Open Mind and many more.
McLaughlin has been on his own since 1993 when he took a position as top trainer for Godolphin, Darley and Shadwell, where he spent half the year in Dubai and half the year in New York. After earning titles as Nad Al Sheba’s leading trainer three times — 1994-95, 1995-96 and 2002-2003 — he returned to the United States permanently in 2003 and opened a public stable, though he still continued working for the Dubai aristocracy, conditioning their Breeders’ Cup winners Invasor and Lahudood.
So far in his career he’s tightened the girth on six horses in the Run for the Roses, with his best finisher being Closing Argument, who was second in 2005. His most recent starter, Frosted, was fourth to Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh last year.
In 13 years as a trainer, McLaughlin has sent out more than 6,300 starters to win nearly 1,400 races and earn nearly $96 million.
This year, McLaughlin has masterfully managed the campaign of Mohaymen, Shadwell’s $2.2 million son of Tapit, who lost the Florida Derby (GI) in his latest, which was also his first defeat in six career efforts. Offering no apologies for the colt’s lone defeat, McLaughlin has promised we’ll see the old Moyhamen under the Twin Spires. And if Mohaymen’s April 20 work — a half-mile in :46 4/5 in what appeared to be the easiest of fashions — is any indication, he’s a horsemen intent on keeping promises. And one important one he’s kept so far on this Triple Crown trail is the one he made to Mohaymen’s regular jockey, Junior Alvarado, who will be back aboard in two weeks despite the fact that the 30-year-old Venezuelan has never ridden in the Kentucky Derby.
Click HERE for current odds to win the 2016 Kentucky Derby.
California native and lifelong horsewoman Margaret Ransom is a graduate of the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program. She got her start in racing working in the publicity departments at Calder Race Course and Hialeah Park, as well as in the racing office at Gulfstream Park in South Florida. She then spent six years in Lexington, KY, at BRISnet.com, where she helped create and develop the company’s popular newsletters: Handicapper’s Edge and Bloodstock Journal.After returning to California, she served six years as the Southern California news correspondent for BloodHorse, assisted in the publicity department at Santa Anita Park and was a contributor to many other racing publications, including HorsePlayer Magazine and Trainer Magazine. She then spent seven years at HRTV and HRTV.com in various roles as researcher, programming assistant, producer and social media and marketing manager.
She has also walked hots and groomed runners, worked the elite sales in Kentucky for top-class consignors and volunteers for several racehorse retirement organizations, including CARMA.In 2016, Margaret was the recipient of the prestigious Stanley Bergstein Writing Award, sponsored by Team Valor, and was an Eclipse Award honorable mention for her story, “The Shocking Untold Story of Maria Borell,” which appeared on USRacing.com. The article and subsequent stories helped save 43 abandoned and neglected Thoroughbreds in Kentucky and also helped create a new animal welfare law in Kentucky known as the “Borell Law.”Margaret’s very first Breeders’ Cup was at Hollywood Park in 1984 and she has attended more than half of the Breeders’ Cups since. She counts Holy Bull and Arrogate as her favorite horses of all time.She lives in Robinson, Texas, with her longtime beau, Tony. She is the executive director of the 501(c)(3) non-profit horse rescue, The Bridge Sanctuary.
