BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 26, 2002

Claude R. McGaughey III

Ogden Mills Fhipps

OGDEN MILLS PHIPPS: You know, he bred the grand dam and he bred the dam and he loved the fillies and he loved this filly. He saw this filly a lot this winter. It means a great deal to me and my family.

SHUG McGAUGHEY: Well, I feel the same way as Denny does. I've got Mr. Phipps to thank for it. To get PERSONAL INCIDENT and to get MY FLAG and then to get this one, I think is extraordinary. To have them all run the races, they ran in the Breeders' Cup, all three of them, made it exciting. We all remember PERSONAL INCIDENT's and MY FLAG got up three jumps to win and this filly comes back and wins today so they kind of keep your heart in the game.

SHUG McGAUGHEY: Well, I think so. I mean, in PERSONAL INCIDENT's race she's hopefully beaten and came on and won, so I think that's the bloodlines and the breed and it's jumping out at them to give them the class. MY FLAG was a great race horse, her family was great, and then you get STORM CAT on top of it as sired as he's been with a great pedigree, too, if they can run they're going to show some class.

OGDEN MILLS PHIPPS: There may have been two answers but I happen to like Shug's better because I heard it before. Go ahead.

SHUG McGAUGHEY: Yeah, but when she made the lead I wasn't surprised that she tried to pull herself up. I mean, I just know her, with us being around her every day and how she acts and what she sees. When she's doing that she's all ears. It all happened so quick; I don't think it ever went through my head, well, she's beat. I was watching her come and I was a little concerned around the turn whether she was going to get by the filly on the lead or not. When she did I saw her kind of brace herself just a little bit and then when that filly came by us it was the best thing that could have happened and she got back into the race so quick. You know, I thought it was a pretty handy win, the three quarters of a length or the length that she won by.

SHUG McGAUGHEY: After she had won going a mile and 16th my concern was just keeping her as fresh as I can. I didn't want to overdo it. She worked an easy three eighths just in the middle of last week or the week before last, and I did that just to sort of settle her down, and then we came back and Johnny worked her on Monday. I told her I want to go like a half and 49 and she did that, and we galloped out, and that was my main concern. I didn't want to overdo it and try to get her here the best that I could for the day because this is a long day for these horses. You know, they've been up a long time, they've got to come over here and run a mile and an eighth, some of them have never done that. She's never run around two turns. The last thing I wanted to do was have her going the other way. I was hoping I could get her here as fresh as I possibly could.

SHUG McGAUGHEY: I'd have brought her here this morning if I could have. I'm serious about that. Well, she sees a lot. I know she's going -- she was going to draw some attention when she got here. She's got some tricks. I figured if she pulls some of her tricks that maybe she might get more attention, so she likes it at Belmont, likes it at Belmont, we were at home, so we thought we'd catch the last train out and that's what we did so she didn't have to be here that long. I think we kind of surprised her a little bit with the whole thing.

OGDEN MILLS PHIPPS: Never thought about it.

SHUG McGAUGHEY: Well, I've been asked about it a few times in the last two or three days, and I mean, I think Denny and I both feel the same way. We both would like to win the Derby, wouldn't matter whether it was with a filly or a colt but she's going to have to tell us. It's the Oaks, the Acorn, the Mother Goose, she's just not going to be thrown to the wolves to go into the Kentucky Derby. We'll do what we think is best for STORM FLAG FLYING.

SHUG McGAUGHEY: Her mother was a little tough, MY FLAG, at times, but it's all manageable stuff. She's young, and as I say, she sees a lot. As long as I can keep her from doing too much looking around and seeing too much, then I've got it all under control. In the stall today she was absolutely perfect. She's been very good since she's been here, so I think she does have some of the traits of MY FLAG. MY FLAG outgrew it and I think she will, too.

OGDEN MILLS PHIPPS: Let me make a comment. As great a trainer as Shug is, and he's in my mind extraordinary, he's also got a wonderful organization, Buzzy behind him, Buzzy Tenney, Bill Hergone (phonetic) who takes care of all the yearlings, Clayborn Farm (phonetic), all the exercise riders and all the grooms and hot walkers in his barn have been with us a long time, and they are first-rate horsemen, and I think that is also a credit to Shug.

OGDEN MILLS PHIPPS: It was all my father's thinking. It was all his. I think what we try to do is breed the best things we can have on the track to the best stallions that we can find, and then we look for confirmation in other things, but I think over the years we've tried to breed only top quality horses and unfortunately you don't always do it, but you get lucky once in a while.

SHUG McGAUGHEY: PERSONAL INCIDENT was a different thing because she had won 12 in a row when she won it as a four-year old. We had never won a Breeders' Cup, so not only was that at stake but an unbeaten streak was at stake even though this filly -- I want her in her two year old year as undefeated and she was going to have to win today to do that obviously. So in those characteristics there's a lot the same. I think the races were different because until the last jump you didn't think PERSONAL INCIDENT was going to win and today where she was, STORM FLAG FLYING was in tracking position at all times, so I'm not on her back, Johnny said she was pretty green running today. Going down the backside I can't see that. I thought she was laying good and laying where I wanted her to be. That was sort of my concern coming into the race, was a good clean break, let her lay fairly close, be in the game and take it from there.

SHUG McGAUGHEY: Not during the race but a little bit since then since y'all have been asking me but the excitement was there.

SHUG McGAUGHEY: Well, my medical problems were a surprise because I was just getting a routine physical and they found some blockages in my arteries and they did a triple bypass. I think it's fairly routine any time you get your body obstructed a little bit you've got some struggles, but I was away -- I was in touch, I was at the barn somewhat and then I was probably more full-time when we got to Saratoga, so a couple months.

OGDEN MILLS PHIPPS: Those kind of medical problems are always easy for other people but when they hit you they're not quite as easy.

SHUG McGAUGHEY: Not really because of the fractions, Dan. When I watched the distaff I knew we'd need to be laying up there pretty close.