BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 29, 2005

Claude R. McGaughey III

Denny Phipps

DENNY PHIPPS: I remember it well.

DENNY PHIPPS: My daughter saw her down at the Spinster and they convinced me she ran well there and that was the reason she was in.

DENNY PHIPPS: I'm not a bettor, and I was surprised at the odds today. I thought they might be 12 or 15 to one, something like that, but not at all. I learned a long time ago from Shug that when you have a horse that is on the up, going up, doing well, doing -- looking as well as she did, that's the time to race them.

CLAUDE SHUG McGAUGHEY: She didn't have any early speed, to speak of. I like horses to run the race, me looking on paper. I thought someplace in the race I was going to get some help, whether it was going to be the first quarter the, middle of the race or what. I was satisfied with 23, 46 might even speed it up a little more around there. I felt like she'd be coming. She ran very well around one term at Aqueduct, ran in Bed of Roses. I thought her Spinster was a very good race over Speed Favor, track down at Keenland that was a deep track, kind of coming off a couple of sprint races at Saratoga; three quarters and a seven-eighths where she was third and second. Both were good. I thought a mile and a eighth over the track at Keenland could set her up good for this one. You know, whether she was good enough or not, I didn't know. She trains at Saratoga. People up there did a wonderful job with her and, you know, she got down here and I thought she looked the picture for a horse especially a fillie this time of the year. We're just tickled to death with what we saw today.

CLAUDE SHUG McGAUGHEY: I think so. She had the one post that day when she broke, I thought she was fighting the track, going around the first turn she got back farther than I thought she would. I was afraid she wasn't going to run over the track. I could see her climbing. She was eating lot of dirt. I thought maybe she won't run good that day, far to the outside. She came running, was a little bit wide, not bad. Just couldn't get there. Cornelio came back and said, maybe I moved a little bit too soon. But I didn't give him much instructions today. Yes, I think the race at Keenland helped her a lot. If we look back, Inside Information had a hard race in the Spinster before she came here and won.

DENNY PHIPPS: She's a wonderful home bred stallion at a Shug crane out of a mare that we have, and I think this will probably be the end for her.

DENNY PHIPPS: Not really. It seems to be improving by the week.

CLAUDE SHUG McGAUGHEY: Well, it was kind of a last year she did really well up there and I was talking to Mr. Phipps about that back in the summer. He just kind of, why don't you send her up there. I sent her up early before we went to Saratoga. I thought she did well. I left her up there. You know, went up there, I thought she did really well. He with went to the Spinster wasn't going to break what I was doing. So we sent her back up there. I think it was the right decision. She liked that soft track up there. Sort of liked that atmosphere, she did well there.

CLAUDE SHUG McGAUGHEY: I thought the track would probably change. I thought we had, you know, the weather earlier in the week, Monday, Tuesday, we had a lot of rain. So you know I knew when -- I know when we get weather like we've had the last few days, and get this kind of overcast, colder days at Belmont, Belmont track is usually at its best. It holds its moisture. This is a true run of the race, they'll run mile and an eighth, that's the way it should be. I think the track is playing fair.

CLAUDE SHUG McGAUGHEY: We have to look back at who's going to be the champion baseball team. They won the World Series back in September they were going through their losing streak. We couldn't say it then, so I have to think a performance like she made today, we have to throw our hat in the ring. I have to put a plug in for Smuggler, too. I wish she could have been here and seen what she would have been able to do that. I think with her four races this year with three wins and a second in the eighth Horn and win the Mother Goose and the coach Club Oaks the way she did win those races, she needs kind of throw her hat in the ring for the three-year-old champion, too.

DENNY PHIPPS: Thank you very much.

CLAUDE SHUG McGAUGHEY: Thank you.