Claude R. "Shug" McGaughey III (born January 6, 1951) is an American Hall of Fame
thoroughbred horse trainer.
McGaughey began working as a trainer in 1979 and to date has won more than 240
graded stakes races. In 1986, he got his big break when
Ogden Phipps hired him to train his stable of horses. In 1988, McGaughey won the
Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer in the United States. Among his many wins, he has captured the
Jockey Club Gold Cup three times, the
Travers Stakes four times, and won the 1989
Belmont Stakes
The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nicknamed Th ...
with Hall of Fame
Champion Easy Goer as well as the 2013
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...
with
Orb
Orb or Orbs may refer to:
* Sphere
* Globus Cruciger Ceremonial Orb
Places and rivers
* Orb (river), in southern France
* Orb (Kinzig), a tributary of the Kinzig river in Germany
* Bad Orb, a town in Hesse, Germany
Literature, radio, film, ...
. McGaughey's nine
Breeders' Cup victories ranks second to
D. Wayne Lukas
Darrell Wayne Lukas (born September 2, 1935 in Antigo, Wisconsin) is an American horse trainer and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee. He has won twenty Breeders' Cup races, received five Eclipse Awards for his accomplishments, and his horses ha ...
. Among the other horses he has trained are back-to-back
Breeders' Cup Mile winner
Lure and Hall of Famer
Personal Ensign. McGaughey has accomplished the rare trifecta of training a Breeders' Cup winner, her daughter, and her granddaughter in the troika of Personal Ensign, My Flag and Storm Flag Flying. In 2013 he won his first Kentucky Derby with Orb.
In 2004, McGaughey was inducted into the
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American Thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers. In 1955, the museum moved to its current location on Union Av ...
. At his induction ceremony, he said: "My deepest debt of gratitude always has been and always will be to the
Phipps family" and "My affiliation with the Phipps family is one of the great highlights of my life. I wouldn't be here without them."
References
Shug McGaughey at the NTRABiography and racing highlites for Claude R. McGaughey III at Keeneland*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGaughey, Shug
American horse trainers
United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees
Eclipse Award winners
1951 births
Living people
Horse trainers from Lexington, Kentucky