Shug McGaughey

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Claude R. "Shug" McGaughey, III (born January 6, 1951 in Lexington, Kentucky) is an American Hall of Fame thoroughbred horse trainer. He has earned wide respect in the industry as a man of great integrity.

Shug McGaughey began working as a trainer in 1979 and in his career to date has won more than 240 graded stakes races. In 1986 he got his big break when Ogden Phipps hired him to trainer his stable of horses. In 1988, McGaughey won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer in the United States. Among his many winners, he has captured the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Travers Stakes three times each and won the 1989 Belmont Stakes with Easy Goer. McGaughey's nine Breeders' Cup victories ranks second to D. Wayne Lukas. 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 2004, Shug McGaughey was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. At his induction ceremony, Shug McGaughey said: "My deepest debt of gratitude always has been and always will be to the Phipps family" -- "My affiliation with the Phipps family is one of the great highlights of my life. I wouldn't be here without them."


Breeders' Cup wins: