Dubai: Former UAE champion trainer Kiaran McLaughlin brought a little cheer to a Godolphin team still reeling from the tragedy that struck the stable when flagbearer Rewilding was critically injured at Ascot on Saturday and had to be put down.
McLaughlin, who trains a select team of Godolphin's horses in Belmont Park, New York, saddled It's Tricky to record an impressive victory in the Grade One TVG Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga.
It was Godolphin's third winner in the history of the race following Jilbab (2002) and Music Note (2008) and their 38th Grade One winner in America since Red Bishop won the San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap in 1995.
It's Tricky gave Godolphin a seventh Grade or Group One success of the season, something Rewilding was bidding to do in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes when he tragically fell in the home straight and suffered a broken cannon bone. The decision to put him down was taken within minutes.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic It's Tricky was playing up prior to the American Oaks when she dodged her handlers and ran around loose around her stall.
Once she was reined in she was all business and delivered a professional performance to win a well-contested Oaks where she beat Kentucky Oaks (Grade One) winner Plum Pretty. The victory has marked her out as one of the top three-year-olds in America and given Godolphin's Classic string a major shot in the arm.
She's tricky
McLaughlin said: "She's tricky. It took us a long time to catch her in the stall this morning to put her halter on. But that's a good thing.
"You want to see that, because in Florida [before her only defeat in April], she did everything right. We want her to be tricky. And she was tricky this morning.
"She won, she didn't do anything wrong in the paddock or in the race, and Eddie rode a great race. She's a very nice filly."
It's Tricky, who was having her first outing for Godolphin, has now won five of her six races following the Grade One TVG Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park on her previous start last month.
Eddie Castro, who was aboard the filly in Saturday's race, said: "Around the three-eighths pole, I knew Martin [Garcia on Plum Pretty] had a lot of horse, too.
"I had to put pressure and ride It's Tricky really hard. She changed leads, swung back and fought again. My filly ran a really good race and the second is a good filly too."
Record
McLaughlin spent over ten years in Dubai where he was based at the Metropolitan Stables. He was a leading trainer on three occasions, 1994-95, 1995-96 and 2002-03. He returned permanently to the US in 2003 and opened a public stable in New York.
However, in 2007 he came back to Dubai with a horse called Invasor to win the Dubai World Cup.
