National Media Teleconference Transcript and Audio (McLaughlin, O’Neill, Casse)

C O R P O R A T E   P A R T I C I P A N T S

Jim Mulvihill

Kiaran McLaughlin

Doug O’Neill

Mark Casse

C O N F E R E N C E   C A L L   P A R T I C I P A N T S

Danny Brewer, HorseRacingScoop.com

Ron Flatter, RSN Australia

Art Wilson, Los Angeles Newspaper Group

Tim Reynolds, Associated Press

Debbie Arrington, Sacramento Bee

Tim Wilkin, Albany Times Union

Melissa Hoppert, New York Times

Jennie Rees, Horse Racing Radio Network

Dick Downey, The Downey Profile

Tom Jicha, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Danny Brewer, Horseracingscoop.com

John Pricci, Horseraceinsider.com

P R E S E N T A T I O N

 

Operator:

 

Good day, ladies and gentlemen.  Welcome to the NTRA Road to the Triple Crown 2016 Conference Call.  At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode.  Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session.  At that time participants are asked to press star, one to register for a question.  As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

 

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Jim Mulvihill.  Please go ahead, Mr. Mulvihill.

 

Jim Mulvihill:

 

Thank you Michelle and welcome everyone to today’s big call.  We’re previewing this weekend’s Road to Derby Championship Series Stakes, those are the $1 million Expressbet.com Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park and the $500,000 Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati Spiral Stakes at Turfway.  Both of those are this Saturday afternoon.  Now, the Florida Derby is work 170 points toward Kentucky Derby eligibility; 100 of those go to the winner.  While the Spiral is worth 50 points with 20 to the winner.  Last year you might recall it took 22 points to make the Kentucky Derby field.

 

This Florida Derby is shaping up as one for the ages.  We’ve got the two Triple Crown contenders that are on the top of nearly everyone’s list.  Both of them are unbeaten and they’re facing off for the first time.  The East Coast leader is Mohaymen, the easy winner of both of Gulfstream’s earlier derby preps, the Holy Bull and the Fountain of Youth.  Then shipping in from the West Coast, lured by a million-dollar bonus that’s available to the Fasig-Tipton Florida Sale grads is the Breeders Cup Juvenile winner, as well as the 2-year old Champion I should mention, and that of course is Nyquist.  We’re delighted to have both the trainers of Mohaymen and Nyquist on this call today, Kiaran McLaughlin and Doug O’Neill, and later on we’re also going to talk to Mark Casse who might have two horses for Saturday’s Spiral Stakes and a few others that we can talk about as well as far as Derby contenders, so we’ll get to him later on.

 

But first, let’s welcome in Kiaran McLaughlin.  He trains Shadwell Stables Mohaymen, winner of all five of his starts, the last four of which came in Grade 2 Stakes company.  Last year Kiaran was kind enough to join us on several of these calls to talk about Frosted, another grade one of Tapit who was one of the top 3-year-olds of that crop, but of course was overshadowed by American Pharaoh.  Last weekend Frosted ran fifth in in the Dubai World Cup, but now Kiaran’s back in Florida and looking forward to this Saturday’s big test for Mohaymen.

 

Kiaran, it’s Jim Mulvihill in Lexington.  Thanks for joining us.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Thanks for having me, Jim.

 

Jim Mulvihill:

 

It’s our pleasure as always.  Maybe the best place to start is just with Mohaymen’s current condition.  I’m hoping maybe you can describe to us how he’s progressed this year, say going back to when he first got to Florida, and then also just where he’s at right now.  How do you like his current condition?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Well, he’s always done everything right and after winning the Remsen I had a tough decision to fly him the next day or wait and van him a week or so later.  We ran him back at 24 days to the Remsen and flew him on the next day and it took a little bit out of him to do all that running twice in 24 days and then flying to Florida, so I feel like he’s improved and put on weight and conditioning a lot since then, and we’ve stayed right on course with the Holy Bull, Fountain of Youth and now the Florida Derby, and he’s worked every week when he’s supposed to work and everything is going great.

 

Jim Mulvihill:

 

Very good.  Happy to hear it.  I’m sure a few months ago you probably wouldn’t have expected that the top contender from California would be shipping in, so I’m wondering if you could just tell us what your reaction was when you first heard about Nyquist coming to Florida for this race and whether it impacts at all what you thought would be the progression for Mohaymen?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

No, it didn’t really affect a lot.  We were, like I said, staying on course with our plan.  I like the five weeks out from the Kentucky Derby and we were here training and we’re going to have to face 19 others or 18 others plus him on May 7^th, hopefully, so it’s not a big deal.  Nothing really changed.  You would rather face him later in the Derby than now but this is a very important race, grade 1, Florida Derby and we’re not a grade 1 winner so it’s a very important race and we’re ready to go.

 

Jim Mulvihill:

 

Is there also a train of thought that suggests that maybe a hard race before the Derby wouldn’t be a bad thing, which isn’t to say it would be an easy race without Nyquist; it’s still a grade 1, but it increases the chances that you’re going to get a real test in here as opposed to potentially cruising into the Derby without a real stern test.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Yes, exactly.  We don’t mind a stern test.  Again, we’re five weeks out.  This is a really tough race which it probably will be tough on both of us but we have five weeks to recover which is great.  It’s not like it’s three weeks, and it’d be nice to have a little challenge also, or more of a challenge than we’ve had, and see where we’re at.  We’re looking forward to Saturday.

 

Jim Mulvihill:

 

Excellent.  Well Kiaran, I’m going to check back with Michelle and she can see if the media have any questions for you.  Hang on one second.

 

Operator:

 

Thank you.  Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing the star key followed by the digit one on your telephone keypad If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment.  If you have signaled for a question prior to hearing these instructions on today’s call, please repeat the process now by pressing star, one again to ensure our equipment captured your signal.   We’ll pause for just a moment to allow everyone the opportunity to signal for questions.

 

Our first question comes from the line of Danny Brewer of HorseRacingScoop.com.  Please go ahead.

 

Danny Brewer:

 

How’s it going today?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Great, Danny.  Great.

 

Danny Brewer:

 

Why did you choose Gulfstream? I guess did you just answer that with the five weeks to the Derby.  Is that why you guys are coming to Gulfstream instead of going on the New York circuit like did with Frosted last year?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

No.  We’re down here.  We train in Florida all winter and provided that he liked the track and handled things well we always were going to go Holy Bull, Fountain of Youth to the Florida Derby.  So we’re still on for it.  We changed last year with Frosted because we didn’t think he loved the track.  We weren’t sure about it.  He didn’t run great in the Fountain of Youth so we had to make an adjustment.  But provided that Mohaymen was still winning we weren’t going to adjust.

 

Danny Brewer:

 

He’s been a little versatile in some of his wins.  Is he kind of push-button? Do you think he can turn it on when he wants to?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Yes, I do.  That’s exactly the term I use.  He’s push-button is right.  So it’ll be a tough test, his toughest test Saturday, but I feel like he is push-button, yes.

 

Danny Brewer:

 

Kiaran, I appreciate your time and I wish you the best of luck.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Thank you.

 

Operator:

 

Thank you.  The next question comes from the line of Ron Flatter of RSN Australia.  Please go ahead.

 

Ron Flatter:

 

Hi Kiaran.  Looking at Mohaymen and Nyquist, do you find a lot of similarities in the running styles, and if so do you look at being eyeball-to-eyeball with him throughout the race?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

No, I don’t.  I think he has more speed than we do and we will probably be coming from off of it a little bit, and we don’t want to make it easy for him if he’s out there on an uncontested lead.  We might have to come to him a little bit earlier but I’ll leave that up to Junior and we definitely get the mile and an eighth.  That’s the question for him I guess, you’ve been to (inaudible) and won impressively in Keeneland very impressively.  I didn’t think he could win from where he was at the first turn.  But we have won at a mile and an eighth and we’ve won twice at this track.  So we would probably be coming from off the pace.

 

Ron Flatter:

 

You mentioned Junior.  The fact that he hasn’t ridden in a Kentucky Derby, do you look at keeping him on the horse as long as he keeps winning? Or would you be looking to a more experienced jockey if you are carrying this mantle all the way up to May?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

No.  He will stay on provided we keep winning and he stays healthy, both rider and horse; he will stay with him.  Maybe it’s a plus not to have ridden in the Kentucky Derby.  He doesn’t know about the My Old Kentucky Home and all the nervousness that goes with it.  He’s won plenty of big races so it might be a plus.

 

Ron Flatter:

 

Finally, you were in Dubai.  You saw Lani win.  Of course Cupid won the Rebel.  The common factor here is Tapit.  Are we coming to a point now where you look almost at seeing Tapit first and everybody else after that? I mean just how good a sire has he become?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Yeah, unbelievable sire.  We’ve been lucky to have several, maybe five or six grade one and grade two winners by Tapit, so he’s a fabulous sire and this horse is just a very nice horse out of a mare that I trained, Justwhistledixie, so it’s really neat to have an outstanding Tapit in the barn, for sure.

 

Ron Flatter:

 

Thank you, Kiaran.  Good luck to you.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Thanks very much.

 

Operator:

 

Thank you.  The next question comes from Art Wilson of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group.  Please go ahead.

 

Art Wilson:

 

Kiaran, I’m sure you’ve seen a few of Nyquist’s races.  What is it that impresses you the most about Nyquist?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

He’s just very game and determined and he’s hard to get by.  Like I said at the Breeders Cup, I didn’t think he could win the race from where he was into the first turn, and yet he still won and beat out a nice group of horses.  He’s in good hands with Doug O’Neill.  He’s won the Derby before and he’s undefeated so you don’t have to say much more than that.  He’s 6 for 6 and he knows where the finish line is.

 

Art Wilson:

 

Regarding, your colt, other than obviously the fact that he can run real fast, what is it that impresses you most about Mohaymen?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

He has a great mind.  He’s a real gentleman to be around.  Nothing seems to bother him, and he’s a beautiful mover.  He seems to do things effortlessly, so he’s the best 3-year-old to date that I’ve ever had and he just is a special horse.

 

Art Wilson:

 

Okay.  Thanks for that.  Good luck on Saturday.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Thanks, Art.

 

Operator:

 

Thank you.  The next question comes from Tim Reynolds of Associated Press, Please go ahead.

 

Tim Reynolds:

 

(inaudible) Kiaran.  I’m just curious.  I know you were in Dubai just a few days ago and then coming back.  I’m just curious how much that takes out of you with all the involvement that goes on this week and all the hub-bub surrounding what’s going to come on Saturday with a few air miles underneath your belt the last few days? How do you kind of keep on some sort of normal schedule for yourself?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

It’s tough on the body.  I’m 60 now, a flight on Sunday.  But when I got to the barn Monday morning and saw Mohaymen it makes it a lot easier.  It’s not a big deal.  I love what I do.  I enjoy getting up every day and luckily it’s me that’s at low tide and not Mohaymen.

 

Tim Reynolds:

 

Well, I meant in your first years you didn’t have as many, and now it’s kind of—like, the last three years,

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Thank you, Kiaran.  I appreciate it.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Thank you.

 

Operator:

 

The you.  The next question comes from Debbie Arrington of Sacramento Bee.  Please go ahead.

 

Debbie Arrington:

 

Hi.  Thank you Kiaran for coming on this morning.  You had Mohaymen’s mother also in your barn you said.  Do you see any similarities between mother and son?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Not that much.  It’s just they both have good minds.  Justwhistledixie was really nice filly and very nice.  Really, she did great.  In fact, also she won five in a row for us, so it’s kind of interesting that he’s five in a row now.  She lost her first race I believe but she won five in a row and was second in a grade 1, and just a really nice filly.  Mohaymen is a great mover and she was a good mover also, but not a lot of similarities, no.

 

Debbie Arrington:

 

How has Mohaymen matured this year?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

He seems likes he growing all the time.  He’s a May 2^nd foal, so he seems like he’s growing and filling out a little bit from the first of the year and he probably will continue to do that ‘til, you know the middle of the summer.  But he does everything right and we’re not looking for any changes, and he’s doing great.

 

Debbie Arrington:

 

It sounds like he’s a really nice horse to have around the barn, that he’s very personable.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Yes, he is.  He’s a real gentleman.  He never makes any noise.  He doesn’t cause any problems.  He’s just a real gentleman and quiet.  You hardly know he’s in the barn.

 

Debbie Arrington:

 

Very good.  What does his name mean?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Dominance, I believe.  Dominance.

 

Debbie Arrington:

 

Very good.  That’s an appropriate name.  Great.  Thank you very much.  Best of luck.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Okay.  Thank you.

 

Operator:

 

Thank you.  Ladies and gentlemen, if there are any additional questions, please press star, one at this time.  The next question comes from Tim Wilkin of Albany Times Union.  Please go ahead.

 

Tim Wilkin:

 

Hey Kiaran.  Mohaymen seems to have been doing everything to easy.  Have you even had to get to the bottom of him yet?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

No, we haven’t and that’s why I say it’s not a bad thing to have his toughest challenge to date be five weeks from the Derby, so we’re kind of looking forward to that and see how we get on.  But we haven’t gotten to the bottom of him yet, for sure.

 

Tim Wilkin:

 

Is that kind of scary? To see if you’re a horse running against him?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Yes.  I think it is a little scary but I’m sure that Doug O’Neill’s team feels the same way about their horse, but this is a very special colt and it’s fun to have him in the barn.

 

Tim Wilkin:

 

When did you know he was going to be special?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

That’s a good question.  I mean we always liked him.  We always liked him from the beginning.  We didn’t start working him until the first week in July because he didn’t come in until late June, and he came into Belmont (inaudible) Saratoga, but all of his works were excellent but we didn’t really know that he was going to be a special horse probably ‘til after his first start, second start and he seems to be improving all the time.

 

Tim Wilkin:

 

One last one, Kiaran.  How did Frosted come out of the World Cup and do you have any plans for him heading down the line in the immediate future?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

He came out of (inaudible) and kind of he was very wide and we weren’t good enough to beat California Chrome on the day, but he’s going to fly back Thursday and we’ll get him back to Belmont maybe Sunday.  We don’t have any plans at this time.  Obviously we might look at the Suburban first week in July but no plans yet.

 

Tim Wilkin:

 

Well Kiaran, good luck for this weekend.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Thank you very much, Tim.

 

Operator:

 

Thank you.  The next question comes from Melissa Hoppert of the New York Times.  Please go ahead.

 

Melissa Hoppert:

 

Hi Kiaran.  I was wondering if you could give us your thoughts on the $1 million bonus.  Do you think that’s good for the sport, or what are your feelings?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Oh yes.  Any bonuses are great any time.  I wish I was up for the bonus too.  I think it’s great that we have two of the best colts in the country running against each other Saturday.  It’s a great race and you don’t see this happen very often, and maybe it’s partly because of the million-dollar bonus.  So it’s a plus for the industry and a plus for the owners and trainers if they happen to win it Saturday.

 

Melissa Hoppert:

 

Great.  Thank you.

 

Operator:

 

Thank you.  Just so you know, there’s a little bit of background noise on the-

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

I’m in a big storm.  I’m in a storm, I’m sorry.

 

Operator:

 

Okay.  Thank you.  The next question comes from Jennie Rees of the Horse Racing Radio Network.  Please go ahead.

 

Jennie Rees:

 

Hi Kiaran.  Two preps (inaudible) become kind of a fashionable way to get to the Derby and it’s been very successful.  Amongst your last two Derby horses have had three preps.  Could you just try to comment on your philosophy, the three versus the two?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

I’m sorry.  I’m in a storm right now.  I didn’t hear that.

 

Jennie Rees:

 

Okay.  I was saying that in recent years two preps has been in vogue to get to the Derby and it’s been very successful.  At least your last two Derby horses have had three preps so could you just talk about your philosophy with what is the ideal number of prep races of three before the Kentucky Derby?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Hopefully this year it’s three.  I mean the reason that Cairo Prince only had two was he ran real fast and won the Holy Bull impressively, I believe it was the Holy Bull, too fast and then we had to skip the Fountain of Youth and ran back in the Florida Derby.  But I just feel like three races are ideal to me personally provided the horse is doing great and everything is going well.  I like to run about once a month, so to me that’s what I like.

 

Jennie Rees:

 

Okay.  Thanks.

 

Operator:

 

Thank you.  Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question, please press star, one at this time.  The next question comes from Dick Downey of the Downey Profile.  Please go ahead.

 

Dick Downey:

 

Kiaran, it looks like it’ll be a small field in the Florida Derby.  Given that assumption, do you have a preference as to where you draw in the gate? Inside or outside of Nyquist?

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Probably prefer to be outside of him because he might show a little more speed than us and we just keep an eye on him and see what he’s doing and how fast he’s going.  So probably prefer to be on the outside of him.

 

Dick Downey:

 

All right.  Thank you, sir.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Thank you.

 

Operator:

 

Thank you.  The next question comes from Tom Jica of South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  Please go ahead.

 

Tom Jica:

 

Kiaran, I know you kind of addressed this before but without diminishing the other horses, this is basically a two-horse race.  How much do you tell your jockey, you know, “Ride against Nyquist and don’t worry about the others,” and if it comes down to it in the stretch, do you say, “Hey, there’s three more grade 1s coming up.  Let’s not empty him out today.”

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

No.  We want to go and win the race and we will, if we have to empty him out on Saturday, no problem.  It’s a grade 1 and we need to try and win and do all we can do to win it and I’ll revive him over the next five weeks.  I’ll promise the jockey that.

 

Tom Jica:

 

Will he ride essentially against Nyquist? Again, not to diminish the other horses but they’re in a different universe than you and Nyquist.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Yes.  We will probably—I’ll leave it up to Junior but he will be keeping an eye on him and it will be basically a bias (phon) race, I agree with you, but we might be a little closer or attack him a little bit earlier than another horse and might have to come and take him on earlier in the race.

 

Tom Jica:

 

Okay.  Thank you very much, Kiaran.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Thank you.

 

Operator:

 

Thank you.  There are no further questions at this time.  I’ll turn the conference back to Mr. Mulvihill.

 

Jim Mulvihill:

 

All right, Kiaran.  We’re going to let you go.  Thank you so much for the time.  We really appreciate it and we all wish you the best of luck on Saturday in the Florida Derby.

 

Kiaran McLaughlin:

 

Thank you very much, Jim.  I appreciate it.

 

Jim Mulvihill:

 

Any time.  That was Kiaran McLaughlin offering quite a bit of insight on his Florida Derby contender Mohaymen.  Now, Mohaymen’s main competitor in this match of the undefeated on Saturday will of course be the Eclipse Award-winning champion 2-year-old Nyquist and we’re thrilled now to be joined by his trainer Doug O’Neill.  A son of Uncle Mo, Nyquist is 6 for 6 and three of his wins have come in grade 1 events, including of course last fall’s Breeders Cup Juvenile at Keeneland.  Now, Doug also is looking at the Spiral for his grade 1 winner Ralis, so we’ve got that to ask him about, and he’s got another grade 1 winner the filly Gomo who’s also heading to Florida on the same flight as Nyquist for the Gulfstream Park Oaks.

 

Now, let’s bring in Doug O’Neill.  Doug, it’s Jim Mulvihill of the NTRA.  Thanks for coming on our call.

 

Doug O’Neill:

 

Of course.  Hello Jim.

 

Jim Mulvihill:

 

Hey, it’s great to have you on with us again.  Let’s get right into the Florida Derby.  A win in this race would be worth $1.6 million to Nyquist and to Mr. Reddam thanks to that big Fasig-Tipton bonus.  Just tell us about the decision to ship across the country for this race and if that was a tough call to make at all.

 

Doug O’Neill:

 

You know, after we got lucky in the Breeders Cup Juvenile that was kind of a decision we made was if he stayed injury-free we would choose San Vicente and then five weeks out the Florida Derby and usually in life and especially in this business when you make a plan, usually you got to false notables (phon) and so far everything has kind of unfolded in the way we are liking it.  The million-dollar bonus does come into play a little bit but it wasn’t the deciding factor to go in the Florida Derby.

 

Jim Mulvihill:

 

Is it safe to say that when he shipped to Keeneland for the Breeders Cup everything went according to plan? I mean that must have been something that you thought about, making this call.

 

Doug O’Neill:

 

For sure.  That’s one thing, shipping horses, you just never know how they’re going to handle that and he handled the Keeneland journey so well that it gave us the confidence that we only have to ship him once and then we’re optimistic for a big run on Saturday and then from there we’ll fly into Keeneland and use Keeneland as prep for the Derby.

 

Jim Mulvihill:

 

Doug, I was thinking back to the Juvenile and after the race when Dennis told us he was talking about purchasing this horse, he and Jamie McCalmont going to the sale in Florida and he said this was the most beautiful horse he had ever purchased, and then he said, “When he fills out as a 3-year-old he’ll be even more magnificent.” So I’m just wondering if you can talk about Nyquist as a physical specimen and what specifically that make him stand out, make him so beautiful?

 

Doug O’Neill:

 

Well, they’re all beautiful when they’re 6-for-6.  That helps.  No, he really is.  He’s a well-balanced, well-mannered.  He’s very professional.  He carries himself with a lot of confidence and he’s just one of those horses you look at him and whether he was by Uncle Mo or Uncle Jerry or whatever, by nobody, he just carries himself like a champion.  It’s hard to really—the beauty of the sport is you can get 100 great horsemen and they don’t always agree on what they see in a horse.  I know Dennis has always loved him.  Now, Brandon (ph), who’s amazing with young horses, he always loved him.  Of course from my standpoint as a trainer, we see horses walking in the Winner’s Circle that are short, tall, fat, skinny.  Winners come in all different sizes but he does have the ‘it’ factor as far as he just carries himself with a lot of class.  He’s well-balanced and I just—it’s hard to really put your finger on one particular thing, why we love him, but when you’re around him for a s