McLaughlin delighted with Alpha’s dead-heat Travers win

Alpha just got up to be even with Golden Ticket on the Travers wire (NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography) Shared or not, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin remained thrilled and delighted Sunday morning by Alpha’s Grade 1, $1 million Travers victory. Godolphin Racing’s Bernardini colt finished in a dead-heat for the win with Golden Ticket, trained by Ken McPeek for Magic City Thoroughbred Partners. “A win’s a win,” McLaughlin said, echoing the sentiments he had shared immediately after Saturday’s race at Saratoga. “We’re happy, very happy. It’s a great win, and it’s a win, that’s the most important thing. Someone texted me that it was a ‘K Mac’ day yesterday; K. McLaughlin and K. McPeek, both from Lexington.” Making McLaughlin’s first Travers victory more meaningful was Alpha’s bumpy road to his first Grade 1 triumph. Previous attempts had not gone smoothly as the bay colt was second to eventual Belmont Stakes winner Union Rags in last year’s Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont after gate trouble and also had major gate issues when 11th in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs. Alpha exited a neck loss to Gemologist in Aqueduct’s Grade 1 Wood Memorial in April with a laceration on his left foreleg, which became infected and delayed his departure for the Kentucky Derby, in which he finished 12th after getting hot in the paddock. Pointed for the Belmont Stakes, Alpha developed a temperature 10 days out and McLaughlin was forced to skip the race and change course yet again.

“He’s just done this in the last 90 days,” McLaughlin said pointing upward.
“It’s been amazing. It worked out perfectly what we planned after (his) being
sick. We shipped him up here on June 2, and this is what we wanted to do. It
doesn’t always work that way, so it was great that it did. The plan came
together.

“In the paddock yesterday, he never turned a hair, and that’s what we
were worried a little bit about. At the gate he was great. So, he has matured
and has done extremely well up here. He just didn’t do well in Kentucky. Getting
sick before the Belmont is a blessing, looking back.”

McLaughlin reported that Alpha came out of the Travers “great” and that the
Grade 2, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on September 22 at Parx Racing and the Grade 1, $1
million Jockey Club Gold Cup Invitational on September 29 at Belmont Park
are both possibilities for the sophomore’s next start.

“I spoke to (Godolphin Racing Manager) Simon (Crisford) yesterday evening,”
McLaughlin said. “He asked me, ‘What would be the most logical spot?’ And I
said, ‘Well, the Pennsylvania Derby (at Parx Racing) is in one month, and it’s
straight three-year-olds for $1 million, the same day as Questing going there (for
the Grade 1 Cotillion).’ It’s a likely choice. Then you have Jockey Club Gold
Cup the next week. It’s older (horses), but that’s the other spot to talk about,
with the Breeders’ Cup then the next stop.”

Since Alpha has thrived in Saratoga, McLaughlin said he would like to keep the
colt at Greentree Training Center for the time being. On Sunday afternoon, the
trainer will send out Godolphin’s multiple Grade 1 winning filly It’s Tricky in
the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Handicap, where she will face last year’s champion
three-year-old filly Royal Delta and four others. How would he feel about another
dead-heat?

“I’d take it,” McLaughlin said with a smile. “It’s a Grade 1, and we don’t mind
sharing in those situations.”

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