By Ray Paulick
When Eye of Taurus and Bluegrass Princess swept the Pin Oak Valley View Stakes last week at Keeneland for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, it vaulted the New York-based native of Kentucky to the lead among trainers of American Graded Stakes winners for 2009.

The wins represented the 12th and 13th individual American Graded Stakes winners of the year for McLaughlin, who ranks fifth among North American trainers by money won (click here for those standings) behind Steve Asmussen, last year’s Eclipse Award winner as outstanding trainer and the leading candidate to win again this year. Asmussen, with 11 individual AGS winners, is well ahead in the standings by money won, with $18.7 million. Todd Pletcher, second to Asmussen by money won with $12.8 million, also has 11 individual AGS winners of 2009. 

While McLaughlin-trained horses have won only $6.5 million, he’s had just over one-fifth the number of starts that Asmussen’s had (2,403 for Asmussen, 511 starts for McLaughlin). As he said to Karen Johnson in an interview at ntra.com, McLaughlin has purposely cut back on the number of horses in his stable, ending a relationship with West Point Thoroughbreds and focusing more on the Darley and Shadwell Stables owned by Sheikhs Mohammed and Hamdan al Maktoum of Dubai. "Kiaran is a first-class guy," said Terry Finley who runs West Point and described the parting as completely amicable.

McLaughlin’s greatest success came with Shadwell’s 2006 Horse of the Year Invasor. “Shadwell has always enjoyed a very special relationship with Kiaran," said Rick Nichols, vice president and general manager of the operation. "We have gone through many good times as well as many bad times together. He is an excellent trainer and has a terrific organization of assistants and staff. His integrity is beyond reproach and always has in mind what to do best for the horse.

"On a personal note, I consider him a great friend and respect him both as a horseman, a friend and a wonderful family man."

Despite the lead in saddling the number of AGS winners, I’d still consider McLaughlin a longshot this year to win his first Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer. While the Breeders’ Cup could tilt the scales, the current favorite would be Asmussen, followed by the 2009 leader in saddling the most Grade 1 winners, Bob Baffert.

Baffert has six individual G1 winners this year, twice the number Pletcher, Asmussen and Bill Mott, who have three apiece. McLaughlin has saddled two G1 winners in 2009.

A lot of that could change by the end of next weekend.

Tags: bill mott, Bob Baffert, darley, kiaran mclaughlin, rick nichols, shadwell, steve asmussen, Terry Finley, todd pletcher, west point

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 2:11 pm and is filed under American Graded Stakes Standings, Keeneland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.