Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey reported Sunday morning that Grade
2 Red Smith Handicap winner Boisterous emerged
from Saturday’s victory in good order.
“I was very pleased with his race,” McGaughey said.
“That’s the one I’ve been looking for. He showed up. I was
getting a little bit worried – he was doing so good around here that he
might be a little bit keen going a mile and three eighths behind that kind of a
pace, I knew it would be slow. He relaxed well and [Alan] Garcia rode a great
race.”
After winning an allowance last spring at Keeneland followed by
Belmont’s Three Coins Up overnight stakes at Belmont Park in late May,
Boisterous stepped into Grade 1 company for the July 9 Man o’War and
finished third in the 1 3/8-mile race. His next start, in Saratoga’s Grade 1, 1 ½-mile Sword
Dancer, produced a fifth-place finish. Cut back to 1 1/8 miles for the Grade 3
Knickerbocker at Belmont
Park on October 5,
Boisterous returned to the winner’s circle. With the pair of victories to
close out the colt’s 2011 season, McGaughey said he was looking forward
to campaigning Boisterous in 2012.
“I threw him to the wolves pretty quick this summer,”
McGaughey said. “I mean, he won a two-other-than at Keeneland, then that
little overnight stake at Belmont,
and his next start was in a Grade 1. So I think now, by backing up with him
he’s gotten some experience, so we’ll see. I’m hoping next
year we’re not running in the Red Smith – that we might be a little
west of here. He’s fun for me, too. I’m a Boisterous fan.”