People get labeled “turf trainers.” Chad Brown pushed back against the term for years. The late Christophe Clement – that’s another one on the East Coast.
Not many think of Shug McGaughey as a turf trainer, right? Easy Goer, a dirt horse through and through, was McGaughey’s most famous charge. Personal Ensign, a dirt champion, ranks near the top of his best-horse list.
A critical component to becoming a turf trainer: Having turf horses.
And, these days, most of McGaughey’s better stock falls into that category. Since 2023, McGaughey has won 22 turf stakes compared to five on dirt, but the trend goes farther back. The stable’s stakes split beginning in 2011 is 116 turf, 42 dirt. And McGaughey, winless from four 2025 dirt-stakes runners, stands a great chance of picking up his fifth turf stakes win of 2025 with Cugino in the $100,000 Red Bank on Monday at Monmouth Park.
The one-mile Red Bank lured eight entrants, including Mr. Papagiorgio, a main-track-only horse. In addition to Cugino, the turf entrants are Tee At One, still eligible for a first-level allowance; Big Everest, a Monmouth turf stakes winner who, like Cugino, ships from New York; New York-shipper Felix, who hasn’t raced around two turns in the better part of three years; Shrug, who, at 37-1, rallied effectively into a slow pace for third in the Oceanport on Aug. 10 at Monmouth; There Are No Words, a New Jersey-bred proven in local open-turf stakes; and Prevent, a one-time winner in nine turf starts.
Peruse the past performances and it quickly becomes clear that the Red Bank drew a surplus of early speed.
Big Everest, trained by Miguel Clement, knows no way of running other than going to the front. He’s a game horse, a 10-time winner from 23 starts who landed the 2023 Oceanport, but push Big Everest through a faster-than-par half-mile and he struggles to hold on. Paco Lopez rides Big Everest and does fine work saving horses for the stretch run, but Big Everest drew post 2 and will have pace rivals pressing up on his outside.
Prevent, who’s probably in too tough, figures to go forward, and There Are No Words always wants to get into the early mix. Trained by New Jersey-based Chuck Spina, There Are No Words makes his third Red Bank appearance. Third in 2023, he finished second by a nose last year – a familiar story with There Are No Words. The gelding has gone winless through 10 starts over the last two calendar years but has taken some very tough beats. The most recent came Aug. 10, when he set the pace and lost the Oceanport by a nose.
Cugino would figure in this spot even without a setup, and he should get a favorable one. A 4-year-old with a record of 11-4-4-0, Cugino raced competitively in all his starts save the Nashville Derby a year ago at Kentucky Downs.
Winner of the Tropical Park Derby in December, he didn’t make his 2025 bow until June, scoring by one length in an Aqueduct allowance in which Big Everest finished third. McGaughey tried Cugino Aug. 2 in the Grade 1 Fourstardave, and while Cugino finished sixth, he acquitted himself respectably, finishing just four lengths behind the winner.
The Red Bank marks a steep class drop. And it’s a stakes race on turf, right in the wheelhouse of Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.
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