Doug McPhee has experienced a lot in his 77 years, but the last two weeks brought an emotional roller-coaster ride that, as of Monday, he’d yet to fully process.
McPhee owns a small string of horses at Emerald Downs under the name Q Stable with his wife, Nancy. On June 26, the McPhees learned that their longtime trainer, Bonnie Jenne, had succumbed to lymphoma at the age of 76. After Jenne’s death, the McPhees proceeded to amicably dissolve their partnership with Jenne’s daughter, Kandie Molloy, and Craig Frederickson, and divvy up the stable’s horses. For those that remained in Q Stable, the new trainer was to be Doug McPhee, who had last saddled a horse in 1996 at Emerald after getting his start at Longacres in 1978.
“Bonnie, Wally [Bonnie’s late husband], and I grew up together,” recalled McPhee. “We first met at Longacres when we were 12, 13 years old. When Wally passed [in 2020], I made a decision I was gonna help Bonnie the best I can, so I went to the sale and bought some horses to have something for her to do and not give up. It seemed to work out until the end.”
McPhee had one horse entered at Emerald on July 3. That filly, a 3-year-old maiden named Guard Your Spot, romped to a 5 1/2-length victory with Silvio Amador aboard in the last race of the evening, leaving McPhee virtually speechless.
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“I still haven’t touched the ground yet after all of that,” he said. “I have some really good folks around me. Silvio Amador, I appreciate him, and my help at the barn has been really good, too.”
McPhee has a promising gelding, He’s Not Talking, entered at Emerald in Saturday’s fourth race, a six-furlong allowance for 3-year-olds. He’s Not Talking, who will be ridden by Amador, closed his 2-year-old campaign with a win in the $50,000 Washington Cup Juvenile Colts and Geldings Stakes. But despite improved Beyer Speed Figures, he has yet to find the winner’s circle in three starts this year, logging two seconds in sprints to go with a fifth-place finish in a mile route last out June 29.
Coming into this year, McPhee had designs on running He’s Not Talking in the $50,000 Muckleshoot Derby, the track’s premier race for 3-year-olds, on Aug. 17. It will take a strong showing Saturday to rekindle that conversation.
“At the beginning, that was our goal, but right now, it’s kind of up in the air,” McPhee said. “We’ll learn more about that situation after his upcoming race.”
The favorite in race 4 will undoubtedly be the Blaine Wright trainee Goin’ South, who nearly outlasted his heavily favored stablemate, Si That Tiger, and finished second by 1 1/2 lengths in the June 22 Auburn Stakes. For the effort, he earned a career-best 81 Beyer, which is the best in this field by eight points over the 73 He’s Not Talking put up in his last race.
“He’d done everything right, so I figured he could make a placing,” Wright said of Goin’ South’s performance in the Auburn.
As for a potential appearance in the 1 1/16-mile Muckleshoot Derby, Wright seemed to welcome the possibility, saying, “He’s already routed a couple times, so we know he can go a distance.”
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