McKulick will target Saratoga Oaks in bid for Turf Triple sweep

McKulick secured her first graded-stakes triumph in Saturday’s Grade 1, $700,000 Belmont Oaks Invitational, providing trainer Chad Brown with a sixth score in the 10-furlong turf test for 3-year-old fillies.

Exiting two graded-stakes placings on the Churchill Downs turf, the Klaravich Stables-owned McKulick broke alertly from her inside post and rated in fifth down the backstretch before making a three-wide move and taking command inside the final furlong to win by 1 3/4 lengths under Irad Ortiz Jr.

McKulick now will target the $700,000 Saratoga Oaks Invitational (G3) on Aug. 7 at Saratoga Race Course, which is the second leg of the Turf Triple series for sophomore fillies. Joining her in the race will be stablemate Consumer Spending, also owned by Klaravich Stables, who finished a late-closing third in the Belmont Oaks after two stakes wins on the NYRA circuit this year.

“I think it’s logical for both horses,” Brown said. “We had been planning for this race for a long time. I’m grateful for the filly’s effort, Irad’s great ride and my team working with the horse. Everything came together.”

Brown added that Haughty, who finished ninth, will shorten up at the Spa.

“Haughty exited the race OK. She’ll probably be cut back for some sort of race at Saratoga,” Brown said.

The victory was an emotional one for Brown, who named the filly after the late Mary McKulick, a bookkeeper, who was his first employee. The victory also came on what would have been the birthday of the late Bobby Frankel, who Brown worked as an assistant for before going out on his own. A daughter of the Hall of Famer’s English champion namesake, McKulick is also the first horse by the prominent sire to be trained by Brown.

“It was a special day. I named the horse after Mary McKulick, the first person that I hired when I left Frankel. She sadly passed away last year and so Mr. Klarman was nice enough to let me name this specific horse after her,” said Brown.

Brown said lessons learned from Frankel continue to impact and guide his operation, specifically, “Patience and long-term planning with horses like this one and working backwards from this race. Frankel was really the best to ever do that.

“When you have talented horses and a talented team to work with those horses, you can really put to good work the long-term management of horses,” he added. “I can really put to good work what he taught me at a high level.”

Brown said he considers himself fortunate to have worked under Frankel at his peak.

“When I worked for Frankel, I was lucky because he was at his wisest after training for decades,” Brown added. “He had really record-breaking years at that stage of his career. I was fortunate being around him managing high quality horses. It doesn’t get any higher quality than that.

“Eventually as my career got further down the road, I assembled multiple high end horses in one single year,” Brown continued. “There’s a lot of management that goes into it. Everyone wants good horses to train, me included, but once you get your hands on and start managing them, you better know what you’re doing and have the right people working with the horses.”

Brown mentioned Frankel alumna Medaglia d’Oro and Sightseek as two examples of horses that stood out to him.

Owned by the late Edmund Gann, Medaglia d’Oro raced in all three Triple Crown races in 2002, including a second in the Belmont Stakes. He captured the Travers (G1) that year and the following year’s  Whitney (G1) at Saratoga en route to an influential stud career, having produced champions such as Rachel Alexandra and Songbird.

Brown has trained a handful of Medaglia d’Oro progeny, including Grade 1 winners New Money Honey and Cambier Parc as well as graded stakes winner Mrs. McDougal.

Sightseek was a seven-time Grade 1-winner for Juddmonte, who was undefeated in six starts at Belmont Park.

“I could talk for hours about him and his horses and all the great horses I worked with, there were so many,” Brown said. “Medaglia d’Oro was my favorite horse. I thought he was the most consistent and most durable. He showed up every day for any work or any race. Sightseek was probably the best looking I’ve ever seen or horse I’ve had my hands on. So many great turf horses I learned from over the years and following the same pattern of pointing to the Diana, the Arlington turf festival, the turf races at the end of the year at Hollywood Park, or Del Mar now.”