McLaughlin reflects on playing second Triple Crown fiddle to Pharoah

Though Justify winning the Triple Crown on Saturday would capture the imagination of racing fans and the general public alike, it won't necessarily engender warm and fuzzy feelings in the connections of the horses in his wake. Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin remembers vividly the feeling of nearly winning the Belmont Stakes, only to come up short to a Triple Crown winner.

McLaughlin's Frosted contested the 2015 Belmont Stakes and loomed the main danger to American Pharoah's Triple Crown bid, but proved no match to the eventual champ in the stretch. As it turns out, it's not so easy to switch off the deep affinity he feels for his horses and his desire to win and to appreciate a historic feat for the betterment of racing.

"You can look at it from the perspective of a racing fan, but at the eighth pole I didn't," said McLaughlin. "I liked our chances turning for home, but we came along in the wrong year chasing American Pharoah around. Frosted ran great that day but we were second best.

"It was neat to be second in a Triple Crown year; I was happy to be a part of it, watching it. I was disappointed that we didn't win, but I was somewhat happy standing there and getting to see it. Once we weren't going to win I was applauding [American Pharoah] for winning it."

McLaughlin and Frosted did eventually get their time in the sun on Belmont Stakes Day, it just happened to come a year later when the talented gray delivered the performance of a lifetime in the 2016 Met Mile, destroying a Grade 1 field by 14 ¼ lengths. The experience has made the veteran trainer grateful that the Met Mile was moved from its traditional home as the Memorial Day feature, as well as for the revamped Belmont Stakes undercard that now hosts nine supporting stakes races worth upward of $5 million.

"I think the department has done a great job putting all these stakes on one day," said McLaughlin. "The Met Mile being that day - all eyes and ears from around the world are watching the race. It boosts the performance of a Frosted or anybody winning the Met Mile. Everybody's watching. And the handle is huge because it's such a great race day."

McLaughlin won't have any stakes runners on Belmont Stakes Day this year, but he will still be participating in the plethora of stakes that make up the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival when he sends out Westwood in the Grade 2, $250,000 True North on Friday.

"He's a nice horse and doing well," said McLaughlin. "He won a nice stake at Belmont [the Runhappy] in May, so we're excited to see what he can do here."

By Bernardini out of the great Hall of Famer Ashado, Westwood beat graded stakes winner Skyler's Scramjet to take the Runhappy, and will enlist the services of Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez in the True North, according to McLaughlin.

As for the Racing Festival's main event, this year McLaughlin has the luxury of being an unbiased observer. Though he's been impressed by Justify in the first two legs of the Triple Crown, he knows full well how difficult a feat it is to pull off.

"Three races in five weeks - that's why we haven't had many Triple Crown winners," said the trainer. "I would think he's going to find it tough to win, even though he's going to be the odds-on favorite."