Scalding wins the Challenger, continues ascent for McGaughey

Scalding proved his mettle down the stretch when outdueling Cody’s Wish to win the Grade 3 Challenger at Tampa Bay Downs for trainer Shug McGaughey.

McGaughey’s other entry in the race, Greatest Honour, winner of the 2021 Fountain of Youth (G2) and making his first start since last March, finished out of the money as the 5-2 second choice.

The win by Scalding came in his stakes debut and was his third victory in a row.

“It’s a big job going from an allowance/other than condition to this spot, but we’ve always liked this horse,” McGaughey said in a Tampa Bay Downs news release. “He has been training forwardly and from what we saw today, his future is definitely (bright). He had a race over the track, and I think that probably helped him. He is a pretty talented number and his last two races had been so good, with a little encouragement from the owners we decided to take a shot, and it worked.”

It was Wolfie’s Dynaghost who got out to the early lead in the 1 1/16-mile race for ages 4 and up. Wolfie’s Dynaghost was unable to hold onto the lead, eventually finishing fifth.

Scalding went off at 5-1 with Javier Castellano in the irons and sat just off the pace for most of the way before taking the lead down the stretch and fending off Cody's Wish to win in a final time of 1:43.53.

#8 Scalding wins the G3 Challenger at Tampa Bay Downs, ridden by @jjcjockey, trained by Shug McGaughey! Congrats to the connections!

Fractions for the race were 23.53, 48.14, 1:12.89 and 1:37.53. Scalding returned $12.60 for the win.

The 4-year-old Nyquist colt is owned by Grandview Equine, Cheyenne Stable and LNJ Foxwoods. He was a $400,000 purchase at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale.