by Jeff Lowe
Over the course of a week in June, Kiaran McLaughlin went through the polar extremes of winning the Stephen Foster Handicap (G1) with a last-minute entrant, Flashy Bull, and being forced to retire Horse of the Year Invasor (Arg) due to injury.
On Saturday, Flashy Bull will carry on with a chance to fill Invasor’s shoes at the head of the older horse class in the Whitney Handicap (G1) at Saratoga Race Course.
Flashy Bull held off Magna Graduate by a head to win the Stephen Foster on June 16 at Churchill Downs, just one race after scoring his first stakes victory in the William Donald Schaefer Handicap (G3) at Pimlico Race Course.
A week after the Stephen Foster, Invasor fractured his right hind ankle while working toward the Suburban Handicap (G1) on June 30. He was retired later that day, carrying the distinction of finishing his career with six consecutive Grade or Group 1 victories, including the two richest dirt races in the world.
“It was very difficult to have to retire Invasor the way we did,” McLaughlin said on Tuesday. “It would have been nice to have retired him after the Breeders’ Cup. But it’s great that he went home in one piece and sound.
“He’s hopefully going to be a great stallion and live happily ever after. It didn’t happen during a race, which could have been really catastrophic. It worked out in a way. You hate to lose a top horse like that but it’s nice to have Flashy Bull step up and fill his shoes. They’re big shoes to fill, but we’ll see how we can do Saturday.
“It’s hard to compare anyone to Invasor. He was a very special, great horse that doesn’t come along very often. But if Flashy Bull keeps putting those ones by his name, then we’ll be very happy and he will be taking his place.”
Flashy Bull has fashioned his own streak since March with the two stakes victories and a pair of allowance scores for owners West Point Thoroughbreds. He had lost nine in a row dating back to his maiden win in October 2005.
Along the way, Flashy Bull flashed promise but never managed a breakthrough in hitting the board in the 2005 Remsen Stakes (G2) and ’06 Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) and Ohio Derby (G2). He finished 14th in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1).
McLaughlin said Flashy Bull benefited from a 5 ½-month freshening that followed an off-the-board finish in the Haskell Invitational Handicap (G1) last August.
“He’s just a bigger, stronger, better four-year-old than he was a three-year-old,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve always liked him, obviously to take him to the Kentucky Derby, but we’re seeing the real Flashy Bull this year and it’s a lot of fun. He’s run very well and kind of surprised us last time beating a strong group in the Stephen Foster the way he did it. He opened three or four [lengths] turning for home. The jock [Robby Albarado] might have moved a little bit early, but we got the money, so we don’t complain.”
Albarado picked up the mount when McLaughlin and West Point President Terry Finley made a last-minute change of plans in deciding to send Flashy Bull to the Stephen Foster rather than Salvator Mile Handicap (G3) on June 23 at Monmouth Park.
Alan Garcia had ridden Flashy Bull in his two previous wins, but he was already committed elsewhere on Stephen Foster day.
Given the circumstances, McLaughlin decided to put Garcia back on Flashy Bull for the Whitney.
“Robby did a great job and we knew that he might be tied up on Breeders’ Cup day with Curlin anyway, so we went back to Alan Garcia,” he said.
Flashy Bull will have plenty of company as part of a large Whitney field that is expected to include the trio of Magna Graduate, Fairbanks, and Lawyer Ron from trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn, Grade 1 winner Brass Hat, and Sun King, who finished second by a nose to Invasor in last year’s edition.
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer