Ironicus targets Fourstardave after win

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Shug McGaughey was all smiles Thursday while looking back on Ironicus’s impressive performance on Wednesday. Ironicus cruised to a 1 1/4-length decision in a high-priced optional-claiming race. The margin of victory was a bit deceptive, as he was being geared down at the end by jockey Javier Castellano.

The start was the first for Ironicus since his 2 3/4-length triumph in the Grade 2 Dixie at Pimlico nearly eight weeks earlier. Ironicus was scheduled to run in the Poker Stakes on June 14 but had to skip the race because of a cough. “I was very pleased with the way he handled everything yesterday,” said McGaughey. “He broke well, he was in the race, and finished up the way we hoped. He just keeps improving. What turned his tubes on, I don’t really know, but he’s finally learned how to win, and sometimes it’s just a confidence thing.”

Ironicus will make his next start in the Grade 2 Fourstardave at Saratoga on Aug. 15. McGaughey said he had little excuse for Imagining’s fifth-place finish under John Velazquez in the United Nations at Monmouth Park on Sunday. A Grade 1 winner, Imagining has been off the board in both starts since winning the Grade 2 Pan American at Gulfstream Park last winter. “Johnny said at the three-eighths pole he thought he had the race won, and at the quarter pole, when he asked him, he didn’t finish,” said McGaughey. “He didn’t stop, he just kind of stayed the same. I’m going to have to figure out what happened. He went in good and sound and came back good and sound, so it wasn’t that. Maybe’s he’s older, but the feeling he gave Johnny during the race, I don’t think that’s the issue now.”