Laurel Trainer McMahon Approaching 1,000-Win Plateau
Laurel Trainer McMahon Approaching 1,000-Win Plateau
Pair of Juvenile Maiden Special Weighs Spice Up Sunday Card
LAUREL, MD – Laurel Park-based Hugh McMahon, a steady presence among Maryland’s leading trainers since first going out on his own in 2011 and the state’s overall win leader in 2013, is closing in on a career milestone.
McMahon, a 52-year-old native of Doncaster, England, is five away from his 1,000th victory after going winless with two starters on Saturday’s Halloween program. He has horses entered in in two of Sunday’s eight races – 2-year-olds Trial Balance and Optimo in Race 4, a maiden claimer sprinting six furlongs, and sophomore gelding Sojourner in Race 5, a seven-furlong claiming event for 3-year-olds and up.
First race post time Sunday is 12:25 p.m.
In a year abridged by the coronavirus pandemic, McMahon has 28 wins from 182 starters with $845,216 in purse earnings, and is four-for-13 with two seconds from 13 starters during the current calendar year-ending fall meet that began Oct. 8. He has topped the $1 million mark each of the past nine years, with highs of 166 wins and $3.981 million in 2013.
“I don’t have anything that I haven’t received. Nothing has really originated from me,” McMahon said. “Any accomplishment I have, I don’t want to own it for myself. I think it to be a gift from God and a team effort from all of us here to facilitate it.”
McMahon was introduced to the sport by watching the races on television with his father, a coal miner in northern England. He was encouraged to become a jockey and attended the riding academy there, winning after coming to the U.S. in the 1990s before hanging up his tack in 1998.
In 2005 McMahon became an assistant to trainer Scott Lake, at the time running one of the biggest operations in the country with a peak of 287 horses in 2008. McMahon worked for Lake, a winner of more than 6,100 career races, through 2010, having saddled 108 winners in his own name starting with Flying Retsina Run June 9, 2005 at Pimlico Race Course at odds of 35-1.
McMahon won 98 races the first year on his own and followed with seasons of 146, 166 and 108 wins from 2012-14. He won individual meet titles at Laurel’s 2013 winter and fall stands and shared its 2014 winter crown, and has also been the leading trainer at Timonium and Colonial Downs.
“I was fortunate enough that I was an assistant to Scott Lake, which was a significant education because he had something like 300 horses at the time,” McMahon said. “When he removed the string of horses here, we needed employment. We gathered as a group and we prayed in the shedrow, and we’re still here today.”
Ranked third overall in 2012, McMahon’s 74 wins led all Maryland trainers in 2013. His first big horse was Don’tgetsuspicous, who he inherited from Lake and trained to 10 wins, three in stakes, and $324,817 in purse earnings from 28 starts from 2010-12.
Other top horses for McMahon include 2018 Dave’s Friend winner Colonel Sharp, 2017 Jameela winner Daylight Ahead and 2017 Camptown winner Northern Eclipse. He trains a 5-year-old Maryland-bred gelding named Brooks Robinson for owner-breeder Mary Boskin and helped facilitate a meeting between the horse and its namesake, a Hall of Fame third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles from 1955-77, in mid-February.
“One thing that horses know, and they know it in every language, is care. If you have that ingredient of care, caring for these horses, that is the most fundamental necessary ingredient for horsemanship,” McMahon said. “They know that one significant thing. If you’ve got a bunch of people that care about the horses, they care for the horses. We’ve been very blessed over the years. I can only be in a place of thankfulness.”
Notes: Jockeys Jevian Toledo and Victor Carrasco each posted riding doubles Saturday. Toledo was first with Instigated ($2.60) in Race 1 and Half Hammered ($8.60) in Race 6, while Carrasco registered back-to-back wins aboard Sky Bunny ($2.40) in Race 4 and Lost in Limbo ($17.80) in Race 5 … Sunday’s card is highlighted by a pair of maiden special weights for 2-yeasr-olds sprinting six furlongs. Race 2, for fillies, is led by 5-2 program favorite Out of Sorts, fourth in her debut Sept. 24 at Pimlico, while Race 6 will see trainer Gary Capuano send out the pair of Golden Gulley, favored at 7-2 in the morning line, and Shackqueening.
