McLaughlin Chooses Maddy for Lady Shipman

A neck away from Breeders' Cup glory only a year ago, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin has opted not to run Lady Shipman in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (gr. IT) a second time in favor of the Nov. 5 Senator Ken Maddy Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Santa Anita Park.

Both stakes are over the unique downhill turf course and Lady Shipman could have drawn in to the $1 million Turf Sprint, because of the injury and scratch of Suedois Nov. 3, but McLaughlin chose the race for fillies Saturday.

"Her last four defeats are against colts (and) she beats fillies every time," McLaughlin said of Lady Shipman, who was edged by Mongolian Saturday in last year's Turf Sprint at Keeneland. "It was 2-1 (in the Maddy) or 15-1 (in the Turf Sprint). It wasn't easy, but we decided to run against the fillies."

A 13-time winner from 20 starts, Lady Shipman earned her first graded stakes July 31 in the Royal North (Can-IIT) at Woodbine, but the Midshipman   filly has won 11 stakes overall at seven different racetracks.

BALAN: Lady Shipman Makes the Grade in Royal North

Another filly that was trying to get into the Turf Sprint at one point and wound up in the Maddy is Acapulco, who has won her last two starts—an allowance over the Turfway Park synthetic in February and the Unbridled Sidney Stakes at Churchill Downs in May. The Wesley Ward-trained daughter of Scat Daddy also won the Queen Mary Stakes (Eng-II) at Ascot in 2015.

Also entered in the field dotted with foreign horses are Brazilian group I winners Juno and Off the Road, Irish group III winner Most Beautiful, and English stakes victress Mehronissa.

Alicia Wincze-Hughes contributed to this report.