IS MY FLAG THE FILLY TO MAKE HISTORY?

Byline: Bill Finley New York Daily News 

Shug McGaughey won the Belmont Stakes in 1989 with Easy Goer and then waited to come back to the Triple Crown, waiting for the right horse and the right situation. McGaughey is a perfectionist, and perfectionists don't get Derby, Preakness or Belmont fever.

``If we go, we want to go with a chance,'' he said.

Then why is McGaughey finally making his Triple Crown return with a filly, especially a filly who was a complete flop in her last start? Because she can win.

My Flag will try to create some history Saturday at Belmont Park when she faces as many as 15 males in the Belmont Stakes. Only two fillies have won the race in its 127-year history, and none since Tanya in 1905. Only 19 have even tried it.

McGaughey sees what everyone else sees: a completely wide-open race and one that will not include Kentucky Derby winner Grindstone or humbled and ailing Derby favorite Unbridled's Song. But he also sees a filly with superstar potential, a stream of excellent workouts and a lot of reasons to throw out her last race, a disaster in the Kentucky Oaks.

``This was not something we decided on the spur of the moment,'' McGaughey said. ``One thing was that she has been training great for us since she came back from Louisville, and all her best races have been here (at Belmont Park). Her mother (Personal Ensign) loved this track and her father (Easy Goer) loved this track. We think she's got a chance.''

My Flag has proven that she has the talent. She improved steadily throughout last year and finished her 2-year-old season with a win in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. She already has won the Ashland this year, making her the only horse in the field to have won two Grade I races.

Once Grindstone and Unbridled's Song went down, a case could be made that she was the best 3-year-old of either sex; that is, if you're willing to forget about the Kentucky Oaks. Sent off as the 7-10 favorite against a field she was supposed to dominate, she never lifted a hoof. Plodding lifelessly around the track that day at Churchill Downs, she finished fifth, beaten by eight lengths. It was hardly the type of race that gives you enough confidence to battle males in a Triple Crown event. But McGaughey decided the race was so bad that it didn't make any sense.

He's probably right. For whatever reason, Churchill Downs has become a black hole for many horses, horses who just won't put out over that surface. Louis Quatorze was 16th in the Derby, but won the Preakness. Skip Away was 12th in the Derby and finished second in the Preakness. Recent Preakness winners Hansel and Pine Bluff never ran a step in the Derby. The list goes on and on.

``It's a different type of surface there,'' said McGaughey, a dominant trainer on the Kentucky circuit before shifting to New York. ``It's cuppy with a lot of clay in it and you run over the top of it. If you have a horse training there and they run over it every day, they seem to handle it. It's the ship-in horses that haven't been there long.''

It may even run in the family. Easy Goer was defeated in his only two starts at Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, and though Personal Ensign won over the track in the Breeders' Cup Distaff, she struggled throughout the race before winning by a nose.

Expected to face My Flag on Saturday are six horses with Triple Crown experience: Louis Quatorze, Skip Away, Santa Anita Derby winner and Kentucky Derby runner-up Cavonnier; the D. Wayne Lukas-trained pair, Prince of Thieves and Editor's Note; and In Contention.

Joining them will be Triple Crown newcomers Jamies First Puncher, winner of Belmont's Peter Pan; Natural Selection, winner of the Illinois Derby at Sportsman's Park; Saratoga Dandy, winner of the Sir Barton at Pimlico, and South Salem, making his American and dirt-track debuts after winning two of five career starts on the grass in England.

Hollywood Park plans to take wagers on the Belmont Stakes.

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Photo

Photo: Trainer Bob Baffert, left, accompanies Cavonnier bac k to the stable after a jog.

Associated Press