Claude R. "Shug" McGaughey, III (born January 6, 1951 in Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...

) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Hall of Fame thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 horse trainer

Horse trainer

In horse racing, a trainer prepares a horse for races, with responsibility for exercising it, getting it race-ready and determining which races it should enter...

. He has earned wide respect in the industry as a man of great integrity.

Shug McGaughey began working as a trainer in 1979 and in his career to date has won more than 240 graded stakes race

Graded stakes race

A graded stakes race is a term applied since 1973 by the American Graded Stakes Committee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association to thoroughbred horse races in the United States and Canada to describe races that derive their name from the stake, or entry fee, owners must pay...

s. In 1986 he got his big break when Ogden Phipps

Ogden Phipps

Ogden Phipps was an American stockbroker, court tennis champion and Hall of Fame member, thoroughbred horse racing executive and owner/breeder, and an art collector and philanthropist...

 hired him to train his stable of horses. In 1988, McGaughey won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer

Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer

The Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor for trainers. Created in 1971, it is part of the Eclipse Awards program and is awarded annually.Its Canadian counterpart is the Sovereign Award for Outstanding Trainer....

 in the United States. Among his many winners, he has captured the Jockey Club Gold Cup

Jockey Club Gold Cup

The Jockey Club Gold Cup, established in 1919, is a prestigious thoroughbred flat race open to horses of either gender three-years-old and up. It is typically the main event of the fall meeting at Belmont Park, just as the Belmont Stakes is of the spring meeting and the Travers Stakes is of the...

 and the Travers Stakes

Travers Stakes

The Travers Stakes is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York.First held in 1864, it was named for William R. Travers, the president of the old Saratoga Racing Association. His horse, Kentucky, won the first running of the Travers...

 three times each and won the 1989 Belmont Stakes

Belmont Stakes

The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a 1.5-mile horse race, open to three year old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds ; fillies carry 121 pounds...

 with Hall of Fame Champion

Champion

A champion is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition.There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, and even further divisions at one or more of these levels, as in soccer. Their champions...

 Easy Goer

Easy Goer

Easy Goer was an American Champion Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse, famous for earning American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt honors in 1988, and defeating 1989 American Horse of the Year Sunday Silence in the Belmont Stakes by 8 lengths. The victory deprived Sunday Silence of the Triple Crown...

. McGaughey's nine Breeders' Cup

Breeders' Cup

The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Thoroughbred horse races, most but not all Grade I, operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982. From its inception in 1984 through 2006, it was a single-day event; starting in 2007, it expanded to two days. The location...

 victories ranks second to D. Wayne Lukas

D. Wayne Lukas

Darrell Wayne Lukas is a former educator who became one of the most successful horse trainers in American Thoroughbred horse racing history and a U.S...

. Among the other horses he has trained are back-to-back Breeders' Cup Mile

Breeders' Cup Mile

The Breeders' Cup Mile is a Grade 1 Weight for Age stakes race for thoroughbred racehorses three years old and up, run on a grass course. It has been conducted annually as part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships since the event's inception in 1984...

 winner Lure

Lure (horse)

Lure is an American Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred and owned by Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, he is a son of the leading stallion Danzig, who in turn was sired by Hall of Famer and prominent sire Northern Dancer...

 and Hall of Famer, Personal Ensign

Personal Ensign

Personal Ensign was an American champion Thoroughbred racehorse.A bay filly by Private Account out of Grecian Banner , she was the undefeated winner of 13 races and won $1,679,880 in the United States from 1986 to 1988...

. McGaughey has accomplished the rare trifecta of training a Breeders Cup winner, her daughter, and her granddaughter in the troika of Personal Ensign, My Flag and Storm Flag Flying.

In 2004, Shug McGaughey was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame

The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers...

. At his induction ceremony, Shug McGaughey said: "My deepest debt of gratitude always has been and always will be to the Phipps family

Phipps family

The Henry Phipps family of the United States was founded by Henry Phipps, Jr., the son of an English shoemaker who emigrated in the early part of the 19th century to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania before settling in Pittsburgh. When a child, Henry Phipps was a friend and neighbor to Andrew Carnegie...

" -- "My affiliation with the Phipps family is one of the great highlights of my life. I wouldn't be here without them."