by B. Jason Brooks
HALL OF FAME trainer Claude “Shug” McGaughey is seeking his third consecutive win of the grade 3 Eatontown Stakes on Saturday, June 17 at Monmouth Park. He won the mile and a sixteenth turf race with Phipps Stable’s Vigilantes Way in 2021 and Annette Allen’s Stolen Holiday last year.
His entry this year is Phipps Stable’s homebred four-year-old filly Surprisingly, winner of the grade 3 Endeavour Stakes in February at Tampa Bay Downs, her only previous graded stakes win. Since then, she has placed in the grade 2 Hillsborough Stakes at Tampa in March and the grade 3 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont Park last month.
Her morning-line 7-2 odds are tied for the second shortest in the field. The race favorite is Peter Brant’s grade 1-winning Machmer Hall-bred Gina Romantica at 3-1. The Eatontown Stakes is Race 11 on the Monmouth card and has a post time of 5:12 pm Eastern.
Surprisingly has a career record of four wins and three placings from nine starts, with earnings of nearly $250,000. Among her six career turf starts, she has three wins and one placing. She earned her fastest career Beyer speed figure of 90 in both of previous two starts in which she placed in graded stakes races.
Jockey Paco Lopez will be aboard Surprisingly for the Eatontown. The Mexico native rode Surprisingly to her career debut win as a three-year-old at Monmouth as well as her graded-stakes victory this year. He also guided Vigilantes Way to victory in her Eatontown victory two years ago. A month into the Monmouth meet, Mr. Lopez is currently the New Jersey track’s leading jockey with 25 wins and a 31 percent winning percentage. He has won the meet’s jockey title nine times.
Surprisingly is out of the McGaughey-trained Arch mare Vagabond, who is a half-sister to graded-stakes winner Great Island. Prior to Surprisingly’s start last month, Mr. McGaughey stated “It’s always special to try and win one for the Phipps family… [Surprisingly has] a great pedigree on the bottom side, some of which we’ve had. Vagabond had some little problems that got in her way or she would have been better than her record shows. I think she’s going to make a really nice broodmare.”
Surprisingly is sired by Claiborne Farm stallion Mastery and her female family traces back to Phipps foundation mare Our Country Place, acquired by Ogden Phipps in 1993. A daughter of multiple grade 1 winner Maplejinsky and a half sibling of Triple Tiara winner Sky Beauty, Our Country Place is the ancestress of grade 1 winners Guarana, Pine Island, Pleasant Home, and Point of Entry.
Video: Surprisingly winning the grade 3 Endeavour Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on February 4, 2023. (Jockeys helmets are required to match the color of their saddle towels at Tampa, hence the white cap with the sold black silks.)
Phipps Stable Fan 