Illuminant helps heal old wound in Gamely

3:21 PM ET

At a key point during the stretch run of last Monday’s $300,000 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita, Michael McCarthy’s attention became sorely divided.

“‘Scattered’ is a good way to describe it,” said McCarthy, whose primary concern was the forward momentum of Illuminant, the filly he trains for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.

With a furlong to run in the 1-1/8-mile event, Illuminant and Flavien Prat were going great guns on the lead. But the field was bearing down, led by heavily favored Wekeela.

“I didn’t know where to look,” McCarthy said. “I couldn’t wait for it to be over with.”

Mercifully, the wire arrived, and Illuminant held fast to win by a length. Just like that, McCarthy was a Grade 1-winning trainer in his own right, and Illuminant had taken her place among the elite older fillies and mares of the grass division.

“I’d always thought she had the ability to bang one out like this,” McCarthy said a couple of days later. “It was a very good field, and I’m just so pleased she was able to seal the deal.”

McCarthy, 44, has been in the racing business all his adult life, and after spending a decade as one of Todd Pletcher’s top assistants, there are few places in the game where he can hide. He was at Pletcher’s side for nine championship seasons from 2004 to 2014, several spent as the keeper of the stable’s California division.

It was a good and enviable gig, and many assistant trainers have been known to stay put for the long haul. But McCarthy’s ambitions were pointed elsewhere, and California was where he wanted to plant his flag. He also knew the job was precarious when he took it.

In 2014, his first full season as a public trainer, McCarthy won six races from 30 starts and purses of about $200,000. This is the definition of working for free. In 2015, he won 10 races and more …

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