Trainer Makes the Most of His Shots

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin gave himself a shot of Copaxone on Friday, just as he does every day.

“It’s like brushing your teeth,” McLaughlin said at Pimlico, where he’ll saddle Closing Argument in today’s Preakness. “But it seems to be working. I’ve got this [disease] in my hip pocket for now.”

In October 1998, McLaughlin was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a neurological condition that affects more than 2 million people worldwide.

McLaughlin went into severe depression when it was confirmed that he had MS. For three weeks, he sat in the living room of his Long Island, N.Y., home and stared at the walls. One of his recurring visions was of comedian Richard Pryor, another MS victim, sitting in a wheelchair.

“It was scary,” McLaughlin said. “But the doctors, my family and my friends -- people like [jockey agent] Ron Anderson -- helped get me through it.”

Two weeks ago, when Closing Argument, a 71-1 shot, finished second to Giacomo in the Kentucky Derby, McLaughlin’s day started with his 9-year-old son asking if they’d be walking the horse from the barn to the saddling paddock at Churchill Downs. The walk is about half a mile, starting on the backstretch and circling the clubhouse turn in front of a crowd of more than 125,000. Many Derby participants have said that the walk is second in thrills to watching your horse run in the race.

At first, McLaughlin, 44, who had never had a Derby starter, said no. But later he realized that the pre-race walk was the thing to do, and the two of them helped lead Closing Argument over.

When McLaughlin was originally battling MS, such a walk would have been out of the question. He suffered from blurred vision and temporarily needed a cane. Now, when he’s running his stable at Belmont Park, he gets up at 4:30 every morning and walks two miles before going to work.

“It’s great mind therapy,” he said. “The phone’s not ringing, and I’m able to think about how my day is going to go.”

Anderson books mounts for Jerry Bailey, who’ll ride High Fly in the Preakness. Anderson and McLaughlin became friends in the 1980s, during the seven years McLaughlin worked as an assistant to trainer Wayne Lukas.

Bill Hanson, a lifelong friend of Anderson’s from their schoolboy days in Covina, had also been diagnosed with MS, and Anderson put McLaughlin and Hanson together. Hanson also takes Copaxone, a synthetic protein that insulates nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord.

“They were able to share their problems and how they were dealing with them and I think that was a big help,” Anderson said. “Kiaran’s always been such an upbeat guy, and I think that’s had something to do with how he’s worked his way through this. He loves horses, he loves working with them and he loves his family. He’s the whole package.”

Besides Ryan, McLaughlin and his wife Letty have Erin, a 14-year-old daughter. Erin McLaughlin occasionally cries when she recalls the happy years the family shared when her father trained for Sheik Mohammed in Dubai. McLaughlin, a native of Lexington, Ky., in the center of horse country, returned to New York and Belmont Park full time in 2003.

“Dubai is the Disneyland of the Middle East,” McLaughlin said. “It’s like the U.S., except there’s no crime and no taxes. It was a tough decision to leave, but it was time to come home.”

Closing Argument, missing the Florida Derby because of a bruised foot, went into the Kentucky Derby off a third-place finish, behind Bandini and High Limit, in the Blue Grass Stakes. McLaughlin didn’t expect to have the highest-priced horse at Churchill Downs, above even Spanish Chestnut, who ostensibly had been entered only to ensure an honest pace for Bandini, whose owners raced both horses.

“My feelings were hurt at being 71-1,” McLaughlin said. “I couldn’t figure why we were a higher price than the rabbit. We were trying to win the race. The rabbit was only in there for a purpose, to set it up for the other horse. But I’ve gotten over it.”

Closing Argument lost by only half a length and is 5-1, the third choice, on the morning line for the Preakness. In a way, both the colt and his trainer are longshots who have delivered.

“I’m very lucky,” McLaughlin said. “I’ve got MS, but it’s only been a mild case. I still have some numbness in my right arm, and that slows down my golf game. But the main thing is that I’m able to do my job.”