Code Of Honor: Steve Heuertz Photo
Breeders Cup Press
Code of Honor–William Farish’s homebred colt jogged for a while Wednesday morning, then galloped 1 1/2 miles for exercise rider Lexi Pradun.Rider and horse returned to the barn area through the paddock at Santa Anita and returned to the paddock in mid-morning for more schooling in preparation for Saturday’s $6 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic. Code of Honor drew the outside post in the field of 11and is the 3-1 second choice on the morning line. He will be ridden for the eighthconsecutivetime by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez.
Trainer Shug McGaughey said he was happy with the way the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner moved on the track.“It looks like to me that he gets over it fine,” McGaughey said. “I asked Lexi too and she said fine. She took hold of him the whole way. I can’t worry about the track.” McGaughey has nine victories in the Breeders’ Cup, but is winless in eight starts in the Classic.
His best finishes have been seconds by Seeking the Gold in 1988 and Easy Goer in 1989.McGaughey said he feels good about his chances of finally getting his Classic with Code of Honor.“There are two really major races in the United States that I haven’t won, the Preakness and the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” he said.
“I’ve been close in both of them, so they’re both on my list. I hope that maybe this year we can get the one behind us”.
After Code of Honor was moved up from third to second in the Kentucky Derby, McGaughey decided to skip the last two Triple Crown races and ran the Noble Mission colt back in the Dwyer on July 6 at Belmont Park. He won by 3¼ lengths then won the Travers and the Gold Cup, on the disqualification of Vino Rosso.“I think the key to him is that after the Derby he got a little bit of time until the Dwyer and then he got a little bit of time until the Travers,” McGaughey said.
“For me to see his development, not only mentally but physically too, has been something I’ve seen in very few horses. As much as he’s grown up, as much as he likes doing what he’s doing, is something.“A lot of that was the Dwyer when he was kind of back there going a mile and Johnny kind of made of a move and he had to bully his way through a hole. I think the horse learned a lot that day and maybe we learned a lot about how he wants to run and how he wants to be ridden. We kind of laugh and say we wish we had this horse today on Derby Day, but we didn’t. It’s an entirely different horse now than it was then.”
