Travers: Code of Honor Drills Toward Aug. 24 Race

On the morning of Aug. 19 on the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga Race Course, William S. Farish homebred Code of Honor, a chestnut son of Noble Mission , posted his final workout in preparation for the $1.25 million Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) Aug. 24 at Saratoga.

Hall of Fame conditioner Shug McGaughey, in search of his fourth Travers win after previously winning with Easy Goer in 1989, Rhythm in 1990, and Coronado's Quest in 1998, was impressed by Code of Honor's effort Monday morning.

"We just wanted to get a handy half-mile into him, just a blow out," McGaughey said. "I thought it went excellent. He went in :49 2/5 and galloped out really well, which he always does. It was a pretty exciting work for me and I'm looking forward to Saturday."

Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) runner-up Code of Honor will enter the Travers off a 3 1/4-length victory in the July 6 Dwyer Stakes (G3) at Belmont Park. That was all part of the plan McGaughey had in the back of his head during the spring.

"I knew, unless we won the Derby, that I wasn't going to run him back in the Preakness (G1) or the Belmont (Presented by NYRA Bets, G1). I knew where the Dwyer was and that's where I wanted to start him back," McGaughey said. "There again, he did everything right between the Derby and the Dwyer and I would have been awfully disappointed if he didn't run well. But, he did run well and he showed me some things that day that I hadn't seen before when he had to switch course a little bit. When he was making his move and it didn't seem to bother him, I was very pleased with what I saw."

McGaughey said Code of Honor has continued to improve out of the Dwyer.

"He's had time between races now and he's done everything right. I can't see that his last race (in the Dwyer), which was back in the first part of July, took anything out of him. I think he's done nothing but move forward," McGaughey said.

McGaughey isn't too concerned with which post his star pupil lands at Tuesday's draw.

"They're going to start at the eighth pole or so and we'll be back anyway, so I don't think it makes any difference," McGaughey said. "If you get the '1' you save ground, if you get the '12', I think we'd like to make our run on the outside anyway, so it's not anything that will worry me."

Mucho Gusto to Travers

Bob Baffert will have a horse in the Travers after all. The Hall of Fame trainer said Monday that multiple grade 3 winner Mucho Gusto, runner-up in the July 20 Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1) at Monmouth Park, will run in the Travers. 

"He came out of the Haskell really well, and he breezed this morning (at Del Mar), and went really well, really strong,'' Baffert said. "When they work like that, I like to run them the next week."

Owned by Michael Lund Petersen, Mucho Gusto worked five furlongs in :59 1/5, fastest of 39 workers at the distance. Baffert said Mucho Gusto will ship Tuesday, and his assistant Jimmy Barnes will be at the race. The 3-year-old son of Mucho Macho Man  will be ridden by Joe Talamo in Saturday's Travers.

Late last week, Baffert withdrew 2018 champion 2-year-old male Game Winner from Travers consideration after the colt came down with a virus.

Mucho Gusto will be the 10th Travers starter for Baffert, who has previously won the race with Point Given in 2001, Arrogate  in 2016, and West Coast  in 2017. His 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah  finished second to Keen Ice .

Checkmate?

Chess Chief, a Virginia-bred son of Into Mischief , posted a bullet breeze at Churchill Downs Monday, covering four furlongs in :48 flat while working in company with allowance winner Twelfth Labour.

Trainer Dallas Stewart said the work went well and that he had landed Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, a four-time Travers winner, to ride Saturday.

"He worked great. They worked head-and-head together," Stewart said. "Mike Smith is going to ride him in the Travers."

Campaigned by the Estate of James Coleman Jr., grade 3-placed Chess Chief will step into grade 1 company for the first time in the Travers. 

Stewart said the recent departures of Maximum Security and Game Winner from the Travers, as well as the added distance of the race provided the impetus to enter the late-blooming colt.

"He ran big going a mile-and-an-eighth and I thought a mile-and-a-quarter would suit him," Stewart said. "It's a big race and a couple of the heavy favorites aren't going, so we're giving it a shot.

"He's a mid-pack horse and comes on with a finish. They say this race might be lacking a little pace, but we'll see what happens."

Chuan to Ride

Martin Chuan, a 24-year-old Peruvian jockey who has been riding this summer at Ellis Park, will be aboard Preakness runner-up Everfast in Saturday's Travers, trainer Dale Romans said Monday morning.

A multiple group 1 winner in his home country, Chuan is 5-4-4 from 24 starts at Ellis this year, with four winners for Romans and one for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. 

"I think he's an excellent rider; he's the king of South America," said Romans, whose son, Jacob, is holding Chuan's book. "I think he's going to be on par with the Ortiz brothers someday. He's intelligent, well-grounded ... I think he can really ride and I know I'll get 100% effort with a horse who'll be a bit of a price."

New York-based Jose Ortiz and Irad Ortiz Jr. have each won outstanding jockey Eclipse Awards.

Chuan has won more than 1,200 races in his home country, said his agent. 

The post-position draw for the Travers is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday from the Adelphi Hotel in downtown Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with a prospective field of 12 including, Chess Chief (Dallas Stewart, Mike Smith), Code of Honor (McGaughey, Velazquez), Endorsed (Kiaran McLaughlin, Joel Rosario), Everfast (Dale Romans, Martin Chuan), Highest Honors (Chad Brown, Luis Saez), Laughing Fox (Steve Asmussen, Ricardo Santana, Jr.), Looking At Bikinis (Brown, Javier Castellano), Mucho Gusto (Bob Baffert, Joe Talamo), Owendale (Brad Cox, Florent Geroux), Scars Are Cool (Stanley Hough, Tyler Gaffalione), Tacitus (Bill Mott, Jose Ortiz), and Tax (Danny Gargan, Irad Ortiz, Jr.).