Code of Honor Arrives at Lane's End for Stud Duty

Lane's End homebred Code of Honor   arrived back at his birthplace in the early morning hours of Dec. 7 to start the next phase of his career—building onto the storied breeding program that produced him.

The 5-year-old multiple grade 1 winner is from the first crop of Noble Mission , who entered stud at Lane's End and is a full brother to multiple European champion and top sire Frankel . He is out of W.S. Farish's homebred graded stakes winner Reunited , a daughter of Dixie Union, who stood his entire stud career at Lane's End.

"It is a really fun day for all of us at Lane's End. Code of Honor coming home is something we have been looking forward to for a long time," said Lane's End's Bill Farish.

Code of Honor will stand for an advertised fee of $10,000 in 2022.

Lane's End offered Code of Honor at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where he was bought back on a final bid of $70,000.

"We happily brought him home," Farish said. "The minute he got in training, he was one of those horses everyone was talking about. (Trainer) Shug (McGaughey) was very excited about him; he had a very efficient way of moving. I must admit, I thought he might have been a turf horse, but he never saw the turf. He took to the dirt immediately."

Code of Honor won at first asking at Saratoga Race Course in gate-to-wire fashion by 1 1/2 lengths. He jumped straight to grade 1 competition in his next start, where a stumble at the break left him second at the wire in the Champagne Stakes (G1). He ran his best campaign at 3 in 2019, when he won the Xpressbet Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) on his way to a third in the Xpressbet Florida Derby (G1) and a third in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), which became a second following the disqualification of Maximum Security  . Back in New York, Code of Honor won the Dwyer Stakes (G3) handily and then delivered the first Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) score for the Farish family by three lengths.

"Winning the Travers was a real highpoint for us. Dad has been trying to win that race for a long time, and we have been second twice, so it was a big, big day for us," Farish said. "(Winning the Travers) is really what it is all about. It is the purest part of our sport. It is very rewarding to go to a sale and pick out a grade 1 winner, but to breed one is a whole other thing."

Code of Honor then took on older horses in the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) and finished a nose behind Vino Rosso  , but bumping in the stretch elevated him to first. He polished off his sophomore campaign with a 4-1-1 record from eight starts and earnings of more than $2.2 million.

At 4, the colt captured another graded race in the Westchester Stakes (G3) and placed twice more in grade 1s—a second in the Clark Stakes Presented by Norton Healthcare (G1) and a third in the Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap (G1). Overall, Code of Honor won six stakes and placed in seven others on his way to earning $2,981,320.

Though it is speculation now whether the influence of Noble Mission might have made Code of Honor equally successful on the grass, this influence will still provide options to breeders, according to Farish.

"I would not be at all surprised if he got top dirt and turf horses. He has speed on the bottom and stamina on top. He is the whole package," Farish said. "We have bought a large number of mares to breed to him ourselves. We also will be active at the sales looking for sons and daughters of his; we're putting everything into him. We have priced him very attractively for a horse with his credentials. We just can't wait to get going."