Powerful Late Surge Propels Honor Code in Whitney

Honor Code collared game pacesetter Liam's Map in the final strides of the Grade 1 Whitney Invitational Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course. (Photo by Chelsea Durand/NYRA)
by Tom Pedulla, America's Best Racing
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A lingering question was answered with an authoritative exclamation point.
Honor Code erased doubts about his ability to handle two turns when his desperate late surge allowed him to overtake blistering pacesetter Liam’s Map by a neck in the $1.25-million Whitney Invitational Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course.
“It was a spectacular race by a spectacular horse,” said jubilant trainer Shug McGaughey. “People always held him in high regard but ‘Can he run around two turns?’ ”
Yes, he can. He surely can after handling a star-studded, nine-horse field that featured seven winners of Grade 1 events. Races do not come much saltier than that, whether it be at Saratoga or any other major racing venue.
It may never be easy for Honor Code because the 4-year-old son of A.P. Indy makes a habit of spotting his competition a healthy lead, almost as if to add to the challenge. He nonetheless got home first for the sixth time in nine career starts with a pair of runner-up finishes and earned an automatic starting spot in the Breeders’ Cup Classic via the “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series.
This was Honor Code’s second attempt at 1 1/8 miles. In his only previous try at the distance, he made a valiant late bid to prevail by a nose in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct to close his 2-year-old campaign.
It had been a long wait to see how the ridgling would fare when asked to cover that amount of ground again. He missed most of his 3-year-old season with a ligament injury. His emphatic 3 ¾-length score in the Met Mile on June 6 at Belmont Park only added to the intrigue surrounding potential limitations. The issue lit up social media in racing circles.
“Everyone questioned two turns,” said McGaughey, acknowledging that he had grown weary of it all. “Would he have the same punch going a mile and an eighth as he did at a mile?”
McGaughey and jockey Javier Castellano agreed that the answer was not to push him to stay closer to the pace. If he wanted to take his time to find his best stride, so be it.
“We didn’t want to change his style,” McGaughey said.
McGaughey, 64, also answered another nagging question in the 88th edition of the Whitney. When was he going to win another Whitney?
Although he was able to string together consecutive victories with Personal Ensign (1988) and Easy Goer (1989), he had come up empty since then despite training what is annually one of the elite stables.
“I kept getting reminded that I hadn’t won the Whitney since 1989. I got tired of hearing that,” he noted. “Now, they can say 2015.”
He could not have asked for a better pace scenario than the one Liam’s Map provided in a graded stakes debut that points to an exciting future. The very fast 4-year-old by Unbridled’s Song blazed the opening quarter of a mile in 22.79 seconds and went the half in 46 seconds. He tore through six furlongs in 1:09.72 and appeared to be in command at the top of the stretch for jockey Mike Smith and trainer Todd Pletcher.
But Pletcher always kept an eye on Honor Code and saw him gaining momentum.
“I could see Honor Code coming, so I knew it would be really close until the finish,” he said. Honor Code’s winning time was 1:47.82.
HONOR CODE (left) OVERHAULED LIAM'S MAP LATE

Photo by NYRA
Although Liam’s Map fell just short, Pletcher was delighted with only his second race this season.
“He ran unbelievably well, setting those fractions to start and being there to the end,” he said. “He just couldn’t hold off a really good horse.”
Tonalist, with John Velazquez aboard, also closed into the hot pace after languishing in the back. Yet he was no better than third. “It took a long time to get him going,” Velazquez said.
Wicked Strong, V. E. Day, Lea, Normandy Invasion, Moreno and Noble Bird completed the order of finish. The battle to the wire was so tight that McGaughey initially thought Honor Code was a just-missed second. Then he saw Castellano twirl his whip.
All was right with the world.
For an Equibase chart, click here.
FANTASTIC WHITNEY FINISH

Photo by NYRA