McGaughey Pleased With Honor Code's Breeze
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Adam Mooshian
Honor Code won the Metropolitan Handicap by 3 1/4 lengths.
Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey was pleased after Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I) candidate Honor Code worked five furlongs in a sparkling in 1:00 2/5 Oct. 12 over the main track at Belmont Park.
Going out at approximately 6:30 a.m. with exercise rider Donna McMullen aboard, the 4-year-old A.P. Indy ridgling went from the half-mile pole and was caught by New York Racing Association clockers in splits of :25 and :48 3/5, galloping out in 1:13 1/5 and up in 1:26. The move was the third-fastest of 31 at the distance.
"That's the best he's worked all summer," said McGaughey of Honor Code, who is owned by Lane's End Racing and Dell Ridge Farm. "He galloped out very, very good, and I'm very pleased."
The breeze was the first for Honor Code since his late-closing third-place finish in the grade II one-mile Kelso Handicap behind Appealing Tale and Red Vine, both of whom are under consideration for the Las Vegas Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (gr. I).
Prior to that, the 4-year-old Honor Code had put together back-to-back grade I wins in the Whitney at Saratoga Race Course and the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont, and began 2015 with a victory in the Gulfstream Park Handicap (gr. II).