Carter Handicap the return spot for Performer

Performer, who completed a four-race winning streak when he took the Grade 3 Discovery Stakes here last November, is being pointed to the Grade 1, $400,000 Carter Handicap here on April 4, trainer Shug McGaughey said Friday.

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Performer has been based at Payson Park all winter and was scheduled to have his sixth workout of the year on Saturday.

“After the Discovery, I gave him a little bit of time and he really grew up, even though he was a big, mature horse anyway,” McGaughey said Friday by phone from Florida. “All of his works have been very, very good, exactly what I would have expected. I think the winter’s been very good to him.”

Meanwhile, McGaughey said that Code of Honor, the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, is nearing his first workout at Payson Park. Code of Honor has not run since his seventh-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“He’s training every day,” McGaughey said. “He has not worked yet, but he’s not far off. I thought when we got him back after being turned out it was going to take a little while. I wanted to get a good bottom in him and go from there. He’s had nothing get in his way.”

McGaughey does not have a specific return race picked out for Code of Honor.