Code of Honor fresh for Dwyer Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Shug McGaughey put Code of Honor away after the Kentucky Derby for one primary reason.

“I just wanted to give him some time off and have a summer horse,” McGaughey said.

Summer is here, and while Kentucky Derby winner Country House and Belmont Stakes winner Sir Winston are done for the year, Code of Honor is getting the second half of his campaign started in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park.

The Dwyer, a one-turn mile, goes as race 6 and is the first of five stakes on Saturday’s 11-race card.

Code of Honor has run four times this year, with mixed results. He finished fourth in the Mucho Macho Man at Gulfstream before bouncing back with a victory in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. Compromised by a slow pace in the Florida Derby, Code of Honor finished third behind loose-on-the-lead winner Maximum Security.

In the Kentucky Derby, Code of Honor finished third before being elevated to second with the disqualification of Maximum Security from first. Code of Honor was following Maximum Security, and when that horse drifted off the rail, John Velazquez moved Code of Honor on through. The official chart has him in front at the quarter pole.

But Maximum Security came back over on Code of Honor, who may have gotten intimidated, and he wound up finishing third, beaten 2 1/2 lengths.

“Johnny told me whatever Maximum Security saw, he saw, too,” McGaughey said. “Then when he came back over, it sort of intimidated him a little bit, and he had a hard time getting him running again. I thought he ran a good race in there.”

McGaughey believes the time off has helped Code of Honor develop “a lot both physically and mentally.”

McGaughey hopes the Dwyer is a stepping-stone to the Jim Dandy and perhaps the Travers this summer at Saratoga.

Rowayton returns to stakes company for owner Larry Best and Don Chatlos Jr., the former assistant to Jerry Hollendorfer who has been hired by Best now that Hollendorfer is prohibited from racing his horses at NYRA tracks. At 2, Rowayton finished second to Game Winner – the champion 2-year-old male of 2018 – in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity.

Rowayton is coming off a sharp allowance win going 6 1/2 furlongs here June 6. That was only his second start of the year, following a non-effort in the slop at Oaklawn Park in April.

“You could put a line through that, so this was really his first race,” Chatlos said of the June 6 victory. “Rating and coming up the rail like that was impressive.”

Mihos returns to the races for the first time since Feb. 2, when he finished fifth in the Grade 2 Holy Bull at Gulfstream. He has been training sharply for trainer Jimmy Jerkens.

Majid has won four straight races, including the Easy Goer here on Belmont Day. Whiskey Echo, an allowance winner at Churchill, and Final Jeopardy, fourth in the Peter Pan, complete the field.