Code of Honor's Travers win gives sire Noble Mission a boost

European champion Noble Mission managed to finish fifth on last year’s freshman sire earnings list, even with his most promising runner, Grade 1 Champagne Stakes runner-up Code of Honor, missing the Breeders’ Cup due to illness. The Galileo stallion figures to finish much higher on this year’s second-crop sire list after Code of Honor swept to victory in the Travers Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga, giving Noble Mission a Grade 1 winner from his debut crop.

Noble Mission, a full brother to unbeaten two-time European Horse of the Year Frankel, was a Group 3 winner earlier in his career but truly blossomed as a 5-year-old to earn honors as the Cartier Award European champion older horse of 2014, winning the Group 1 Champions Stakes in England and beating Magician to win the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup in Ireland. He was also elevated to first via disqualification in the Group 1 Grand Prix Saint-Cloud in France after crossing the line second by a head, and was Group 1-placed in Germany that season. All his wins came at a mile or longer, and he crossed the line first in multiple Group 1 events at 1 1/4 miles.

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Code of Honor, despite being out of a Grade 3-winning sprinter in Reunited, has inherited his sire’s distance capabilities, with two solid performances at the classic 1 1/4-mile distance this season. Code of Honor was elevated to second in the Kentucky Derby, and won the Travers by three lengths. He also owns victories in this year’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes and Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes, and finished third in the Grade 1 Florida Derby.

Code of Honor races as a homebred for Lane’s End, which stands Noble Mission, who was campaigned by his breeder, Juddmonte Farms. Noble Mission is also the sire of English Group 3 winner Spanish Mission and stakes-placed Life Mission.