Duggan logging miles on horseback and by car to gallop Code of Honor

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brian Duggan is currently the exercise rider of a Kentucky Derby contender. Next spring, he hopes to be the farrier of one.

Duggan, 34, is the exercise rider of Code of Honor, the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth winner, who is flying very much under the radar in the week leading up to Saturday’s 145th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. Duggan lives in Lexington and commutes from there to Churchill Downs to get on Code of Honor as well as Break the Rules, a 3-year-old scheduled to run in Saturday’s Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic. Both horses are trained by Shug McGaughey.

Duggan said he leaves his house in Lexington at 4:15 a.m. and gets to Churchill Downs by 5:30. He gets on Breaking the Rules first, at 5:45, and then Code of Honor, at 6:30. He jumps back in his car around 7 and heads back to Lexington, where he is working with blacksmith Chad Boston.

Duggan said he has been exercising horses for 20 years and chose to learn how to shoe horses as a way to stay in the game.

“It’s hard getting away from horses,” he said. “I’m getting older now, so exercise riding is getting tougher.”

Duggan said he is friendly with Reeve McGaughey, Shug’s son. Duggan’s farrier work takes him to Payson Park in the winter and that is where Code of Honor was based.

But it wasn’t until Code of Honor shipped to Keeneland in early April that Duggan began getting on the horse regularly.

“Super professional, does everything easy,” Duggan said. “He feels like he’s cantering real slow and then I look beside me and I see he’s going fast. He’s got a big step on him, covers a lot of ground.”