Honor Code inspires confidence with Sunday work

ELMONT, N.Y. – Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey had an air of confidence about him Sunday morning when talking about Honor Code, several hours after watching his handicap star breeze five furlongs in 1:00.13 with jockey Javier Castellano aboard.

Working in company with Gold Shield, Honor Code readily pulled away from his partner coming to the wire without need of urging and, on the gallop out, getting six furlongs in 1:12.98 before pulling up seven-eighths in 1:26.91.

“I was very pleased with the way he worked,” said McGaughey. “The company didn’t do what I hoped he’d do. Javier said he held with him as long as he could. But he finished well and galloped out strong.”

Honor Code is looking to bounce back from a disappointing fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Alysheba on Derby Day at Churchill Downs. In his previous start, Honor Code launched his 2015 campaign with a game, come-from-behind, half-length decision over Private Zone in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap.

“I think it was the track. He just doesn’t like Churchill Downs,” was McGaughey’s response when asked what happened in the Alysheba. “He broke well, but the track was hard, he just got back too far out of it, and it was tough to make up any ground there that afternoon. But we’re back home now. He’s run once at Belmont and got beat a nose in the Champagne, run twice at Aqueduct and won both times, and ran once at Saratoga and won. So he’s got an affinity for New York tracks. It’s a tough spot, but he’s doing great, and we should get some pace in there [in the Met Mile] all right.”

McGaughey also said he’s “not sure what he’ll do next” with Imagining, who is coming off a disappointing fifth-place finish as the favorite in defense of his title in the Grade 1 Man o’ War. Imagining worked five furlongs, with blinkers on, in 1:00.53 on the turf here Sunday.

“Sometimes I put blinkers on him when he works. Sometimes I don’t,” said McGaughey. “I put them on this morning to put him in the game a little bit. That’s all. He had the one post in his last start, the two and the three came over on him, and he had to check out of there and [jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.] just could never get him out. He’s a free-running horse who can’t have anything happen to him during a race.”