Honor Code will experiment with distance in Whitney Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Shug McGaughey isn’t sure what distance will ultimately prove to be the best for his Metropolitan Handicap winner, Honor Code. But he will give the ridgling a chance to prove himself against top-quality competition around two turns when he runs him next in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Whitney Stakes on Aug. 8 at Saratoga.

The Whitney is contested at 1 1/8 miles around two turns. As a son of A.P. Indy, Honor Code would seem bred to be effective at 1 1/8 miles, but his best races have come in one-turn races such as the Met Mile and the Gulfstream Park Handicap. As a 2-year-old, won the Grade 2 Remsen, a two-turn 1 1/8-mile race, at Aqueduct.

“Obviously, we got to find out what he wants to do, and the only way we can find out is by doing it,” McGaughey said Thursday morning at Belmont Park. “Does he want to run one turn? Will he run two turns? I don’t know. As I said after the race, I still got a lot to learn about him myself.

“There’s no reason in the world I wouldn’t think why he wouldn’t run around two turns,” McGaughey added. “If he doesn’t, maybe we’ll come back in the Forego at the end of the meet.”

The Grade 1 Forego, on Aug. 29, is run at seven furlongs, over the same distance and track at which Honor Code won his career debut as a 2-year-old.

McGaughey said Honor Code has come out of the Met Mile “unbelievable. I thought he was a little stiff yesterday, but today he was something else.”

When he gets to the Whitney, Honor Code will most likely meet Tonalist again. However, Tonalist will run once before then in the Grade 2, $500,000 Suburban at 1 1/4 miles on July 4, trainer Christophe Clement confirmed Thursday.

“I thought he ran a very good race the other day considering it was a mile – a very fastly run mile,” Clement said. “Winner was impressive; we gave him a considerable amount of weight [five pounds].”

The Whitney, as was the case last year, is run under allowance conditions.