McGaughey first-timer comes with high expectations
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On the final Saturday of the 2013 Saratoga meet, trainer Shug McGaughey unveiled the first-time starter Honor Code, who rallied from 22 lengths back to win by 4 1/2 in the mud.
On the final Saturday of the 2014 Saratoga meet, McGaughey will send out the first-time starter Gold Shield, who, like Honor Code, is owned in part by Will Farish’s Lane’s End Racing. Unlike Honor Code, who was a homebred for Dell Ridge – Farish’s partner in the horse – Gold Shield went through the auction ring and was purchased by Lane’s End for $1 million. Lane’s End welcomed in as partners the Steinbrenner family’s Kinsman Stable, which bred the colt.
Gold Shied is a son of Medaglia d’Oro, a three-time graded stakes winner at Saratoga, out of Dream Supreme, who was a debut winner at Saratoga at age 2 and who at age 3 won the Test and Ballerina. Dream Supreme is the dam of Majestic Warrior, who in 2007 won his debut and the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga.
McGaughey said hopes are high for Gold Shield, who has trained at Belmont Park and at Fair Hill in Maryland, and who, according to McGaughey, had a workout at Saratoga that was in the fog and thus untimed.
“He’s a nice, big horse,” McGaughey said. “He comes with huge accolades. We’ve had him since April. He was at Fair Hill for a while then he was with me at Belmont. I sent him back down there to get him ready to run. I think he’ll run credible. I’ve had this race in mind for two months.”
Gold Shield, who will break from post 6 under Joel Rosario, will meet Two Weeks Off and Da Jenius, the second- and third-place finishers behind good-looking debut winner and Hopeful-bound Requite here on Aug. 9.
Meanwhile, McGaughey said that Honor Code continues to make strides in his attempt to return from a suspensory injury that knocked him off the Triple Crown trail in March. He is galloping daily at the Fair Hill training center, and McGaughey said he was given the green light by veterinarians to increase his training load.