Ohana Honor finds breakthrough victory in Knickerbocker Stakes
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Ohana Honor had never won a stakes race, and hadn’t won a race of any kind in a long time. But here he was 4-5 on the toteboard for Saturday’s $150,000 Knickerbocker Stakes at Aqueduct.
Under the white-hot Flavien Prat, Ohana Honor ended both droughts with a relatively handy 2 1/4-length victory in the Knickerbocker, giving Prat a sweep of Saturday’s two turf stakes and his meet-leading 17th victory of the Aqueduct fall season, which is eight cards old.
Ohana Honor, winless in eight previous stakes tries - though he did run third in the Grade 1 Manhattan in 2024 - won for just the fourth time in 19 career starts. It was his first win since an April 2024 allowance at Keeneland seven starts ago.
Under Prat, Ohana Honor sat an inside trip, about five lengths behind Dear Dad, who sped off to a 2 1/2-length advantage under Jaime Rodriguez through an opening half-mile in 47.20 seconds while being chased by Air Recruit. Ohana Honor was racing inside of Signator down the backstretch.
Around the far turn, Prat swung Ohana Honor three wide and, when he asked him to accelerate in the stretch, Ohana Honor responded with a solid turn of foot and drew away. Naptown, a 12-1 shot under Manny Franco, rallied to get second by three-quarters of a length over 53-1 shot Fuerteventura.
“I was a bit worried cutting back in distance, but it was great; the pace was good and he was traveling very well all the way around and gave me a good kick when I asked him,” said Prat, who won three races on Saturday’s card including the Grade 3 Jockey Club Oaks on Fionn.
Ohana Honor, who was cutting back in distance from a fourth-place finish in the 1 1/2-miles Sycamore Stakes, covered the 1 1/8 miles over firm turf in 1:48.23 and returned $3.98 as the favorite. Ohana Honor is a son of Honor Code owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, Woodford Racing, and Edward and Lynne Hudson and trained by Shug McGaughey.
Tom Bellhouse, executive vice president of West Point Thoroughbreds, said it was important for Ohana Honor to get that first stakes success.
“He’s been in the barn a long time and he’s a hard-knocker and he’s kind of gotten overshadowed a little bit by [multiple stakes winner] Integration over the years,” Bellhouse said. “But to see him end the year with that kind of performance - Flavien looked like he was in total command throughout - was exciting. You’re always a little afraid when you have a horse that’s 4-5 against that caliber, but he really surprised me how great he ran.”
West Point also owns Cugino, who two weeks ago won the Grade 2 Red Smith here. Bellhouse said both horses will soon join McGaughey in Florida and will be under consideration for the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf on Jan. 24 at Gulfstream Park.
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