Performer retired after injuring ankle; will stand at Claiborne beginning in 2022

Performer, a multiple Grade 3 stakes winner, has been retired from racing, his connections said this week.

Walker Hancock, president of Claiborne Farm, which co-owned Performer with the Phipps Stable, said Performer came out of a third-place finish in the Gulfstream Park Mile on Feb. 27 with an ankle injury, similar to the injury that sidelined him for a good part of 2020.

“We always put the horse first, there was no sense of risking further injury,” Hancock said. “We thought he was going to have a big year but we had to pull the plug prematurely.”

Hancock said the timing of Performer’s injury was such that he will not stand stud this year. He will stand at Claiborne in 2022.

Performer trained by Shug McGaughey, won 6 of 9 races including the Grade 3 Discovery at Aqueduct as a 3-year-old and the Grade 3 Fred Hooper at Gulfstream in January. He finished third the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Mile and was third in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile last December at Aqueduct.

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Performer is by Speightstown out of the graded stakes-placed mare Protesting.

Meanwhile, McGaughey said Code of Honor, the 2019 Travers Stakes winner, has been turned out since his fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 23 and will join his stable in about 30 days at Belmont Park.

“I wasn’t pleased with his race, I thought he needed a little time off,” McGaughey said. “We’ll start him off up there [at Belmont] and hopefully have him for mid-summer.”

In addition to the Travers, Code of Honor has won the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, the Grade 3 Dwyer, Grade 3 Westchester and Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. He finished third, but was elevated to second in the 2019 Kentucky Derby.