Performer will be freshened, Tax may try Pegasus

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Performer and Tax, the first two finishers from Saturday’s Grade 3 Discovery Stakes at Aqueduct, will both soon be headed to South Florida, but only one is likely to target the $9 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25.

Performer, who beat Tax by 1 1/4 lengths for his fourth straight victory, will be given a break by trainer Shug McGaughey and point to a 4-year-old campaign that could begin in the Grade 1 Carter, a seven-furlong race typically run at Aqueduct in early April.

Tax, who finished 9 1/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher Grumps Little Tots in the Discovery, will be considered for the $9 million Pegasus on Jan. 25, trainer Danny Gargan said.

McGaughey said Performer came out of the Discovery “remarkably well” but he said he wants to focus on some of the major races next spring and summer as the Carter and Metropolitan Handicap, the latter run on Belmont Stakes Day, June 6.

“He’s a horse that you would want to look at as a stud, so we want to try and compete in the better races if he’s that kind,” McGaughey said.

Performer earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure for the Discovery, a race in which he stalked the early pace until the three-furlong pole then turned aside multiple challenges from multiple graded stakes winner Tax in the stretch.

“They tried him three times and he kept going,” McGaughey said. “When Tax ran up to him, he dug in. He didn’t have to.”

Performer gives McGaughey a second horse to complete in the major stakes for older horses in 2020. Code of Honor, the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, is already on the farm getting a break. He will soon join McGaughey’s string at Payson Park in Florida and likely target a spring campaign that could include the Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs in early May.

“I think Code of Honor will run as far as you want,” said McGaughey, adding that Performer “might be a little limited on that. He’s out of an A.P. Indy mare that would run long, but he’s by Speightstown.”

Speightstown was a champion sprinter.

Tax, who this year won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy and Grade 3 Withers, had a minor injury to his right front foot, known as a grabbed quarter, coming out of the Discovery.

“Not bad,” Gargan said. “My horse ran the best race of his life. I think that was a serious horse race yesterday. He hadn’t run in 90 days and maybe got a little tired.”

Gargan said Tax would be sent to Palm Meadows, a training center in South Florida, with the Pegasus as an option. Gargan said he may simply train the horse up to that race.