Performer | Horse Racing Free Tips

McGaughey Pointing Code Of Honor To Clark At Churchill Downs

W.S. Farish homebred Code of Honor, a last-out second to Complexity in the Grade 2 Kelso, breezed a bullet half mile solo in 47.66 Sunday on a fast main track at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

Trainer Shug McGaughey said the Noble Mission chestnut will target the Grade 1, $500,000 Clark, a nine-furlong test for 3-year-olds and up on Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs -– although the Grade 1, $250,000 Cigar Mile for 3-year-olds and up on Dec. 5 at Aqueduct Racetrack remains under consideration.

“Code of Honor worked really good. I think the track pulled him along a bit but he's been doing good,” said McGaughey. “We'll see how he comes along in the next few weeks and then decide if we run here or go to the Clark, but I think the two turns and a mile and an eighth probably suits him better than the mile.”

A winner of last year's Grade 1 Runhappy Travers and Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, Code of Honor is out of the graded stakes winning Dixie Union mare Reunited.

McGaughey is likely to target the Grade 1 Cigar Mile with Phipps Stable and Claiborne Farm's Performer. The 4-year-old Speightstown chestnut earned a 98 Beyer last out when capturing an optional-claiming mile on Oct. 17 at Belmont off an 11-month layoff.

“Performer is doing good. If the track is OK tomorrow he'll work here,” said McGaughey.

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Performer Returns With Sharp Win; McGaughey Says Cigar Mile Could Be Next

Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey said he was delighted to see a triumphant return to racing action for Phipps Stable and Claiborne Farm's Performer, who emerged off an 11-month layoff to an effortless allowance victory going one mile over the Belmont Park main track.

The 4-year-old son of Speightstown, who was a last out winner of the Grade 3 Discovery on Nov. 30, 2019, saved ground along the rail and was nudged by jockey Joel Rosario around the three-eighths pole and strolled home to an in-hand 1 3/4-length triumph. He earned a 98 Beyer Speed Figure in victory.

“I know it was a light field, but I was pleased with the way he went over there and did it,” McGaughey said. “He was very professional with everything he did. I didn't know what the speed was going to do. I thought the horse to the inside of us [three-time winner Empty Tomb] was going to show more speed. Joel was just patient; he knew what he had and just took it from there.”

McGaughey said he is giving strong consideration to the Grade 1, $250,000 Cigar Mile on December 5 at Aqueduct.

“It would be a big option,” said McGaughey, who won the 1996 Cigar Mile with Gold Fever.

There is a chance that McGaughey could saddle two top-level contenders for the final Grade 1 event of the year on the NYRA racing calendar as W.S. Farish's Code of Honor also is possible for the race. McGaughey said Code of Honor would be more likely for the nine-furlong two-turn G1, $500,000 Clark on Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs.

“Either the Clark [for Code of Honor], or I would run the two in the Cigar Mile,” McGaughey said. “I'd be more inclined to run Code of Honor around two turns. He ran well over that track.”

A two-time G1 winner when taking last year's Travers at Saratoga and Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont, Code of Honor was elevated to second in last year's G1 Kentucky Derby following the disqualification of Maximum Security, who won last year's Cigar Mile.

A direct descendant of undefeated Hall of Famer Personal Ensign and four-time G1-winning millionaire My Flag, who also were trained by McGaughey, Performer is the third progeny out of graded stakes-placed Protesting who also produced turf stakes winner Breaking the Rules. His grandam On Parade was a full-sister to 2002 Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Storm Flag Flying.

“They both have distance of ground,” McGaughey said of Performer and Breaking the Rules. “She [Protesting] wanted to run long. She was fourth in three Grade 1 stakes and was second in the Demoiselle at Aqueduct. They're both nice horses, but run on different surfaces. Not that Performer couldn't run on turf, being by Speightstown.”

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Performer Returns Running at Belmont

3rd-Belmont, $67,900, Alw (C), Opt. Clm ($80,000), 10-17, 3yo/up, 1m, 1:33.93, my, 1 3/4 lengths.
PERFORMER (c, 4, Speightstown–Protesting {GSP, $213,050}, by A.P. Indy) made light work of his first start since taking the GIII Discovery S. last November, galloping home as easy as you please in a one-mile Belmont allowance Saturday afternoon. Quickly into stride beneath Joel Rosario, the attractive chestnut colt raced a touch keenly from third while hugging the rail through solid opening splits. Rosario decided he could wait no longer rounding the turn and allowed the 3-10 chalk to accelerate to the inside of pacesetting Musical Heart (Maclean’s Music) and the pair hit the front with three furlongs to race. With his rider hard against him and with his ears flopping back and forth, Performer held Musical Heart at a safe distance before being allowed to run just a touch through the final half-furlong. The winning margin was a measured 1 3/4 lengths. Winner of two of his first three trips to the post racing solely for the Phippses, Performer had a new part-owner in the form of Claiborne when strolling home the 1 3/4-length winner of an 8 1/2-furlong allowance locally last Sept. 29. Trying two turns for the first time in the Discovery, Performer pressed a moderate early pace, raced to the front a furlong from home and had 3/4 of a length on Tax (Arch) at the wire. “I was excited about it, but I was a little nervous about it as the morning went on,” trained Shug McGaughey told NYRA’s Maggie Wolfendale after the race. “He’d been training well. It’s been a go-and-stop year. He was going to run in the [GI] Carter [H.] on Wood day and then he was going to run in the Carter on June 6, but we had to stop him and take care of some things. I was very, very pleased with what I saw.” After inclement weather earlier in the week forced the postponement of Performer’s final pre-race work, McGaughey breezed him a more sedate half-mile in :49 1/5 just two days prior. “It probably would have been more the first of the week and probably a little more solid, but I have done that in the past,” the Hall of Famer said when asked by Wolfendale if a work that close to a race is typical for him. “Sometimes I think it’s good for horses, kind of brush them up a little bit. When you do it, you hope they come out of it good and he did.” McGaughey said Performer could make his next start in the $250,000 GI Cigar Mile H. at Aqueduct Dec. 5. “If he comes out of [Saturday’s race] good, that’s what our plans are. Hopefully we can have a 5-year-old year with him. That wasn’t originally our plan, but when we got curtailed with the COVID stuff, that’s a good possibility.” Protesting, runner-up in the 2009 GII Demoiselle S., is also the dam of Breaking the Rules (War Front), SW & GSP, $333,127, the morning-line favorite for Sunday’s GII Knickerbocker S., and is herself a daughter of GSP On Parade (Storm Cat). The latter, a full-sister to champion Storm Flag Flying, is responsible for GSW Parading (Pulpit). Performer’s third dam is undefeated Personal Ensign (Private Account)’s daughter My Flag (Easy Goer), who counted the 1995 GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies among her four top-level scores. Protesting was most recently bred to Runhappy. Lifetime Record: GSW, 6-5-0-1, $295,500. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
O-Phipps Stable & Claiborne Farm; B-Phipps Stable (KY); T-Claude R McGaughey III.

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Saturday’s Racing Insights: Performer Resurfaces, Bisou Half Debuts

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

3rd-BEL, $70K, OC ($80K), 3yo/up, 1m, post time: 1:28 p.m. ET
Phipps Stable and Claiborne Farm’s Performer (Speightstown) makes his belated first start of the year. The Shug McGaughey trainee has been off since winning his fourth straight (from five attempts) in Aqueduct’s nine-panel GIII Discovery S. Nov. 30. His third dam is MGSIW My Flag (Easy Goer), who in turn produced champion juvenile filly Storm Flag Flying (Storm Cat). TJCIS PPs

7th-KEE, $70K, Msw, 2yo, f, 7f 184 ft., post time: 4:24 p.m. ET
Well-related firsters take on formidable runners with experience in this wide-open event. Woodford Thoroughbreds homebred Wicked Bisou (Wicked Strong) is a half to none other than recently retired MGISW and champion Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute). Woodford sold their GSW dam Diva Delite (Repent) for $750,000 in foal to Pioneerof the Nile at FTKNOV ’18–she brought $1.2 million in foal to Justify a year later. Tom Amoss will send out both Wicked Bisou and Miss Dial (Dialed In). The latter is a full-sister to MSW near millionaire and 2018 GI Breeders’ Cup F/M Sprint runner-up Chalon. A $165,000 KEESEP yearling, she cost $310,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale off a swift :10 flat breeze. Steve Asmussen pupil Willful Woman (Nyquist), a $400,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga grad, is out of MSW/MGSP Foxy Danseur (Mr. Greeley), making her a half to former Asmussen trainee and 2017 GIII Fantasy S. heroine Ever So Clever (Medaglia d’Oro). TJCIS PPs

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