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McGaughey Looks to Add to Whitney ‘Honor’ Roll

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Following the draw for the GI Whitney S. Wednesday morning, trainer Shug McGaughey answered more questions about his previous Whitney winners than this year’s runner, Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB}).

McGaughey, a member of racing’s Hall of Fame since 2004, will try for his fourth victory in Saratoga’s premier dirt race for older horses Saturday with William Farish’s 4-year-old homebred colt.

The chestnut drew in the middle of the strong five-horse field, that features Tom’s d’Etat (Smart Strike), who has won four straight stakes, and GI Hollywood Gold Cup winner Improbable (City Zip), trained by Bob Baffert. Last year, Baffert won the Whitney with McKinzie (Street Sense).

The Whitney field also includes three-time graded stakes winner By My Standards (Goldencents) and Mr. Buff (Friend Or Foe), the massive New York-bred division champion seeking his first graded stakes victory.

With Whitney winners Personal Ensign (1988) and Easy Goer (1989), both Hall of Famers, and Honor Code (2015) on his vast stakes resume, McGaughey, 69, spent a fair amount of time talking about the present and the past.

Code of Honor was moved up to second in the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby following the disqualification of Maximum Security (New Year’s Day) and won last year’s GI Runhappy Travers and GI Jockey Club Gold Cup via the disqualification of eventual GI Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Vino Rosso (Curlin).

Code of Honor enters the Whitney following a third-place finish in the GI Runhappy Metropolian H. July 4.

Though the Whitney field is the smallest since Personal Ensign beat just two others 32 years ago, McGaughey said it is deep in quality and will be a big test for his late-runner. Tom’s d’Etat with Joel Rosario up, is the 6-5 morning-line favorite in the “Win and You’re In” race for the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Improbable and Code of Honor are listed at 5-2. On June 27, Tom’s d’Etat extended his win streak in the GII Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs.

“It won’t be easy,” he said. “I’ve just got to hope that Code of Honor runs a monster race. It will be kind of interesting to see what the tactics are with only five. I know where I’m going to be, but I’m not sure what the others are going to do or how much they’re going to press. You know that Joel isn’t going to do anything stupid. Hopefully, he’ll be up there fairly close, as he was, I think, in the Stephen Foster and we are able to pick him up. It’s a pretty solid field. I feel like we’re lucky to be in it. If he runs his race, they’ll know he is there.”

McGaughey said that Code of Honor is better suited for the two-turn 1 1/8 miles of the Whitney than the one-turn Met Mile at Belmont Park. Code of Honor is two-for-two at the Spa.

“I have a lot of confidence,” McGaughey said. “He was so fresh last year for the Travers. I think it will be a little different kind of a race this year because he ran on June 6 [winning the GIII Westchester] and ran back in the Met Mile. He’s bounced out of it good. His two works here were good. I’ve got confidence that he will run his race. If that is good enough, we’ll get our picture taken. If not, we’ll figure out something else.”

McGaughey was in his third year training for Ogden Phipps and his family when he ran Personal Ensign in the Whitney. She had recovered from an injury–a broken bone in a rear leg–that had kept her away from the races for almost a year. The 4-year-old filly faced two very capable runners, Gulch and King’s Swan, and McGaughey said he had some concerns about asking her to face males over a sloppy track.

“The rain came up early, so I came over here to kind of see what was going on with the track,” McGaughey said. “They ran a sprint race earlier in the card–I remember Angel Penna had a horse in there–and it looked like to me that the water was just on top of the track. I told Mr. Phipps that I thought they were going down into a drier track and I didn’t think it would be a problem. I knew she didn’t mind the mud.”

Personal Ensign prevailed by 1 1/2 lengths over Gulch at 4-5 and is the last female to win the Whitney.

“She was able to run an incredible race,” he said. “It’s funny, one of the numbers guys called me earlier in the week and said ‘She can win this race if she gets the perfect trip.’ If you remember, [jockey Angel] Cordero and King’s Swan pushed her way out in the middle of the racetrack. She was out there kind of the whole way, but she was good enough to win.”

Three months later, Personal Ensign finished her career at 13-0 record with a heart-stopping victory by a nose over Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors in the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs.

McGaughey said the Whitney was part of the plan to silence some critics and put her at the top of the older female division.

“I remember on the West Coast they said, ‘She only wins at Belmont.'” McGaughey said. “So I said, ‘Well, I’ll take care of that part of it.’ We took her down to Monmouth and she won the Molly Pitcher from here to across the street. Mr. Phipps was anxious to start her against the colts and I thought this was the perfect place to do it. In case we were wrong and it took too much out of her, we would still have enough time for the fall racing. We thought this was a pretty good opportunity. Plus, he didn’t want to duck and run to some place, like Chicago, to run against the colts. He wanted to do it here.”

The following summer, McGaughey became the first trainer to win-back-to-back Whitneys in over 50 years with the 3-year-old Easy Goer. After runner-up finishes to Sunday Silence in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, Easy Goer beat Sunday Silence by eight lengths in the GI Belmont S.. Rather than prep him for the Travers in the Jim Dandy, McGaughey put him in the Whitney and ran Fast Play in the Jim Dandy. Easy Goer, the last 3-year-old to win the Whitney, won as he pleased by three lengths over Clever Trevor at 1-5.

“We knew that Easy Goer was an exceptional horse,” McGaughey said. “He came out of the Belmont–and I wouldn’t have done it–but he gave you the feeling that you could run him back in two weeks. We obviously didn’t do that, but we pointed for here. Mr. Phipps was anxious to do something of that sort and we had an alternative, too, with Fast Play, who we could run in the Jim Dandy. Obviously, it was the right decision and I thought it was the right decision going in, too.”

Hall of Fame jockey Jacinto Vazquez provided some drama by pinning Easy Goer along the rail behind the pacesetter for a while, but he took advantage of an opening.

“He had to come through there, but he was in a little bit of trouble,” McGaughey said. “I can remember watching Pat Day and thinking, ‘He’s got a lot of horse. Whenever it opens he’s going to be there.'”

McGaughey was second to Criminal Type with Dancing Spree by 1 1/2 lengths in 1990 and Out of Place was second by a nose in 1992. He added his third Whitney five years ago with Honor Code, who edged Liam’s Map by a neck at 7-2. It followed his victory in the Met Mile and was the last of his six wins in an 11-race career.

“Honor Code was an exceptional horse,” McGaughey said. “He wasn’t the easiest horse to train. He kind of did a little bit of what he wanted to do. After he won in the Whitney, he didn’t want to go back to the training track. I had to bring him up here and train. I don’t know why.”

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Tom’s D’Etat, Code Of Honor To Clash In Five-Horse Whitney

A field comprised of five millionaires will make up a talented group of older horses assembled for the 93rd running of Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga Race Course.

Whitney Day will feature three Grade 1 events, led by the historic Whitney, with an automatic berth to the Breeders' Cup Classic on November 7 at Keeneland on the line. The card is bolstered by the Grade 1, $500,000 Personal Ensign presented by NYRA Bets, a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Breeders' Cup Distaff in November; and the Grade 1, $300,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial presented by Runhappy for 3-year-olds sprinting seven furlongs. The stakes-laden card also includes the Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green for 4-year-olds and up on the turf and the $200,000 Caress, a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint for older fillies and mares. The card will be broadcast on Saratoga Live beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern on FOX Sports and MSG Networks.

The Whitney pays homage to one of the Spa's most influential families, who for generations have had a profound effect on horse racing in upstate New York. The prominent Whitney family's involvement in thoroughbred racing began with Jockey Club co-founder William Collins Whitney, who began owning thoroughbreds in 1898. His son Harry Payne Whitney campaigned horses under the moniker of Greentree Stables, who hold the record for most victories in the family's namesake race with six winners. Horses owned by members of the Whitney family have gone on to win every major horse race in North America, including all three American Classics.

This year's edition of the Whitney will feature W.S. Farish's two-time Grade 1-winner Code of Honor, who arrives off a late-closing third in the Grade 1 Runhappy Met Mile, where the 4-year-old chestnut son of Noble Mission settled at the rear of the field off a leisurely pace, went five wide around the turn and closed to finish 1 ½ lengths to frontrunning winner Vekoma.

Last year, Code of Honor captured four graded stakes victories, including triumphs in the Grade 1 Runhappy Travers en route to a win in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.

Code of Honor, trained by Hall of Famer and three-time Whitney-winner Shug McGaughey, will attempt to become the first horse to capture the Travers, Jockey Club Gold Cup and Whitney in a career since Easy Goer. The Hall of Fame horse, who was also conditioned by McGaughey, accomplished the feat in one calendar year in 1989.

McGaughey said Code of Honor has proven capable of winning at one turn, but the horse is more suited for two turns.

“Two turns going a mile and an eighth is what he wants to do,” said McGaughey, whose other Whitney victors include champions Personal Ensign (1988) and Honor Code (2015). “I do think that last year, the [Grade 3] Dwyer [going one turn at Belmont Park] was one of his better races. But now that he's gotten older, and gotten stretched out, two turns going a mile and an eighth to a mile and a quarter is where he'll run his better races.”

Prior to the Runhappy Met Mile, Code of Honor made his seasonal bow a winning one, when taking the Grade 3 Westchester on June 6 at Belmont Park by a half-length.

With an overall record of 12-6-2-2, Code of Honor brags the highest earnings in the field with $2,473,320.

Code of Honor will attempt to maintain an unbeaten record at Saratoga. A year prior to winning the Runhappy Travers, he was a gate-to-wire maiden winner at the Spa during his 2-year-old campaign.

“He's always liked it up here and liked training over the track. But it's a different main track up here now than it was in the Travers. How much different, I'm not sure,” said McGaughey. “I think that Code of Honor has always liked it up here. He trained well here as a 2-year-old and ran well. He trained well here as a 3-year-old and ran well. He's been training well since we've come up here this year, so hopefully he runs well again.”

Breaking from post 3, Code of Honor will be ridden by jockey John Velazquez, who will attempt to tie fellow Hall of Famers Pat Day and Jerry Bailey with the most wins in the race with five.

Trainer Al Stall, Jr. saddled subsequent Breeders' Cup Classic winner and Champion Older Horse Blame to victory in the 2010 Whitney off a four-race win streak. This year, the conditioner sends out red-hot Tom's d'Etat, who also arrives at the race off similar form with four straight wins.

Owned by Gayle Benson's G M B Racing, the 7-year-old son of Smart Strike enters the Whitney off graded stakes triumphs in the Grade 2 Fayette on October 26 at Keeneland, the Grade 1 Clark on November 29 at Churchill Downs and the Grade 2 Stephen Foster on June 27 at Churchill Downs.

Coincidentally, these were three of the same four races that Blame had won heading into his Whitney victory.

“There's no substitute for class and they both have it,” Stall, Jr. said. “He's a very classy horse. He's very laid back, easy to deal with, and easy to ride in the mornings.”

Tom's d'Etat leads all Whitney entrants with three victories at the Spa. As a 3-year-old, he broke his maiden at third asking by four lengths and won an allowance optional claiming event by nine lengths the following year. Last season, he was a one-length winner of the Alydar.

Additionally, Tom's d'Etat also boasts the most wins at the distance, having won six times going nine furlongs, three of which were at the Spa.

“Some horses just take to it,” Stall, Jr. said. “I can tell in the couple weeks he's been here, his hair is great and his eye is just what you want and it seems like he knows just where he is. He's been here at 3, 4 and 6. He took off just one year and this will be his fourth year here and he seems to know his way around.”

His only defeat at Saratoga was in last year's Grade 1 Woodward, where he was a close but troubled fourth finishing 1 ¾ lengths to Preservationist.

“We had an awful trip in that race, but he fired his best shot that day,” Stall Jr. said.

At the ripe age of 7, Stall, Jr. said Tom's d'Etat is better than ever.

“We see no signs of him going the other direction on us, especially from a mental standpoint,” Stall, Jr said. “He's one of the last great progenies of Smart Strike. We just feel fortunate to be in this situation all the way around. To be in this spot, to run in these types of races, run in these Grade 1s and more importantly, we're happy that he has a super nice place to go to when his racing career is over [WinStar Farm].”

Bred in Kentucky by SF Bloodstock, Tom's d'Etat is out the Giant's Causeway broodmare Julia Tuttle whose dam Candy Cane is a full sister to undefeated Grade 1 winner and multiple champion-producing sire Candy Ride.

Tom's d'Etat has never lost in five starts with jockey Joel Rosario aboard and will attempt to keep an unscathed record intact from post 5 as the 6-5 morning line favorite.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert will saddle Improbable in attempt to be the first trainer to notch back-to-back wins in the Whitney since Scotty Schulhofer with Colonial Affair and Unaccounted For in 1994-95.

Owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and SF Racing, the 4-year-old City Zip chestnut won the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita last out by 3 ¼ lengths, producing a career-best 105 Beyer.

“He's doing really well,” said Baffert, who won last year's Whitney with McKinzie. “I think he's a much bigger and stronger horse than last year.”

Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., who was aboard 2018 Whitney winner Diversify, will pilot Improbable from post 2.

Allied Racing Stable's By My Standards will attempt to turn the tables on Tom's d'Etat after finishing second in the Stephen Foster.

Trained by Bret Calhoun, the three-time graded stakes winning son of Goldencents began his 2020 campaign with three victories, including Grade 2 scores in the New Orleans Classic at Fair Grounds and Oaklawn Handicap, en route to the Stephen Foster.

During his sophomore campaign, By My Standards won the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby At Fair Grounds before a twelfth-place finish in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby – his only off-the-board finish in ten starts.

“He's a good-minded horse and does everything the right way. He's a very smart horse and he's proved that he'll handle [shipping in], so we're confident sending him up there,” Calhoun said. “Tom's d'Etat beat us last time with a great race, and we have the utmost respect for him and Code of Honor and all of them in there. But we think our horse is improving and we're hoping Whitney Day will be the day he brings his best.”

All three of By My Standards' graded stakes wins were at the nine-furlong distance.

“That's another key. With a Grade 1, and a mile-and-an-eighth, and how he's training; they are all reasons why we're coming,” Calhoun said.

By My Standards will exit from post 1 under Jose Ortiz.

Rounding out the field is Chester and May Broman's eight-time stakes-winning New York-bred millionaire Mr. Buff, who attempts his first graded stakes victory for trainer John Kimmel.

Likely to show early speed, Mr. Buff will be looking for his first win since a runaway 20-length score in the Haynesfield on February 22 at Aqueduct.

“We know this place has been known as the “Graveyard of Favorites,” but Mr. Buff is stepping into some deep water in this race,” Kimmel said. “People might look at his last race and just kind of think that he's a little bit off form. But this horse has run commensurate numbers with all the horses in this race when he's been running against New York-bred company. People obviously think he can't do it against open company.”

Mr. Buff arrives at the Whitney off a distant fifth in the Grade 2 Suburban on July 4 at Belmont Park.

“This horse in his last race actually had a little bone bruise in his foot,” Kimmel said. “We went into it thinking he was OK, but I definitely think it bothered him. The blacksmith after that race cut out a little area and he had a little area of blood and some damage and since we have re-shod him, he has been a very happy horse here. He's had two very nice breezes over the racetrack.”

Mr. Buff will leave from post 4 under jockey Junior Alvarado, who was the pilot aboard 2014 Whitney winner Moreno.

The Whitney, one of the most important races in the North American handicap division, has been won by subsequent Champion Older Horses Gun Runner (2017), Honor Code (2015), Blame (2010), Lawyer Ron (2007), Invasor (2006), Left Bank (2002), Lemon Drop Kid (2000), Victory Gallop (1999), Criminal Type (1990) and Slew o' Gold (1984). Prominent Whitney victors during the early years of the race include all-time greats Equipoise (1932), Discovery (1934-36), War Admiral (1938), Stymie (1946), Tom Fool (1953), Carry Back (1962), Kelso (1961, 1963, 1965), Dr. Fager (1968) and Alydar (1978).

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Pandemic Affects Visas, Limiting H-2B Workers

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — George Weaver feels it. So do Chad Brown, Todd Pletcher and Shug McGaughey. Among the many new issues that Thoroughbred trainers across the country must contend with during the 2020 pandemic is a shortage of skilled staff.

In recent years, it has become more difficult for horsemen to secure all the H-2B visas that they desire to legally bring foreign nationals into the country as guest workers. The arrival of COVID-19 in late winter closed U.S. consulates, compounding the problems, preventing visa holders from getting their entry documents from the State Department. On June 22, President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending the visa program through December, a move designed to help the tens of millions of unemployed Americans find jobs.

“It is a problem,” said McGaughey, who is missing some of his hotwalkers and could use another exercise rider. “The bad part about it is that Trump, or the government, just does not realize that these are jobs that American people refuse.”

That’s the rub. One of the key provisions of the H-2B visa program is that the jobs must first be offered to Americans before foreign residents can be hired. Trainers say they are always interested in hiring U.S.-based employees for the positions, primarily grooms and hotwalkers.

“The people that are needed, nobody wants to do this work,” Weaver said. “It’s not even about the money, nobody wants to wake up at 3:30, 4:00 in the morning every single morning or even six mornings a week. They don’t want to do it.”

Immigration attorney Will Velie of Norman, Oklahoma, is an expert whose Horseman Labor Solutions company has been helping trainers staff their stables with guest workers for 15 years. Velie estimated that approximately 1,500 people come into U.S., primarily from Mexico and Central American countries to work in the Thoroughbred racing industry. He said it costs trainers between $1,500 and $2,000 per worker in fees and legal expenses. In addition, trainers must pay for travel back and forth to the employees’s home countries and other costs.

“They would not do this if they didn’t have to,” Velie said. “The only reason they are doing this is because they don’t have the people to do the work anymore.”

Velie said the pandemic, which led to border closings and the pause on the admission of people who do already had been approved for visas, has made a tough situation worse.

“It’s particularly bad this year,” he said. “It’s always bad. It’s been bad for a long time. So you’ve got this confluence of factors that make it to where it is very difficult to find enough workers on the backside of the track, even with 25 million unemployed people.”

Weaver said none of the dozen or so internationals he had planned for are with him this summer at Saratoga Race Course. His exercise riders are helping out with hotwalking and he said that some of his grooms have to deal with six or seven horses every day, rather than the norm of four or five.

Like the other trainers, Weaver said his stable is getting by, but he is frustrated by how the situation played out despite doing the proper planning.

“It cost a lot of money, and when you pay the lawyer and you pay the stuff and you don’t get your people, it’s like you just [wasted] a bunch of money and you don’t have your help,” he said.

Pletcher’s stable has been hit hard. He said that none of his 35 guest workers was able to come into the country before the program was closed.

“It has affected everyone,” he said. “We have a large number of visa employees that were approved but have not been allowed to come over. We’ve had to have our staff pull off some overtime, put in extra hours and extra work. Yeah, it has been a hardship for a lot of people. This would be our peak time of the year, so we would have over 100 employees. We have similar numbers, in some cases less-experienced.”

Pletcher nodded at the suggestion that some of his staff is receiving on-the-job training.

“Pretty much,” he said. “At the same time you want new people coming into the business and learning. A lot of our visa workers have been with us for a long time, know the system and are skilled professionals.”

Eric Hamelback, the CEO of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said that the jobs Pletcher and the other trainers must fill might seem to the casual observer to be low-level duties easy for most people to handle.

“It is a skilled labor. Yes, it’s hard work. It is agricultural,” he said. “But it’s skilled when you are dealing with animals, whether they are a multi-million dollar horse or one that is a $5,000 claimer. They can kill you in a heartbeat and it takes a certain strength and skill to work in this field. You can’t just grab someone off the street and expect them to be able to hotwalk, much less groom.”

Hamelback said that his organization, which represents nearly 30,000 trainers and owners, is working with the National Horse Council and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association to build congressional insight and support for changes to help the industry with the visa program.

Every year, the Thoroughbred industry is vying for a share of the 66,000 H-2B visas that are allotted. During the year, the White House may add more visas to the pool. The demand is intense: 100,000 applications for the 33,000 H-2B visas available in the first round for 2020.

“This is a big topic and it is a lot of work,” Hamelback said.

Much like Pletcher, Brown has a very large operation and relies on foreign workers to fill some of his staff positions.

“It’s been challenging,” he said. “Thankfully, we have some of our workers who have been able to successfully come in before some stuff got shut down. Not all of them. I know some other trainers that are not in a good spot. It has really affected us. It has caused us to really change the management of our stable, such as how many we are able to have in New York.”

Brown continued, “Thankfully, our team has all pulled together and everyone has picked up the slack. Our business is no different than a lot of other businesses, probably, just trying to get through this pandemic, knowing that there is probably light at the end of the tunnel, that it’s not going to be this way forever. Keeping that mindset. Getting through each day the best we can.”

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Code of Honor, Midnight Bisou Breeze Towards Weekend Stakes

Will Farish’s Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB}) breezed a half-mile in :49.04 (XBTV video) at 5:30 Monday morning over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga, completing his preparations for Saturday’s GI Whitney S. The nine-furlong event offers the winner a fees-paid berth in the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland Nov. 7.

Working beneath his regular exercise rider Lexi Peaden, last year’s GI Runhappy Travers S. hero went his opening quarter in :25.1 and galloped out five-eighths of a mile in 1:01.2 to the satisfaction of Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.

“That’s exactly what we wanted. I just wanted him to have a little bit of work and that’s what I asked for him to go in,” said McGaughey, who has saddled Personal Ensign (1988), Easy Goer (1989) and Lane’s End Racing and Dell Ridge Farm’s Honor Code (2015) to win the Whitney. “I always breeze him on the Monday before he runs on Saturday. That seems to put him on his game. He’s had two good works up here and he seems to be doing fine.”

Code of Honor will be making his third start of the season in the Whitney, having won the GIII Westchester S. ahead of a solid third-place effort to Vekoma (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the GI Runhappy Met Mile June 20. Four-time Whitney-winning jockey John Velazquez has the call in a field topped by Tom’s d’Etat (Smart Strike).

Not long after Code of Honor left the track, champion Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) tuned up for Saturday’s GI Personal Ensign S. presented by NYRA Bets with an easy half-mile spin that was timed in :50.55 at Oklahoma. Midnight Bisou, the Saudi Cup runner-up who exits a dominating 8 1/4-length success in the GII Fleur de Lis S. at Churchill June 27, will be ridden by Ricardo Santana, Jr., with Mike Smith unable to travel from California.

The Personal Ensign is also a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race for the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

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