Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Code of Honor wastes no time starting drive to Florida Derby
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – For those anxiously awaiting the 3-year-old debut of Code of Honor, the wait will be a short one – just five days into the new year in Saturday’s one-mile Mucho Macho Man Stakes.
Code of Honor has not started since his second-place finish behind Complexity in the Grade 1 Champagne on Oct. 6. at Belmont. He would have been one of the favorites the following month in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile but was scratched after coming down with a fever the morning of the race. Trainer Shug McGaughey contemplated running Code of Honor next in the Grade 2 Remsen at Aqueduct, but opted instead to just shut him down for the rest of the year and point him to two or more of the Kentucky Derby preps at Gulfstream Park, culminating with the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 30.
McGaughey said Code of Honor was “training great” under John Velazquez before the Breeders’ Cup and then came down with the fever.
“He was well enough to ship back home two days later,” McGaughey said. “He only missed a few days of training, so I thought about bringing him back for the Remsen. Johnny breezed him on the training track the week before the race and told me if he had never worked him before, he’d have said he went just fine. But since he had, he just didn’t feel he was training as well as he had been before the Breeders’ Cup. I didn’t want to take the chance of running him over that deep track and gut him.”
Code of Honor has worked four times since bedding down for the winter at Payson Park, including a bullet half-mile in 48 seconds at the training center with Velazquez aboard last Saturday.
“He’s training now like he was before the Breeders’ Cup,” McGaughey said. “This is a race I probably wouldn’t have run him in if he had started in the Juvenile, and certainly not if he’d run in the Remsen. But right now, I need to run him. After this, we’ll see. I could bring him back in the Holy Bull or wait for the Fountain of Youth. He is a horse who needs some maturing, but you do not want to overdo it, either. We’ll just wait and see how things develop as we go along.”
The $100,000 Mucho Macho Man is one of five stakes, all for 3-year-olds, on Saturday’s card.
Gaffalione wins No. 1,000
Jockey Tyler Gaffalione rode the 1,000th winner of his career Sunday, winning the seventh race aboard first-time starter Mission From Elle. The victory was the second on the day for Gaffalione, 24, who rode his first career winner, Holdin Bullets, at Gulfstream Park on Sept. 7, 2014.
Gaffalione, the 2015 Eclipse Award-winning apprentice, won the 2018 summer meet riding title here as well as the fall jockey championships at both Keeneland and Churchill Downs.
Mission From Elle was Gaffalione’s 253rd winner in 2018.
“It’s such a blessing, especially to have it happen here,” said Gaffalione, a native of Davie, Fla. “I grew up here. This is my home track.”
Zayas out two months
Jockey Edgard Zayas will be sidelined a minimum of two months after suffering a broken right femur when his horse, Killer Kitten, fell during Sunday’s fifth race.
Zayas underwent successful surgery Monday morning to repair his injured leg, according to his agent, Tito Fuentes.
“The surgeon said Edgard was fortunate the break occurred in the middle of the leg not nearer the hip, or the recovery period would be a lot longer,” Fuentes said. “They said he can start physical therapy immediately and felt if all went well he could probably start getting on horses again in about two months.”
Zayas entered Sunday’s card with 15 wins during the meet, just one shy of third place in the standings. Luis Saez and Irad Ortiz Jr. lead the standings.