Greatest Honour wins Holy Bull easily

6-furlong victory gives him state’s inside track for Kentucky Derby

HALLANDALE BEACH — Greatest Honour swooped past eight rivals to run away with the Holy Bull Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream and establish himself as the leader of the Kentucky Derby generation in Florida.

Not only did Greatest Honour win, he did it in a manner that suggests the best is yet to come as the distances get longer. Jose Ortiz let him gather himself early as the rest of the field moved away. They had only one or two horses beaten around the first turn and into the backstretch.

“He sat pretty nicely,” Ortiz said. Ortiz asked him to pick it up with about 5 furlongs to go. At that point, Willy Boi and Tarantino were in control of the pace, as they had been from the start.

Prime Factor, the even-money favorite who had been tracking them, began to close the gap. When Ortiz saw Prime Factor go, he urged his mount to follow and Greatest Honour delivered.

Prime Factor collared the leaders first as the field moved around the turn, but Greatest Honour on the outside was clearly going better.

“When I put myself four wide in the clear, I knew I was going to have a really good shot to win,” Ortiz said. “When we got to the

quarter-pole, I knew I had it.”

Prime Factor offered no resistance as Greatest Honour, the 5-2 second choice, took command and moved away.

“I had plenty of horse — he was playing,” Ortiz said.

By the time Greatest

Honour cruised under the wire, he had almost 6 lengths on Tarantino, who fought back to grab the place from Prime Factor. The winner covered 1 1⁄16 miles in 1 minute, 43.19 seconds.

The result was a testament to the value of experience over brilliance.

The Holy Bull was the fifth race of Greatest Honour’s career and his third around two turns.

Tarantino, who shipped in from the West Coast, was racing around two turns for the fourth time. Prime Factor dominated his only start, but it was a 6-furlong sprint.

Winning trainer Shug

McGaughey, who started Greatest Honour twice in short races in New York, said he always felt the colt by Tapit would excel in longer races.

“Sprinting wasn’t going to be his bag, but I think those two sprint races helped him learn how to finish,” McGaughey said. “I think the farther we go, the better.”

McGaughey plans to keep

Greatest Honour in Florida to prepare for the Kentucky Derby and beyond. He’s considering the Fountain of Youth in four weeks but said he doesn’t need that race to get Greatest Honour ready for the major winter target, the Florida Derby on March 27. “

I’m not going to leave Florida unless I’m forced to.,” he said.

McGaughey