Charged up for run at sweep
Confidence running high as dominant Greatest Honour aims for Derby, Gulfstream
Thoroughbred horse trainers tend to be like football coaches. No matter how favorable a situation they are in or how weak the opposition, they find reasons for concern: track conditions, post positions, distance, race flow, etc., etc.
Not Shug McGaughey, who will send out heavy favorite Greatest Honour against 10 rivals in Saturday’s Florida Derby. McGaughey expects his colt, who drew post 7 with Jose Ortiz, to win. “I’ve got a lot of confidence.” It’s well founded. Greatest Honour has already won the Holy Bull and Fountain of Youth. If he adds the Florida Derby, his final prep for the Kentucky Derby in five weeks, he will become the first horse to sweep Gulfstream’s trio of graded stakes for 3-year-olds.
“In the Holy Bull, everything went right,” the trainer said. “Then, in the Fountain of Youth, everything went wrong.” Greatest Honour fell further behind than usual. Going into the far turn, he still had only two horses beaten, and was in an I-95 type traffic jam. On the front end, Drain the Clock, “who I think is a very, very good horse, kind of opened up,” McGaughey said. “I thought [Greatest Honour] would have a hard time catching him. But he caught him in a hurry and won kind of pulled up.”
Moreover, Greatest Honour was racing at a shorter distance than is his ideal, according to the trainer, who sent out Orb to win the 2013 Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby. Both previous stakes were at a mile and a sixteenth, with an auxiliary finish line about 110 yards ahead of the normal final pole. The Florida Derby is a mile and eighth with the finish in its
traditional place. “Going a mile and an eighth should suit him a lot better with his pedigree and style of running,” McGaughey said. The mile-and-a-quarter Kentucky Derby should be even more advantageous, McGaughey feels. “I think his future is in front of him.”
Greatest Honour could find himself trying to run down another high quality speed horse in Collaborate, who broke his maiden by 12 ½ lengths wire to wire. Saffie Joseph Jr., who has trained numerous stakes winners since emigrating from Barbados in 2011, said Collaborate is the most talented horse he has ever had. “Every time we would work him, he would impress us more.”
Going from a maiden race into a Grade 1 stakes is a tall task, Joseph acknowledged. “But he seems like he has the ability to overcome it.”
Bob Baffert is making a rare incursion into South Florida with Los Alamitos Futurity winner Spielberg. Baffert never has had a Florida Derby entrant. He has had only 21 starters ever at Gulfstream but when he ships in, he has to be respected. He has four Grade 1 wins, including two editions of the Pegasus World Classic and a Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Spielberg should provide a gauge to where Greatest Honour stands on the national stage. Four weeks ago, he overcame a poor start to run second by 4¼ lengths to undefeated Essential Quality, last year’s Eclipse winning 2-year-old, in the Rebel at Oaklawn Park.
Todd Pletcher, who is in the process of winning his 17th Gulfstream training title in 18 years, has a contender with a boast none of the other starters have. Known Agenda beat Greatest Honour by a head in a November race at Aqueduct. More recently he crushed a Gulfstream allowance field by 11 lengths at the Florida Derby distance.
Nova Rags and Papetu are the only other entrants with stakes credentials. Nova Rags was second in the Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay Downs and Papetu was third in the Fountain of Youth. Soup and Sandwich makes his stakes debut with a two-for-two record, but his most recent win was against only two Tampa Bay rivals. Quantum Leap, Jirafales, Southern Passage and Sigiloso would have to improve dramatically to contend.
The Florida Derby is the 14th race with a scheduled post time of 6:40 p.m. The limited number of tickets made available have been sold but the race will be televised on NBS Sports from 6 to 7 p.m.