Met Mile, Suburban Handicap, and Manhattan Stakes all top holiday card

With the pandemic necessitating substantial changes to NYRA’s stakes schedule, races are turning up in unusual combinations. The latest example is Saturday, when three historic New York races with origins in the nineteenth century – the Met Mile, Suburban Handicap and Manhattan Stakes – are run on the same card for what may be the first time.

The most accomplished horses in the Met Mile field are the versatile McKinzie and Code of Honor, both of whom have won major races over various distances and are coming into the race off victories. McKinzie’s six graded wins range from seven to nine furlongs, and he was also runner-up in last year’s BC Classic and Santa Anita Handicap. The 5-year-old Street Sense horse tuned up for Saturday with a 1½-length win in the seven-furlong Triple Bend Stakes.

Code of Honor’s biggest wins

have been at 1¼ miles, in last year’s Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup, but he also owns a pair of graded scores at 1 1/16 miles. Most recently, Code of Honor prevailed by a halflength in a muddy Westchester Stakes at Belmont, his first start since finishing off the board in the Classic eight months ago.

The lightly raced Vekoma, winner of five of seven career starts, looms as the chief threat to the above two horses. The 4-year-old Candy Ride colt runs back off a front-running, 7¼-furlong romp in the Carter Handicap.

Other expected starters include Carter runner-up Network Effect, who has finished in the exacta in all but one of eight starts but has yet to win a graded race. Warrior’s Charge ships north after winning the Razorback and running second in the Oaklawn Handicap back home in Arkansas. The sleeper in the field could be Mr Freeze, the only entrant with a pair of graded wins at the one-mile distance.

Manhattan. Sadler’s Joy is winless in three starts this year, but if he is ever to win another G1, this relatively weak edition of the Manhattan is probably his best shot.

Chad Brown saddles three entrants, including Instilled Regard, who began his career on dirt but has shown promise since switched to turf. The 5-year-old son of Arch has a pair of G2 wins on turf and finished a solid third in the Pegasus World Cup Turf back in January. He comes in off a win in the Fort Marcy Stakes. Brown’s other starters are the Frenchbred Devamani and G1placed Rockemperor.

Channel Maker is a two-time G1 winner, most recently in last year’s Man o’ War. However, the 6-year-old gelding has lost eight straight and was well beaten in most of them.