Jockey Club Gold Cup (Grade 1)

IT was one of those replays that rose and fell with each stride, each groan from the crowd. You know the ones, when two horses morph into two opinions.

Vino Rosso and Code Of Honor became Leave Him Up and Take Him Down as they battled side-by-side, stride-for-stride in the waning stages of the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park last Saturday. Two horses doing what horses do. The four-year-old, Vino Rosso, got the nod on the three-year-old, Code Of Honor.

For a moment.

The inquiry sign went up quickly, then the announcement of a claim of foul by John Velazquez aboard Code Of Honor against Irad Ortiz Jr. on Vino Rosso.

The replay began and so did the prognostications. The replay stopped, the opinions are still going.

“That was the worst call I’ve ever seen…” And that is a slippery slope.

Ortiz started right-handed, switch to his left, swapped back to his right hand. Vino Ross drifted out, lightly brushing twice, three or four times if you’re picky. Code Of Honor ran straight, well straighter, and just missed. Ortiz didn’t pump his fist like he’s wont to do, perhaps, that was the tipoff.

Stewards ultimately decided that the bumps had caused the difference and disqualified Vino Rosso from first and placed him second behind Code Of Honor. Tacitus wound up third with favourite Preservationist fourth.

“Honestly, he came out and bumped my horse on me. I had put the head in front of him and he bumped him. It kind of got my horse off balance for the second time when he bumped him,” Velazquez said.

“And now he puts the head in front of me and I’m trying to get back in front of him and he beats me by a head or a nose or whatever it is. It was a perfect trip, no complaints at all. Just when we got to the eighth pole, he bumped me a little bit, just enough to get my horse off balance.”

Owned and bred by Will Farish, the three-year-old son of Noble Mission added a win against older horses in New York’s classic fall stakes to his burgeoning record that now includes three consecutive wins – two Grade 1 stakes.

“I thought maybe Johnny had to move a little sooner than he wanted to just because Tacitus and Preservationist weren’t able to put the pressure on Vino Rosso,” McGaughey said. “I thought we had him at every jump and he kind of came out. I knew he had come out, but I didn’t know they bumped because my view was watching sideways. When I saw the head-on, then they threw the objection and inquiry, I thought there was a good chance they’d make a change. Johnny told me they got us twice pretty good.”

Next stop, Breeders’ Cup for the coming-to-form upstart who gave McGaughey his fourth win in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. The Hall of Fame trainer has dealt with every kind of horse over his storied career, Code Of Honor is the gold standard as far as he’s concerned.

“This horse is not that hard to train, he keeps himself well, the girl who gets on him has done a heck of a job, she gets the number pretty much right, she got it wrong last fall one time and she said it would never happen again, too slow,” McGaughey said.

“That’s what makes him easy, that’s why he’s the horse he is, because he doesn’t make any mistakes. It’s easy. Sometimes you have to get in your car and tak a drive and figure it all out. I’ve never had to do with him. He’s been easy.”

Even the replays and inquiries are easy.