By Alan Carasso
Courtlandt Farm homebred Greatest Honour (Tapit) still hasn't quite figured things out completely, but the immaculately bred bay maintained his upward mobility and made the most of his raw ability to post a handy victory in Saturday's GIII Holy Bull S. at Gulfstream Park, earning 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby in the process. Recent California transfer Tarantino (Pioneerof the Nile) attended the pace and stuck on for second ahead of 'TDN Rising Star' Prime Factor (Quality Road).
Greatest Honour made a pair of starts over seven furlongs to begin his career, at Saratoga Sept. 5 and at Belmont Oct. 11, finishing third and with recent Smarty Jones S. hero and 'TDN Rising Star' Caddo River (Hard Spun) one spot ahead of him each time. Runner-up to subsequent GII Remsen S. third-place getter Known Agenda (Curlin) in a nine-furlong Aqueduct maiden Nov. 8, the homebred was off to a disastrous beginning in a course-and-distance maiden Dec. 26, but made steady mid-race progress and sustained a long run to score by 1 1/2 lengths.
A bit slow to begin when the gates flew in the Holy Bull, Greatest Honour landed in the latter third of the field, as longshot Willy Boi (Uncaptured) led from Tarantino, with Prime Factor parked off that pair three deep. As it was in his maiden race, Greatest Honour was asked to improve fully five furlongs from home and crept into contention as they hit the half-mile pole. Steered to the outside of the odds-on favorite and into the four path on the turn, Greatest Honour felt a right-handed crack of Jose Ortiz's whip nearing the quarter pole and kept finding through the short stretch to score impressively.
“I thought we were in good position when we turned down the backside,” said trainer Shug McGaughey, remarkably winning his first Holy Bull. “When he was in that kind of position, I knew they were going to have a hard time with him, because he's going to finish better than he starts. Jose said, 'At the half-mile pole, I asked him a tad, he was there.' When he really asked him, he said that he finished up very strong. He picked up his horses quick today. He was a winner early today.”
McGaughey said he was “not going to leave Florida” unless he was forced to, and with that in mind, he will aim Greatest Honour for the GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S. Feb. 27 and/or the GI Curlin Florida Derby Mar. 27.
Pedigree Notes:
The 141st black-type winner and 88th graded/group winner for one of this country's prepotent sires, Greatest Honour is out of an unplaced daughter of GSW & MGISP broodmare of the year Better Than Honour, the dam of GI Belmont S. winners Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy) and Jazil (Seeking the Gold), as well as U.S. Grade II-winning 3-year-old and Japanese Group 1-placed Casino Drive (Mineshaft) and Breeders' Cup Marathon winner Man of Iron (Giant's Causeway). Another daughter of Better Than Honour, Teeming (Storm Cat), was the dam of GISW Streaming (Smart Strike) and SWs Treasuring (Smart Strike) and Cascading (A.P. Indy).
Tiffany's Honour was offered on behalf of Southern Equine Stable at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton November sale, but was led out unsold on a bid of $2.3 million. Courtlandt Farm acquired her privately thereafter and the mare's first produce, a colt named Semifinal (War Front), sold for $1.1 million at Keeneland September in 2018. Tiffany's Honour found herself in the same pavilion a few months later and was knocked down to Katsumi Yoshida for $2.2 million in foal to Medaglia d'Oro. The mare produced a filly at Northern Farm in April 2019, but was barren to Duramente (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}) for 2020. She was most recently bred to Kizuna (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}).
Saturday, Gulfstream
HOLY BULL S.-GIII, $200,000, Gulfstream, 1-30, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 1:43.19, ft.
1–GREATEST HONOUR, 118, c, 3, by Tapit
1st Dam: Tiffany's Honour, by Street Cry (Ire)
2nd Dam: Better Than Honour, by Deputy Minister
3rd Dam: Blush With Pride, by Blushing Groom (Fr)
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN.
O/B-Courtlandt Farm (KY); T-Claude R. McGaughey III; J-Jose L.
Ortiz. $119,040. Lifetime Record: 5-2-1-2, $175,240. Werk
Nick Rating: B+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Tarantino, 120, c, 3, Pioneerof the Nile–Without Delay, by
Seeking the Gold. ($610,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP; $240,000 RNA 2yo
'20 KEENOV). O-SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket
Stables LLC, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Golconda Stables, Siena
Farm LLC and Masterson, Robert E.; B-Fred W. Hertrich III &
John D. Fielding (KY); T-Rodolphe Brisset. $38,400.
3–Prime Factor, 118, c, 3, Quality Road–Haylie Brae, by
Bernardini. ($900,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-CHC INC. and WinStar
Farm LLC; B-Two Hearts Farm LLC (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher.
$19,200. 'TDN Rising Star'
Margins: 5 3/4, 3 3/4, 3/4. Odds: 2.80, 26.70, 1.10.
Also Ran: Papetu, Jirafales, Sittin On Go, Awesome Gerry, Willy Boi, Amount. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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