ESPN Horse Classic thoughts on a Super Saturday

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Once upon a time, winning a race such as the Jockey Club Gold Cup was a grand achievement in its own right.

These days, win the Gold Cup -- or any major fall stakes, for that matter -- and inevitably, when you stand in the winner's circle, people, especially those with pens, pads and recording devices, keep asking you about a race a month down the road.

It happened to trainer Christophe Clement on Saturday at a dark, chilly Belmont Park and to Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey in a considerably different setting.

Clement won the $1 million Gold Cup for a second straight year with even-money favorite Tonalist, who finally brushed aside the sting of runner-up finishes in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap and Grade 2 Suburban and a third in the Grade 1 Whitney earlier in the year by powering to a 4 ¾-length victory over Wicked Strong on a sloppy track in the famed mile-and-a-quarter stakes.

"People forgot about him, but I didn't forget about him," said Clement, whose 2014 Belmont Stakes winner came into the race with just one win in four previous starts this year. "We're back here, we won this race a year ago, and it's great. I thought that even when he got beat this year, he never ran a bad race. He's a top class horse. We're back on top."

So what about the Breeders' Cup Classic?

"That's the logical step," Clement said after his colt secured an automatic berth in the $5 million Classic by winning one of the Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" races. "We'll enjoy this for a day or two, and then we'll go from there."

Of course, knowing Tonalist, who was fifth in last year's Breeders' Cup Classic, will have to contend with Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and the brilliant mare Beholder four weeks from now on Oct. 31 at Keeneland in the Breeders' Cup is reason enough to dwell on the present rather than the future.

Yet as much as Tonalist's only stakes wins have come at Belmont Park, his late speed could come in handy at Keeneland, given that American Pharoah, who put in a sharp five-furlong 59.80 seconds workout earlier in the day at Santa Anita, and Beholder just might knock heads in the early stages of the BC Classic.

"I think we belong in that group," Clement said about the star-studded probable field for the Classic. "We will be there. Looking back on it, I might have made a training mistake by running him without blinkers last year [in the Breeders' Cup Classic]. We'll think about that, but I want to enjoy this."

McGaughey was also steered into conversations about the future after a graded stakes on the Super Saturday card, though he was much happier to put the race behind him and his Breeders' Cup Classic contender, Whitney, and Metropolitan Handicap winner, Honor Code.

Ranked third behind American Pharoah and Beholder in the latest National Thoroughbred Racing Association poll, Honor Code, like Tonalist, made his first start since the Aug. 8 Whitney, but McGaughey opted for a different comeback race.

McGaughey owns an 0-5 record in the BC Classic, and each time he prepped for the world championships in a traditional mile-and-an-eighth-or-longer race such as the JC Gold Cup, Woodward or Super Derby. To get Honor Code ready for the huge challenge ahead awaiting him at Keeneland, McGaughey opted for the $400,000 Kelso, a Grade 2 test at a one-turn mile.

Honor Code had captured his career debut in the slop at Saratoga, when he closed from 22 lengths back to win going-away by 4.5 lengths. But this time, though he did not trail by more than seven lengths at any call, the combination of a comfortable pace for the victorious frontrunner Appealing Tale and the wet track prevented Honor Code from doing anything better than close some ground late to grab third, 3¾ lengths behind the winner as a beaten 3-5 favorite.

Although Honor Code won Belmont's Metropolitan Handicap at the same mile distance as the Kelso in the Met Mile, front-running Private Zone helped Honor Code close from 14 lengths back by carving out blazing fractions of 22.42 and 44.92 seconds. Appealing Tale, meanwhile, cruised along through splits of 23.50 and 46.35 seconds.

"[Jockey Javier Castellano] said he thought the pace and the wet track worked against [Honor Code], and I would tend to agree with that," McGaughey said. "He responded well at the end, so hopefully he'll come out of it good and we can move forward to the Breeders' Cup. I had run a couple of horses in the Gold Cup who had come back in the [BC Classic] and not done as well, so that was on the back of my mind. Watching him run today, he probably had a better chance in the Gold Cup, but that's not the final goal. The final goal is the Breeders' Cup."

Indeed it is for Honor Code, American Pharoah and Beholder, plus others with their eyes on the BC Classic such as Smooth Roller, Frosted and Travers winner Keen Ice -- Tonalist too.

He gave Clement and owner Robert S. Evans yet another classic moment to enjoy Saturday in one of New York's biggest races of the year.

Not to spoil the celebration, but next we'll find out if it leads to a truly Classic moment at Keeneland in as big and important a race as the Breeders' Cup has ever seen. These days, you can't have one without the other.