Iron Honor hammers Gotham field to earn 50 Derby points
New York, Ny.
Iron Honor won the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham at Aqueduct on Saturday in just the second start of his career and in doing so secured 50 qualifying points on the road to Kentucky Derby 2026. A field of eight 3-year-olds went into the gate to contest the one-turn mile and Iron Honor, who is trained by Chad Brown and was ridden by Manny Franco, won a prolonged head-to-head stretch duel to win by a length.
Iron Honor won his six-furlong debut at the New York City track in December against a field of seven with odds of 5-1 by 1 ½-lengths for the ownership group that is headed by St. Elias Stable and includes William Lawrence and Glassman Racing.
“I was really surprised he won first time out,” Brown said. “I ran him to get a race into him, and I remember when I debuted him, I was wishing the race was 6 1/2 or seven (furlongs) to give him a little bit more of a chance to get there. When he won, he really got my attention because he did something he's not supposed to be doing - winning at three-quarters. Only good horses do that.”
Iron Honor gave trainer Chad Brown another 50-point winner on the Derby trail to go with Paladin who won the Risen Star (G2) at Fair Grounds on Feb. 14 and also the 10-point Remsen (G2) last year.
Out of the gate there were three across the track with the 4-5 favorite Iron Honor, Crown the Buckeye at 9-1 and the 22-1 longshot Dirty Rich. That trio set early fractions of 23.09 and 46.30. At that point Dirty Rich began to fade from contention and after six-furlongs were run in 1:11.45 it was a match race for the final quarter-mile between Iron Honor and Crown the Buckeye.
"My plan was to go,” Franco explained. “My horse came from a sprint, too, and he showed speed, so I knew I was going to be able to be close, really close, and that was the plan. I talked to Chad, he told me the same thing. We did what we spoke (about)."
Coming down the stretch Crown the Buckeye has on the inside of Iron Honor and had a half-length advantage. By the stretch call Iron Honor got a head in front and was able to inch clear by an official margin of one-length.
“He was in-between horses the whole way which is always hard for a horse to settle,” Brown added. “He was taking pressure inside and outside, so I thought he showed a lot of determination to shake the outside horse away and wear down the one on the inside. I like the fact that it was far back (6 1/2-lengths) to third - those races typically come back fast figure-wise. I think the horse that was runner-up was a very stubborn foe and on the improve.”
105 Kentucky Derby points (50-25-15-10-5) were available to the top five finishers with 50 going to Iron Honor. Crown the Buckeye, Right to Party and Exhibition Only, who finished second, third and fourth, are not nominated to the Triple Crown. Balboa picked up the five points for fifth-place.
The Wood Memorial (G2) on April 4 with (100-50-25-15-10) Derby qualifying points is the final race on the New York road to the run for the roses and could be the next start for Iron Honor.
"He'll stay there now,” Brown said. “I don't want to ship the horse around too much. I'll hedge that as bad a winter as we've had in New York, the law of averages will hopefully turn the right way here. I'll leave him with my New York base where he's done most of his training since he arrived in to our system. He was there last summer at our Belmont barn training on that training track, so he's very familiar with the surface. He's 2-for-2 on the Aqueduct surface racing, so if he comes out of it healthy, he will train in New York and run in the Wood Memorial."