Honour And Glory Finds His Distance in Winning the Met Mile

Honour And Glory, who finished ahead of only one horse and was beaten by 26 lengths in the Kentucky Derby, dropped down to a mile from 1 1/4 miles at Belmont Park on Monday, winning the $400,000 Metropolitan Handicap in stakes-record time.

Ridden by John Velazquez, Honour And Glory outfinished Lite The Fuse and the favored Afternoon Deelites, who wound up in a dead heat for second place. Criollito finished fourth.

Honour And Glory, owned by Michael Tabor and trained by Wayne Lukas, was timed in 1:32 4/5, one-fifth of a second off the track record set by Williamstown in 1993. The record for the Metropolitan had been Conquistador Cielo’s 1:33 clocking in 1982.

Honour And Glory, given a weight allowance because he was a 3-year-old facing older horses, carried 110 pounds, 13 less than the high-weighted Afternoon Deelites and 12 less than Lite The Fuse.

“He let us know what we’ve known all the time--that he’s a fast horse,” said Lukas, who was at Hollywood Park on Monday. “We took our shot in the Derby, because occasionally a fast horse like Spend A Buck or Winning Colors will win the race, but our commitment to this horse after the Derby was to keep him at a mile or less. Our goal is the [six-furlong] Breeders’ Cup Sprint [at Woodbine Oct. 26].”

All five of Honour And Glory’s victories have been at 1 1/16 miles or less. Lukas said the colt will remain in the East, either at Churchill Downs or with his division in New York and New Jersey.