The winner of the 2008 UAE Derby (G2), Honour Devil is slated to make his American debut in Wednesday’s $65,000 Mr. Right Stakes at Belmont Park, an overnight even limited to horses who have not won a stakes race since July 2009. In two 2009 starts, Honour Devil recorded a third and a second while under the care of Mike De Kock, the latter of which was a particularly solid second to Snaffy in the Burj Nahaar (G3) on Super Thursday.
Having trained in America with Kiaran McLaughlin for several months, including a sextet of published workouts that got increasingly faster, Honour Devil is poised for a return. He was scratched from a scheduled start in James Marvin Stakes at Saratoga in August but continued to train, recording a pair of bullet workouts (fastest of the day, at the distance) over the same Belmont Park track he will race on Wednesday. A 5-year-old son of Honour and Glory, owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, Honour Devil will fast a field of seven others and will be medicated with Lasix for the first time. Honour Devil was expected to participate in the 2009 Dubai World Cup (G1) but a breathing ailment kept him sidelined.