American Pharoah’s Flag Of Honour Wins G3 Jacques Cartier

American Pharoah’s Flag Of Honour (5g American Pharoah x Godiva Rocks, by Stratum) was back in the winner’s circle for the fifth time on Saturday with a victory in the Grade III Jacques Cartier Stakes at Woodbine.

The Australian-bred broke strongly in the six-furlong synthetic race to challenge for the lead early. Step Forward conceded the lead a furlong in but wasn’t going to let Flag Of Honour have it easy. That one stayed on Flag Of Honour’s hip around the turn and all the way into the stretch.

Flag Of Honour started pulling away and in the final sixteenth had a comfortable lead to win by 1 ¼ lengths against the closers for a second graded stakes victory in his last three starts.

Trained by Julia Carey for R.M. and J.M Wanless, Flag Of Honour was a winner in Australia before shipping to run in Canada last year and have five wins and two other top three finishes in 10 starts.

Bred by Gerry Harvey and sold for A$425,000 as a yearling, he is the second foal out of the Group I-placed Godiva Rock.

He hails from the family of Group I winners Redding and Leica Smile among others. Each of his first six dams have either produced a stakes performer or the dam of a stakes performer.

This is American Pharoah’s sixth stakes winner of the year, putting him seventh among all North American sires in 2024.