After breakthrough victory in Clark, Proxy set to take World Cup world tour

Proxy scored his first Grade 1 win in the Clark Stakes on Nov. 25 at Churchill Downs and will have even more important targets early in 2023.

Michael Stidham, who trains Proxy for his breeder, Godolphin, said Proxy had come out of the Clark in good shape and could next race Jan. 28 at Gulfstream in the Pegasus World Cup.

“The obvious spot is the Pegasus,” Stidham said. “It’s good timing at the end of January, and if he were to run well it’s good timing to the Dubai World Cup.”

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The Dubai World Cup is scheduled for March 25. Stidham saddled the race’s 2021 winner, Mystic Guide, for Godolphin, the most important victory of his long training career.

While Proxy, by Tapit out of Panty Raid, by Include, showed talent from his first races, in fall 2020, he needed time to grow up physically and even more so mentally. In the Clark, Proxy dug in to wear down pacesetting favorite West Will Power by three-quarters of a length.

“The old Proxy would not have gone on by that horse,” Stidham said. “He’s at the end of his 4-year-old year. He’s finally matured.”

The 2-year-old filly Purrfect, another Godolphin homebred stabled with Stidham at Fair Grounds, could make her stakes debut Dec. 26 in the $100,000 Untapable. Purrfect, by Medaglia d’Oro, won her career debut this past summer sprinting at Colonial Downs, and on Nov. 25 captured a first-level Fair Grounds allowance race in her first try around two turns.

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