Brown has three good chances in Pegasus Turf
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With no Bricks and Mortar in his arsenal this time around, trainer Chad Brown will send out three horses trying to achieve the same goal he accomplished with just one last year: win the Pegasus World Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park.
Bricks and Mortar launched his undefeated 2019 campaign with an impressive 2 1/2-length victory in the inaugural running of the Pegasus Turf. The purse for the race last year was nearly $7 million. It has been reduced to just $1 million in 2020, albeit without the exorbitant fee to enter required a year ago. A full field of 12 plus one also-eligible was entered to go 1 3/16 miles on Saturday, with Brown sending out Without Parole, Instilled Regard, and Sacred Life against a stellar lineup that also includes Grade 1/Group 1 winners Arklow, Sadler’s Joy, Henley’s Joy, Next Shares, Mo Forza, and Magic Wand.
Without Parole, a Group 1 winner during the spring of 2018 at Royal Ascot, is coming off a third-place finish behind the fillies Uni and Got Stormy when making his U.S. debut in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.The Pegasus will mark just the second time Without Parole has competed beyond a mile in his career.
“He has a nice, cozy post inside, he’s been training very well, and I don’t think he’ll have any problem with the distance,” Brown said of Without Parole. “He’s been very good on firm ground, and as long as it stays that way I couldn’t like his chances any better.”
Instilled Regard comes off the most important win of his career, a half-length decision over Admission Office and Channel Cat going nine furlongs in the Grade 2 Ft. Lauderdale here last month. Fourth behind Justify in the 2018 Kentucky Derby, Instilled Regard, a son of Arch, seems to have found a new home on turf, a surface over which he was Grade 1-placed at 3.
“He’s an improving horse who got a great trip in his last race,” said Brown. “He’ll have to step up here against a much better field and I’m really interested seeing how he does against this caliber.”
Sacred Life will break from post 11 while also stepping up off a second-place finish behind Next Shares as the favorite in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit at Del Mar. The French-bred has not finished worse than second in four starts in the U.S.
“He has a nice turn of foot and the distance won’t be a problem, but he’s posted pretty far out and will need to work out a trip,” said Brown.
The fact the Pegasus Turf will be run medication-free this year – meaning no race-day Lasix can be administered – could give Brown a bit of an advantage since both Without Parole and Sacred Life had run without the anti-bleeding medication prior to shipping to the U.S.
“Going into the race, I don’t forsee an issue with any of our horses without Lasix ,and potentially it does give us a little advantage with two of those who have had experience racing without it,” said Brown.
Cox calls the no-Lasix policy the “wild card” coming into the Pegasus Turf with Arklow, who makes his first start since finishing eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. In his previous start, Arklow became a Grade 1 winner, beating Channel Maker and Sadler’s Joy in the 1 1/2-mile Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park.
“He just wasn’t able to tuck in and save ground at any point in the Breeders’ Cup but wasn’t beaten that far and came out of the race with a big figure on the [Ragozin] numbers,” said Cox. “We gave him a little freshening in November, and he’s been training extremely well. The no Lasix is a question mark – I’ve worked him the last few weeks without it and have had no problem so far. But it’s a little bit of an unknown right now.”
Magic Wand rallied to finish second behind Bricks and Mortar in the 2019 Pegasus Turf and was beaten less than a length by that nemesis nearly seven months later in the Grade 1 Arlington Million. The well-traveled mare held her form well throughout an arduous 2019 campaign, closing out the year by becoming a Group 1 winner in Australia in November and just missing a second major victory when nosed out by Win Bright the following month in the Hong Kong Cup.
Magic Wand also has plenty of experience racing without Lasix. She and her rider Ryan Moore will have to find a way to work out a trip after drawing the outside post 12.
Sadler’s Joy is certainly no stranger to Gulfstream Park, having won the Grade 2 Pan American in 2017 and Grade 2 Mac Diarmida the following year. He is closing in on $2.5 million in earnings after his victory in the Grade 3 Red Smith at Aqueduct in his 2019 finale.
Mo Forza, making his local debut, brings a four-race win streak in California, a series of improving efforts that includes victories in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby and Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile to conclude his 3-year-old season.
Trainer Mike Maker sends out a pair of key contenders, Henley’s Joy and Zulu Alpha. Zulu Alpha is exiting arguably a career-best performance, finishing a late-running fourth, beaten less than two lengths by Bricks and Mortar, in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
