City of Light saves best for Pegasus World Cup triumph

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Michael McCarthy will always have City of Light.

Sure, he’s off to stud now, the economics of racing getting in the way. C’est la vie in the racing world. But the way City of Light dominated the third Pegasus World Cup on Saturday at Gulfstream Park marked a fitting coda to the job McCarthy has done with this now 5-year-old son of Quality Road, and should serve as a preview of coming attractions for a trainer who has shown that given the stock, he produces.

City of Light was good at 3 when he won the Malibu, better at 4 when he added two more Grade 1 victories, and in his final start ran the race of his life, winning the Pegasus as impressively as he did the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile 2 1/2 months ago.

This time, though, City of Light was facing Accelerate, with whom he had split two prior meetings, and who was coming off a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

In their third and final match, the one before both head to stud at Lane’s End Farm, it was no contest. City of Light ($5.80) turned back a bid from Accelerate nearing the quarter pole and kicked clear for an emphatic 5 3/4-length victory in the $9 million race.

Seeking the Soul, second to City of Light in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, emulated that performance by rallying for the runner-up spot. He passed Accelerate in deep stretch and finished 1 1/2 lengths in front of Accelerate, who was third.

Bravazo was fourth and was followed, in order, by Audible, Gunnevera, True Timber, Imperative, Tom’s d’Etat, Something Awesome, Kukulkan, and Patternrecognition.

City of Light covered 1 1/8 miles on the sloppy, sealed track in 1:47.71.

The win brought out a flood of emotions for McCarthy. The finality of this final career start for City of Light, and the chance he got from owners William and Suzanne Warren to train the horse, caused his voice to crack repeatedly at a post-race press conference.

“I’d like to thank the family sitting to the right of me, the Warrens,” McCarthy said. “They’ve done a lot for me personally, a lot for my family.”

McCarthy said he felt “out of body today,” then paused, caught his voice, and said, “I’m very grateful.”

McCarthy, formerly a longtime assistant to Todd Pletcher, went out on his own a little more than five years ago after returning to his native California.

“Started with one horse,” McCarthy said. “To have a horse like this come into your life, honestly, I can’t describe the emotion that goes along with something like this,” he said, hesitating to get his emotional equilibrium while his 8-year-old daughter, Stella, touched him on the shoulder in support.

“Winning the Breeders’ Cup was incredibly special. To follow it up with something like this, I don’t know if it’ll ever happen again, and if it doesn’t happen, I’ll be okay with it.”

Rain fell much of the day at Gulfstream, and though it eased a bit at one point late in the afternoon, by the time the field came on the track for the Pegasus it was coming down hard. Combined with the late post and the cloud cover, it was getting dusky, too.

With a short run to the first turn, the break was paramount. Both City of Light, who was the second choice at 9-5, and Accelerate, favored at 3-2, broke well, but City of Light has far more natural speed, and jockey Javier Castellano was able to position him in second heading around the first turn, behind only Patternrecognition, who was sent aggressively from his outside draw to take the lead.

“The way he broke out of the gate, I tried to get position into the first turn and see how the race developed,” Castellano said.

Patternrecognition led narrowly through an opening quarter in 23.23 seconds and half in 46.84 seconds, but before six furlongs in 1:10.80 he had chucked it, and City of Light asserted his superiority. City of Light took the lead, then faced a fresh challenge from Accelerate, who had been right behind the top two and now loomed menacingly.

But just like that, it was over. City of Light kicked clear turning into the stretch, and Accelerate could not respond in kind.

“I don’t think there’s a horse in the world who could have beat him today, “McCarthy said. “He’s a gift to everybody that walks him, everybody that feeds him, everybody that bathes him. I wish I had a better way with words, but I’m pretty speechless right now.”

John Sadler, who trains Accelerate, said his horse “ran a good race today in tough conditions over a speed-biased track.”

“We congratulate the winners. City of Light is a very good horse,” Sadler said.

City of Light was brought to Gulfstream more than a week before the Pegasus and got in his final work one week before the race.

“I was quietly confident all week,” McCarthy said. “We followed the same routine as at Churchill Downs when he won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Very pleased with his work last Saturday, trying to beat the rain.”

That’s the kind of detail Warren realized McCarthy provided when he hired him.

“He’s very much a detail man,” Warren said. “I think he’s a man of great character. He makes good decisions, because I have some pretty wild ideas.”

McCarthy, a coiled bundle of nerves until then, burst out laughing.

“I promise you, he does!” McCarthy interjected.

City of Light rewarded them with six wins in 11 starts, four of those Grade 1 victories. He made more than $5.6 million, and became an alluring stud prospect. Now he’s off to Versailles, in Kentucky, about 32 miles from a small town named Paris.

– additional reporting by Marty McGee