Thoughts on Saturday’s Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream: ** I’m in complete agreement with the sentiment that it’s a shame City of Light is going off to stud now, at a point when he is only just beginning to realize his complete potential as a race horse. His near six-length romp in the Pegasus and his emphatic score in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile were dazzling performances – the best in a career that had several other high points. Look, I understand the economics of the situation. And as I noted a couple of times in the case of Horse of the Year and Triple Crown winner Justify, who among us would turn their backs on the piles of money the breeding industry is willing to throw at top race horses who are also exciting stud candidates? Few, if any, I think. That said, Accelerate’s championship campaign last year at age 5 was a powerful demonstration of what can happen when people allow their horses the time to mature and become the best performers they can be. One can only speculate what City of Light may have accomplished this year if he remained in training as a 5-year-old, but chances were excellent it would have been something special. Conversely, retirement is coming at the right time for Accelerate. His last two victories in 2018 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Awesome Again were not on a par with his earlier scores in the Pacific Classic and The Gold Cup at Santa Anita in both a visual and speed-figure sense. And his third-place finish in the Pegasus, beaten 7 1/4 lengths, represented another step backward. ** Saturday’s conditions at Gulfstream will make assessing many performances problematic going forward, and not only because of the sloppy condition of the main track. The main track was also clearly speed favoring, if not outright biased toward speed. Keep that in mind when thinking of Pegasus runner-up Seeking the Soul, who ran a very big race under the circumstances to rally from last and finish a clear second. ** City of Light and Seeking the Soul were also the one-two finishers in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, which makes for a compelling argument that last year’s Dirt Mile was a demonstrably stronger race than the Breeders’ Cup Classic won by Accelerate. But instead of celebrating the Dirt Mile, I think this just adds credence to a position that has appeared in this space for a number of years now: the Dirt Mile actually does damage to other Breeders’ Cup events. It siphons horses from the Sprint, especially when it is a one turn race like it was last fall at Churchill Downs, and it draws horses away from the Classic. How different would last year’s Classic have been if City of Light and Seeking the Soul ran in it (and yes, I am aware Seeking the Soul’s connections wanted to run in the Classic and went to the Dirt Mile as a consolation prize when he couldn’t get in from the Classic’s also-eligible list, which is a topic for another day). ** Speaking of assessing Pegasus Day main-track performances, City of Light was sensational even if he did race with the grain of the speed-favoring track. But I cannot use the way the track played as an excuse for Accelerate. Accelerate was never more than 1 1/2 to 2 lengths behind City of Light at any point of the race and was, in fact, less than a length behind City of Light nearing the stretch. As noted earlier, Accelerate wound up more than seven lengths behind City of Light at the finish. ** It’s worth keeping in mind that even though the first two winners of the Pegasus – Arrogate and Gun Runner – came off wins in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the form of the 1 1/4-mile Classic does not necessarily have to translate to the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus. They're two different types of races because of the distance difference alone, and that is yet another reason to appreciate how good Arrogate (when he was in form) and Gun Runner really were. ** Is there life for the older male dirt division after the Pegasus? Eclipse Award voting for the 2018 older dirt male division suggests there wasn’t much of one last year. Gun Runner was still an Eclipse finalist for older dirt male along with Accelerate and City of Light despite concluding his racing career after winning the Pegasus on Jan. 27, 2018. Here’s hoping we see a little more depth in this division this year beyond McKinzie and Catholic Boy, the two who appear most likely to fill the void left by the retirements of City of Light and Accelerate. ** While in the area of Eclipse Awards, every year in this space I note some indefensible Eclipse Award votes, and there were some beauties again (unfortunately) in the 2018 voting. For example, one voter thought Bulletin, winner of the new Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, was a better choice than the undefeated, three-time Grade 1 stakes winner and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Game Winner. One other voter thought Knicks Go was a better choice for champion of this division even though he was soundly beaten by Game Winner in the Juvenile, and even though he was beaten the length of the stretch in the Kentucky Jockey Club. One voter actually thought that Discreet Lover, the shocking 45-1 winner of the Jockey Club Gold Cup who reverted to form to finish a soundly beaten eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, was a better choice than Accelerate for champion older dirt male. I realize there were no good choices in the male turf division, but one voter made a mockery of the process by voting for Funtastic, who, after his 23-1 upset of a weak field in the United Nations, came back to finish seventh in the Sword Dancer and a distant 11th in the Canadian International. But the votes that might be most offensive were the two Horse of the Year votes for Monomoy Girl. I’m actually less bothered by the one Horse of the Year vote for Enable because at least Enable was the acknowledged star going into the 2018 Breeders’ Cup and her victory in the Turf was arguably the strongest of all 2018 Breeders’ Cup performances. While Monomoy Girl fell just 2 votes shy of being a unanimous 3-year-old filly champion and deserved every one of the 247 votes she received in that category, it is inconceivable to me that two people actually thought she was a better choice for Horse of the Year than Triple Crown winner Justify or dominant older dirt male Accelerate. There is just no rational defense for those two votes if the motives behind those votes were pure. ** Bricks and Mortar was terrific winning the inaugural Pegasus World Cup Turf. I’ve always held this horse in high regard and, after missing time with injury, he looks like he may be on his way to being all he can be this year at 5. Still, that was only a solid field he beat Saturday and nothing more, which was not entirely unpredictable for a turf race in the U.S. in January, even one with a $7 million purse. It’s likely Bricks and Mortar will be required to beat a stronger group for a tiny fraction of the purse money later this season. ** Like everyone else, I was wowed by Hidden Scroll’s 14-length romp in his debut, and by World of Trouble’s well-measured score in the off-the-turf Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint, even if both were accomplished with the grain of the speed-favoring track. Now, it’s up to Hidden Scroll to demonstrate he can be as impressive on a fast track. We already know the wickedly fast World of Trouble can impress on just about anything.