Empty Tomb gets golden opportunity to run in the Pegasus World Cup

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Owner John Grossi and trainer Robert Falcone Jr. don’t typically get to run in races with seven-figure purses. So, when they received a call from Gulfstream Park officials inviting them to run Empty Tomb in next Saturday’s $3 million Pegasus World Cup, they couldn’t resist the temptation.

Thus, Grossi and Falcone decided to scratch Empty Tomb from Saturday’s $100,000 Jazil Stakes at Aqueduct and, provided the horse puts in a satisfactory workout early Saturday morning at Belmont Park, Empty Tomb was scheduled to board a van later Saturday morning for Florida and the Pegasus to take on Knicks Go and Life Is Good.

“It’s hard to pass up the opportunity,” Falcone said Friday. “I told John the worst-case scenario is we come back to Aqueduct and run in the Stymie. It’s not like John’s an owner who drops millions of dollars at the sale every year and ‘Oh, we’ll get one next year.’ Even though it looks like everyone else, including us, is running for third-place honors, we’ll take a shot as long as the horse is doing good, which he is.”

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Falcone and Grossi claimed Empty Tomb for $80,000 last summer at Saratoga. After finishing last in stakes at Belmont and Parx, Empty Tomb won a one-mile allowance at Aqueduct on Nov. 28 and ran a solid second in the Queens County, a race where he dueled with Backsideofthemoon for most of the trip, which set it up for Forewarned to come from off the pace and pull a 42-1 upset.

Falcone acknowledged that Empty Tomb’s running style is similar to that of the two likely Pegasus favorites, Knicks Go and Life Is Good, but noted that Empty Tomb has stalked and closed to pick up minor pieces in races.

Falcone noted that winning the Jazil would be nice, but after Falcone and the jockey got their percentages, Grossi would have been left with $40,000.

“If you run fifth in the Pegasus, you make double that,” Falcone said.

As of Friday, Falcone did not have a confirmed rider for Empty Tomb, a situation he indicated will play itself out as other horsemen make decisions on whether they are running in the race.