Knicks Go, Life Is Good get fresh group of challengers for Pegasus World Cup
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – While favorites Knicks Go and Life Is Good remain a constant at the top of the list for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup here Jan. 29, the names of the potential supporting players have undergone a significant change over the past week. A half-dozen of the original nominees are gone and the names of six more possible starters have been added to the mix when the second of three invitation lists for the Grade 1 event was released Sunday.
Gone from the original list are Flightline, Midnight Bourbon, Mandaloun, Eight Rings, Express Train, and Dr Post. They have been replaced by Chess Chief, Law Professor, Stilleto Boy, Title Ready, Fearless, and Olympiad, who was a very impressive allowance winner here Saturday. The also-eligibles are now American Theorem, Commandeer, Endorsed, Forewarned, and Happy American.
The imposing presence of likely Horse of the Year Knicks Go and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile hero Life Is Good could make it difficult to fill the starting gate for what has become the cornerstone event of the Gulfstream Park Championship season.
Trainer Todd Pletcher reported that Life Is Good continues to train lights-out for his much-anticipated confrontation with Knicks Go. Life Is Good worked five furlongs in 1:00.40 early Saturday morning at Palm Beach Downs.
“Another super work this morning,” Pletcher said. “He looked awesome, finished up real strong, galloped out great. I had him in a minute and two-fifths shading 23 for his last quarter, out seven furlongs in 1:26.40. I love the way he’s settled in here at Palm Beach Downs. He’s really training well but also is a little more relaxed. He likes the environment at Palm Beach Downs, where we take him out early and he’s the only horse on racetrack. He couldn’t work any better. He’s always been such an exceptional work horse, anything other than exceptional would be concerning, but I think right now he’s every bit as good or better than he was going into the Breeders’ Cup.”
Pletcher’s other two possible Pegasus candidates are Fearless and Happy Saver, who both also worked at Palm Beach Downs recently. Fearless breezed five furlongs on Friday in 1:00.20, his second work since an impressive victory in the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday earlier in the meet. Happy Saver went a half-mile in 48.60 on Sunday morning, his first work since a second-place finish in the Grade 1 Clark at Churchill more than seven weeks earlier.
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Olympiad earned a spot on the invitation list after registering a 7 1/4-length allowance victory when going two turns for the first time Saturday. Olympiad, whose only stakes experience was a troubled fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile in his 2021 finale, earned a 101 Beyer Speed Figure on Saturday.
Pletcher also reported that Colonel Liam remains on target to defend his title in the $1 million Pegasus Turf Invitational after breezing five furlongs in 1:01.20 on Friday at Palm Beach Downs. Colonel Liam has been idle since an eighth-place finish in the Grade 1 Manhattan on June 5 at Belmont Park.
“He continues to train well,” said Pletcher, who also plans to start Never Surprised in the Pegasus Turf. “One more [work] to go. At the moment, all systems are go for him.”
The second invitation list for the Pegasus Turf also was released Sunday, and along with the Pletcher duo includes Channel Cat, Doswell, Hit the Road, March to the Arch, Point Me By, Sacred Life, Space Traveller, and the Mike Maker-trained trio of Cross Border, Field Pass, and Flavius.