Maker's trio part of deep field for W.L. McKnight

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There may be no deeper race on the Pegasus World Cup card Saturday at Gulfstream Park than the W.L. McKnight – and its sister race, the La Prevoyante, isn’t too bad, either.

That helps to explain why both Grade 3 races are so prominently situated on a sensational 12-race program that starts at 11:30 a.m. Eastern. The twin turf marathons, each worth $200,000, are key links in the Rainbow 6 (races 7-12) and the late pick five (races 8-12) and serve as inviting lead-ins to the main events.

W.L. McKnight (race 10, 4:14)

Trainer Mike Maker will be sending out three horses when he seeks an unprecedented third straight victory in the McKnight: Zulu Alpha and Soglio, the lukewarm favorites on the morning line, and longshot Markitoff. All three have developed a similar grinding style that should once again prove useful at this three-turn distance, but then again, the same can be said for most of this 14-horse lineup.

Zulu Alpha, a winner two back of the Grade 3 Sycamore at Keeneland last fall, will be stretching back out Saturday after failing to threaten run-off winner Glorious Empire when perhaps ill suited to the 1 1/8-mile distance of the Fort Lauderdale here last month.

“The winner was loose on the lead, and the soft ground my horse didn’t seem to care for,” said Maker, whose McKnight streak was built with Taghleeb (2017) and Oscar Nominated (2018).

Soglio has become quite a consistent performer in this niche, never finishing worse than third in his last seven starts. The 5-year-old gelding was nipped in tight photos in his last two starts, the latest being the two-mile Allen Jerkens here four Saturdays ago.

“He shows up every time,” said Maker.

Among a plethora of worthy challengers to the Maker contingent are Highland Sky, a battle-tested 6-year-old exiting a pair of Grade 1 turf races for Barclay Tagg; Canessar, making his first start in more than six months after coming to hand last summer for Arnaud Delacour; Hunting Horn, a Coolmore colorbearer trying to improve off his eighth-place finish at 114-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Turf; and Can’thelpbelieving, wheeling back off a solid runner-up effort just 17 days ago in a shorter turf allowance at Tampa Bay Downs for Graham Motion.

“He needs more ground to be at his best,” said Motion.

The McKnight, named for the noted 3M chairman and philanthropist who died in 1978, had been a longstanding fixture at Calder (now Gulfstream West) since 1973 before being moved here in 2014. It was a handicap for many years but is now contested under allowance conditions, with weights topping out at 123 pounds.

La Prevoyante (race 8, 3:05)

Chad Brown has absolutely dominated the filly-mare turf division in recent years, so it should come as no surprise that he has won two of the last four runnings of this 1 1/2-mile race with Goldy Espony (2015) and Texting (2018). This time, Brown will saddle Santa Monica as one of the top contenders in a field of 12.

Given their class, Santa Monica and Holy Helena figure as race favorites despite neither having won in some time. Santa Monica won the Grade 2 Dance Smartly at Woodbine on the Queen’s Place undercard last June, while Holy Helena, the 2017 Queen’s Plate winner, last prevailed in the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay at Belmont Park in early May.

Perhaps separating the two is this: Holy Helena has shown a distinct fondness for the Gulfstream course. The Stronach Stables homebred won twice here last winter and most recently finished a close second to another La Prevoyante entrant, Si Que Es Buena, in the Via Borghese here four weeks ago.

“She seems to like it here in Florida,” said Jimmy Jerkens, the trainer of Holy Helena. “She’s holding her flesh and training good, like she did last year.”

Si Que Es Buena, an Argentine import now trained by Motion, was making just her second U.S. start when she posted a mild upset in the Via Borghese at 1 3/16 miles.

Other players include English Affair, a winner last out of the Grade 3 Cardinal at Churchill Downs for Rusty Arnold; Tricky Escape, first or second in 13 of 21 career starts; and Semper Sententiae, back in against older horses after finishing third in the Tropical Park Oaks.

The La Prevoyante, first run at Calder in 1974, is named for the legendary filly who was the Canadian Horse of the Year as a 2-year-old in 1972 and was inducted into the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame in 1995. Weight assignments range from 123 to 117.

The La Prevoyante leads off the late pick five with a $750,000 pool guarantee.