Maxfield, Mystic Guide not possible for Pegasus, trainers say

Neither Maxfield nor Mystic Guide, Godolphin homebreds based at Fair Grounds, will make the Pegasus World Cup Invitational later this month, their respective trainers said Sunday.

Both 4-year-old colts are getting over a relatively minor virus that has been circulating at Fair Grounds in recent weeks. Brendan Walsh, who trains Maxfield, said his horse is scheduled to go back to the track Monday, but an interruption in training rules out any chance of making the Pegasus.

“Some horses came down with something when the temperature dropped here,” Walsh said. “The only remedy is to back off on them. He showed some early signs, so we backed off. It’s curtailed any aspirations of going for a race like the Pegasus. The good news is he’s fine.”

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Maxfield won his debut and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity as a 2-year-old of 2019, but missed the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with an ankle injury. He was an impressive winner of the Matt Winn Stakes in May, his first start back from a layoff, but during an early-summer workout at Keeneland he fractured a cannon bone. Maxfield, showing better early speed than ever before, won the Dec. 19 Tenacious Stakes in his latest comeback, but now will have to wait until February, if all goes well, to make his 4-year-old debut.

“Can’t say for sure what we’ll do next, but we’ll be looking at running him back the first half of February,” Walsh said

Trainer Mike Stidham also had been eyeing the Pegasus for Mystic Guide, last seen finishing second to Happy Saver in the Jockey Club Gold Cup some three months ago. But Mystic Guide was only walking under tack in the barn as of Sunday, and can’t be properly readied for the Pegasus.

“We’re out,” Stidham said of the Pegasus. “He had the temp for a few days and he’s still coughing. He needed to work this weekend for us to even consider that race.”

Stidham said that connections planned to bring Mystic Guide back to the races in a stakes race at either Oaklawn or Fair Grounds later this winter.

Stidham didn’t rule out an overseas start in a race such as the Dubai World Cup, but said it was “more likely” Mystic Guide would campaign domestically.