Pegasus World Cup: Tough choice, but Saez lands on Get Her Number
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Kiaran McLaughlin had to make a lot of difficult decisions during a sensational 25-year training career that resulted in more than $120 million in stable earnings.
Not a lot has changed in that regard in the nearly three years that have elapsed since McLaughlin retired from training to begin booking mounts as the agent for star jockey Luis Saez. Case in point: his decision to ride Get Her Number instead of Art Collector in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
Saez had ridden Art Collector, a career earner of more than $2.3 million, in seven of the horse’s last eight races. Saez rode Get Her Number, trained by Peter Miller for Gary Barber, for the first time when the horse was beaten just a head as the runner-up in his most recent race, the Grade 1 Cigar Mile in December at Aqueduct.
Art Collector is owned by Bruce Lunsford and trained by Bill Mott.
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“It was a very tough decision,” said McLaughlin. “Luis and I talked about it, and this is what we came up with. We love Bruce and we respect Bill as a great trainer. And the horse has been fabulous to us. These were the options and this is where we landed.
“This might be my worst call ever, and it might be my best,” McLaughlin added with a chuckle. “That’s just how it falls sometimes.”
Mott has sought out Junior Alvarado, his go-to jockey in recent times, to ride Art Collector, a 6-year-old whose status as to whether he goes directly to stud at Claiborne Farm hinges on his performance in the Grade 1 Pegasus. Mott and Alvarado have teamed to win major events within the last year with Olympiad, Cody’s Wish, Speaker’s Corner, and Casa Creed.
Get Her Number and Art Collector figure among the middling wagering choices in one of the more competitive renewals of the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus, which is being run for the seventh time. The morning-line favorites are Cyberknife (5-2), Proxy (9-2), Skippylongstocking (5-1), and Defunded (6-1). Fourteen were entered, including also-eligibles Hoist the Gold and Endorsed.
First post for the 13-race Saturday card is 10:50 a.m. Eastern. Besides three Pegasus events, five other stakes (including four graded) are part of a terrific undercard. The Grade 3, $500,000 Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf goes at 4:06 as race 11, followed by the Grade 1, $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (race 12, 4:40) and the Pegasus (race 13, 5:40).
NBC will provide coverage of all three Pegasus races on a 90-minute broadcast starting at 4:30.
There is no walkup admission for Saturday. Tickets can be purchased through the track website, gulfstreampark.com.
Runners in all three Pegasus races had to be on the Gulfstream backstretch by 4 p.m. Wednesday. Ship-ins are being housed in Barn 4, separated by a great distance from Barn 21, which has been quarantined after a horse tested positive last weekend for the equine herpesvirus.
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