Pletcher has favorites in pair of turf marathons
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Ahead of all the Pegasus hubbub, a pair of matching Grade 3 turf marathons that once served as stand-alone features in their heydays will help make for an outstanding Saturday undercard at Gulfstream Park.
The $150,000 La Prevoyante and $200,000 W.L. McKnight are for older horses going the three-turn distance of 1 1/2 miles over turf. Todd Pletcher, the Hall of Fame trainer who is heavily involved in all three Pegasus events, has the morning-line favorite for the La Prevoyante with Always Shopping and for the McKnight with Abaan.
The La Prevoyante, which goes at 1:27 p.m. Eastern as race 5, is the first of seven graded stakes on the day. The McKnight (race 7, 2:31) leads off a 20-cent Rainbow 6 sequence (races 7-12) that ends with the $3 million Pegasus World Cup. The Rainbow 6 will be subject to a mandatory forceout on Sunday.
Both the La Prevoyante and McKnight were moved to Gulfstream in 2014 after being run for years at Gulfstream West (formerly Calder).
La Prevoyante
A horse-for-course angle is very much in play for Always Shopping, who was defeated in five straight races elsewhere after reaching peak form here last winter. The Repole Stable homebred recently reawakened with a nose victory in the Via Borghese at Gulfstream on New Year’s Eve, moving her record to four wins and a second from six starts over the local course.
“She does seem to like the Gulfstream turf,” Pletcher noted.
Indeed, as a three-length winner of this race last year on Pegasus Day, Always Shopping is a deserving program choice at 7-5. She’ll have Tyler Gaffalione aboard when breaking from post 4 in a field of nine fillies and mares.
“We just loved her effort last time,” Pletcher said. “It was pretty gutsy. She’s had a good schedule since then and seems to be coming up to this in good form.”
Aside from her fondness for the surface, Always Shopping also might have an edge in tactics – there’s just not much other speed to confront her here. It’ll be up to Gaffalione to coax the 6-year-old mare out front without expending too much effort as she tries to become the first back-to-back winner of the La Prevoyante since Coretta took the 1998-99 renewals for Christophe Clement.
Coincidentally, it’s Clement who might have the best chance at foiling the repeat with his duo of Beautiful Lover (post 6, Joel Rosario) and Sorrel (post 1, Irad Ortiz Jr.), although both will need to improve off their respective third- and seventh-place finishes in the Via Borghese.
This is the 52nd La Prevoyante, which stands as a tribute to the filly who was named Canadian Horse of the Year as a 2-year-old of 1972.
W.L. McKnight
Pletcher has a score to settle with Mike Maker – although not in the way you might think.
It’s only that Maker edged ahead of Pletcher by a 4-3 count for most all-time McKnight victories by a trainer when Tide of the Sea won last year on the Pegasus card, marking the fourth time in five years Maker has saddled the winner of this race.
Pletcher will try to knot it up again when Abaan (post 10, Luis Saez) makes his first start since a 4 1/2-length jaunt in the two-mile Allen Jerkens here Christmas Eve. It was the third victory in the last four tries for a much improved gelding who surely will again employ a front-running strategy in trying to score right back. He’s the 2-1 program favorite.
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Maker, whose prior McKnight wins spanned 2017-19, counters with four starters in a main body of 12 – and that doesn’t count two on the also-eligible list in an oversubscribed lineup of 15. The Maker runners standing the best chances are Temple (post 1, Umberto Rispoli) and a supplementary entry, Glynn County (post 9, Gaffalione), with his other entries being Media Blitz (post 4, Rosario) and King Cause (post 5, Jose Ortiz). Tiberius Mercurius and Kygo can only make the gate in case of early scratches.
Maybe the best hopes outside the Pletcher-Maker grip are Bakers Bay (post 8, Junior Alvarado) or the Rusty Arnold pair of Farmington Road (post 3, Emisael Jaramillo) and Bama Breeze (post 6, Corey Lanerie). Bakers Bay, more so than most of the opposition, is handy enough to figure into the mix from the opening bell.
This is the 55th McKnight, which honors the late 3M company chairman and racing enthusiast who died in 1978 at age 90.