Something Awesome looks sharp in Pegasus drill
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Wet weather on the South Florida coast Sunday morning resulted in less-than-perfect track conditions for two participants in Saturday’s Pegasus World Cup program - Something Awesome, one of the outsiders in the $9 million World Cup Invitational, and Yoshida, the likely favorite for the $7 million World Cup Turf.
Working over a racetrack that had been freshly sealed and officially labeled “muddy” at the time, and with light rain falling, Something Awesome breezed five furlongs in 1:00.36, posting splits of 23.97 and 35.96 along the way. Something Awesome was well within himself at the wire and appeared to relish the off going. He galloped out with good energy, six furlongs in 1:14.62 before pulling up seven-eighths in 1:28.91.
“He’s training very well, I can’t ask for any better," said trainer Jose Corrales, who trains Something Awesome for owner-breeder Frank Stronach. “We brought him here early and it seems like he’s really acclimated well to the track and the surroundings.”
Something Awesome, a former claimer who ran for as little as a $32,000 tag earlier in his career, won the Grade 2 Charlestown Classic last April and will be ridden in the Pegasus World Cup by Hall of Fame jockey Edgar Prado.
Imperative, the final addition to the Pegasus World Cup lineup, will have jockey Tyler Gaffalione aboard, owner Ron Paolucci revealed on Sunday.
“We decided off his work a week ago Saturday to go ahead and take a shot,” Paolucci said. “He didn’t mean to catch company, but he had a couple of stakes horses in front of him and he really went after them. That’s not him. He’s really not much of a work horse. His last race was disappointing, but he was full of mucous coming out of the race which we cleared up, and I think he’s training as good now as he was two years ago when he beat Stanford here. And the fact he really likes this racetrack is a big key for me.”
Bravazo, who shipped to town on Saturday, went out shortly after the track opened for training at 5:15 a.m. on Sunday to get his first feel for the surface under the watchful eye of trainer D. Wayne Lukas, while Kukulkan, the undefeated Mexican 3-year-old sensation, was scheduled to be released from quarantine in Miami and arrive on the grounds later that afternoon.
At Payson Park, Yoshida breezed a very easy half-mile in 50.72, his final quarter in 24.50, over a wet track while kept in what appeared to be the better going out near the middle of the strip the entire way in his final prep for the Pegasus Turf. He, too, had plenty of energy on the gallop out, completing five furlongs in 1:03.75 before pulling up three parts of a mile in 1:18.25.
Yoshida, winner of the Grade 1 Woodward and fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in his last two starts, will return to the turf for the first time since a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Fourstardave on Aug. 11 at Saratoga.
One of Yoshida’s chief rivals in the Pegasus Turf, Japanese invader Aerolithe, visited the track for the first time early Sunday morning, galloping two miles while also spending an extended period of time just walking about and getting accustomed to the new surroundings.
Entries for both the Pegasus World Cup Invitational and the Pegasus Turf will be drawn in a special ceremony here at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Mott also worked his second Pegasus Turf contender, Grade 1 winner Channel Maker, four furlongs in 51.60 over the “off” track Sunday at Payson Park.
