Tickets for January's Pegasus World Cup on sale

Tickets for the second Pegasus World Cup, planned for Jan. 27 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., went on sale Friday, Gulfstream’s owner announced.

The cheapest ticket, general admission, is $75, which is $25 cheaper than the lowest-priced ticket available for last year’s inaugural running, which was also for a standing-room-only general admission ticket. Other tickets are available, costing up to $1,000 or more depending on location, while VIP suites are available for the race “upon request” at an unlisted price, according to the race’s website. Reserved seats in the grandstand run from $180 to $225 per person.

The tickets are going on sale at a time when there is uncertainty over the makeup of the race. Though officials of The Stronach Group, the private company that owns Gulfstream and administers the race, have said that they are confident that there will be enough horses to fill the race, the company has also acknowledged that only a handful of ownership groups have so far committed to spend $1 million for one of 12 rights to start a horse in the race (http://www.drf.com/news/flight-pegasus-facing-headwinds).

The 12 slots for the 2017 inaugural Pegasus were all sold by late May 2016, eight months prior to the race.

The inaugural Pegasus, which had a purse of $12 million, attracted a full field of 12 horses, including 2016 Horse of the Year California Chrome and 2016 3-year-old champion Arrogate. The purse for next year’s race is planned to be $16 million.

Last year, The Stronach Group, which is owned by owner-breeder Frank Stronach who purchased his own slot in the inaugural Pegasus, sold 12,000 tickets to the Pegasus, according to the company. A similar number of tickets will be offered again this year, a spokesman for the company said Friday.