Turfway has already canceled, Aqueduct might cancel, and Baffert trains half the La Canada field. We’re staying in South Florida this wintry Saturday. A couple of mentions regarding the Pegasus World Cup. A horse exiting wins in the Lecomte, the St. Louis Derby, and the Dwyer, who never has faced older horses or raced as far as 1 1/8 miles, who drew the rail as a pace player inside other speed, apparently will go favored in this full-field Grade 1 worth $3 million. If Disco Time’s résumé gives pause, what of morning-line second choice White Abarrio, who hasn’t won since March, keeps getting slower, and continually draws scrutiny from regulatory vets? Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf It’s hard believing the morning line in the Filly and Mare Turf. But while 12-1 on Proctor Street seems three times the price she could be, I like the mare regardless. Her talent has always been there. Watch her second start, the N1X at Saratoga, and you’ll wonder at the five-sixteenths pole how Proctor Street could possibly win. Grayosh, the horse she nipped, in her next out took the Lake Placid from She Feels Pretty. But Proctor Street has not always been straightforward – or so it seems from the outside. She has raced too keenly at times, and after that fast-finishing Saratoga win pulled a pace-and-fade fifth making her stakes debut. :: Play Gulfstream Park with confidence! DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports are available now.  That was it for 2024. Proctor Street’s 2025 debut left me feeling like the point of the race was – no matter what – to hold the horse well off the pace and make absolutely sure she eventually switched off. And after trying to get rank, she did! Voila – next out at Saratoga, Proctor Street made no mistakes and won impressively. Proctor Street probably should have won the Perfect Sting. Two things: I thought the rider pushed the button a half-furlong too soon, and Proctor Street appeared to idle after taking the lead. She did no such thing in her smart Keeneland N3X allowance tally, nor in the Cardinal, where Proctor Street stayed relaxed stalking a slow pace, then knifed through a narrow opening like the professional racehorse she has, through diligent tutelage, fully become. Not at 12-1, but this race is Proctor Street’s for the taking. Christophe Clement Speed Shopper cost $430,000 as a yearling and after two starts during the winter of 2023-24 she looked like a bust. In November of 2024, unraced since February, she went to a breeding auction and failed to meet a $95,000 reserve. Trainer Will Walden won a Grade 1 this past October with a reclamation project named Rhetorical, and here comes another one in Speed Shopper, whose career has gone nowhere but up since Walden switched her to turf. Making her second start for Walden and second after a 16-month layoff, Speed Shopper lost an Ellis Park maiden turf route, but in so doing showed a spark, a turn of foot totally unseen in previous performances. That’s why, off the loss, Walden took her to Saratoga, where Speed Shopper aired. And, in a similarly confident move, Walden shipped the horse after a fourth-place N1X allowance finish in New York to Santa Anita for the Grade 2 Rodeo Drive, which Speed Shopper would have won with better luck. To be fair, Speed Shopper got caught four wide on all three turns in the Saratoga defeat, battling the race flow in a subtly strong showing. Her ascendance continued over Turfway’s Tapeta, where Speed Shopper won her first stakes with something left in the tank after 1 1/4 miles. She’s set to run the best race of her life – and that ought to be enough. Fred W. Hooper Life and Times made his career debut in November of his 4-year-old season. There’s a reason the owner Michael Tabor kept faith in this horse. Namely, he’s awesome. :: Get Gulfstream Park Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day.  Life and Times debuted with an astronomical 104 Beyer, but his second start, with a 100 Beyer, showed he really is a potential star: much more polished, professional, and intentional than in the debut. There’s one workout video for Life and Times, his Jan. 10 drill, where he breezed outside a workmate who Life and Times, going effortlessly, made look like a very limited racehorse. That work partner, Accelerize, beat Grade 1-placed Just a Touch last weekend in the Louisiana Stakes. Knightsbridge is a nice horse in his own right. I doubt he’ll have an answer for Life and Times going a mile. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.