All eyes on Saturday will be on Gulfstream Park, site of the third Grade 1, $9 million Pegasus World Cup, the new Grade 1, $7 million Pegasus World Cup Turf, and a stakes-packed undercard. Pegasus World Cup Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Accelerate and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner City of Light make an appealing match-up, considering they traded decisions last year. City of Light was the only horse to beat Accelerate in 2018, doing so on the square in the Oaklawn Handicap. But Accelerate extracted revenge by beating City of Light back to a soundly beaten third in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita. These two are the best horses on paper, and by a significant margin, and may wind up having this Pegasus all to themselves. But I’m looking at a different scenario. Accelerate must secure a forward early position or else he could get shuffled farther back in the short run to the first turn than he would like. I suspect his connections agree, and that’s what his bullet five-furlong work last Saturday was all about. But even if Accelerate secures good early position, he must run better from a Beyer Speed Figure standpoint than he did in the Classic or in his Awesome Again win two starts back. His 105 and 100 Beyers in those races were pedestrian, and below his four previous Beyers. City of Light is the inside speed. He might wind up pulling a perfect trip and is extremely dangerous. But there also is a chance City of Light may find himself in a pace battle with front-running Cigar Mile winner Patternrecognition, who has no choice but to send, and send hard, from the disadvantageous 12 post. I’m going with Tom’s d’Etat for the upset. Tom’s d’Etat always had the makings of a good horse. In fact, when he won by the length of the stretch at Saratoga in summer 2017, he earned a 106 Beyer that puts him in the ballpark with the best in this race. Tom’s d’Etat won off in both of his starts after a 15-month absence, including a stakes score most recently at Fair Grounds, and it is a very good sign that he is now putting starts together. Moreover, Tom’s d’Etat has the positional speed to sit a sweet trip just off a potential pace battle between City of Light and Patternrecognition. I’m not sure Tom’s d’Etat will be as high as the 20-1 he is on the morning line, but he is still a price horse with a real shot. Pegasus World Cup Turf There was a moment in upper stretch when I thought Yoshida might get up and win the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He wound up finishing fourth, and in the end, I thought he was simply unable to stay the 10-furlong distance. Yoshida did win last year’s Old Forester Turf Classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard going nine furlongs, but that was on off turf, and I wonder if this 1 3/16-mile distance might be a touch too far for him. Conversely, though the European filly Magic Wand certainly classes up on paper, her best performances have been going 10 furlongs or longer, and I wonder if this event isn’t a bit too short for her. Catapult is a major win threat, considering how much he has improved since relocating to Southern California. That said, the Breeders’ Cup Mile in which he finished a sharp second was the weakest Mile in memory. Bricks and Mortar is who I want. He earned a career-best Beyer of 102 winning an allowance prep for this off a 14 1/2-month absence and should relish the added distance he gets Saturday. I also thought that Bricks and Mortar was a demonstrably better horse than Yoshida when they were battling in stakes in 2017. W.L. McKnight Stakes Hunting Horn takes an enormous class drop out of races such as the Breeders’ Cup Turf and the Arc de Triomphe, but his performances last summer in the Belmont Derby and Secretariat – the former okay, the latter not okay – make me question how good he really is. Zulu Alpha is my play. Zulu Alpha was in a tough field last time in the Fort Lauderdale Stakes and had an impossible trip, racing four to five wide throughout. Zulu Alpha now stretches back out to a distance close to the one at which he dominated the Sycamore two starts back. And as in the Sycamore, he’ll be forwardly placed from the outset.