Shortly after 5:40 p.m. on Saturday, as the sun sets on Gulfstream Park in Florida, a horse will take home the largest purse ever offered in Thoroughbred racing, the $7 million winner’s share of the inaugural $12 million Pegasus World Cup.
Beyond the winner, however, the connections behind the vast majority of the also-rans will bear losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Silent Bird’s win streak will remain intact until at least March. The 5-year-old was expected to run Feb. 4 in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes after his fifth straight win Jan. 6 in an allowance race. However, trainer Mark Glatt said the horse will pass on the 1 1/16-mile San Antonio and be considered for the Grade 1, seven-furlong Triple Bend on March 11.
Silent Bird matched his career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the allowance over a wet track labeled “good.” Glatt said, “He really didn’t handle the mud that day, he just overcame it.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – After watching Unique Bella blaze five furlongs in 58.20 seconds Thursday morning, one could conclude that the Santa Anita surface was exceptionally fast or that the 3-year-old filly is exceptionally talented.
“I think it’s both,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said after Unique Bella rolled through another sharp workout in preparation for a showdown with 2016 champion 2-year-old filly Champagne Room in the Grade 2 Las Virgenes Stakes on Feb. 5.
Before there were 12 horses ready to run in the Pegasus World Cup, there were 12 starting slots to fill. Here is how each horse and slot-holder came to get their shot at the $12 million purse.
Coolmore (Susan Magnier, Derrick Smith, Michael Tabor) Arrogate
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Victor Espinoza is hoping to make the best of both a second chance and a final chance with California Chrome on Saturday in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park.
The second chance comes against Arrogate, who beat California Chrome in their lone prior meeting, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a result that has gnawed at Espinoza since the horses crossed the wire, for he believes he made a tactical error in that race.
“I should have just let him run,” Espinoza said this week. “I waited too long to open up.”
El Kabeir, a three-time graded stakes winner and earner of more than $900,000, has been transferred to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott and is now based at the Payson Park training center in Indiantown, Fla.
On Tuesday, El Kabeir breezed three furlongs in 35.80 seconds over the dirt at Payson. It was his second breeze for Mott.
Hot City Girl, third as the favorite in last Saturday’s Interborough Stakes, will point to the $100,000 Broadway Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares Feb. 18 at Aqueduct.
Prior to the Interborough, trainer Linda Rice said Hot City Girl’s future would likely be determined by how she performed in that race. Hot City Girl dueled with Disco Chick early on and both were run down by Takrees, who beat Disco Chick a neck with Hot City Girl in third, beaten 1 3/4 lengths.
Weast Hill, who improved his Oaklawn record to 6 for 6 when winning an Arkansas-bred allowance Sunday in his first start since May, is being pointed to the $100,000 Nodouble on Feb. 25 at Oaklawn. The race is one of two stakes at the meet that trainer Brad Cox has penciled in for Weast Hill. He said the other is the $100,000 Arkansas Breeders’ on April 8.
Weast Hill won both of those races last year. The stakes are restricted to horses bred in Arkansas. Cox and breeder-owner Starsky Weast freshened Weast Hill last year with the intent of targeting those stakes at Oaklawn.
Sunland Park in New Mexico, which is conducting a mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, on Monday announced changes to its racing format. The track plans to run all-Quarter Horse cards on Fridays, while the cards on Saturdays, Sundays, and Tuesdays will be mostly for Thoroughbreds.
The changes start Friday.
I’m a Chatterbox has two major objectives for the first half of the year, and the initial one comes Sunday at Sam Houston Race Park. A multiple Grade 1 winner, I’m a Chatterbox will make her first start since the Breeders’ Cup in the Houston Ladies Classic.
The Grade 3, $400,000 race is the richest Thoroughbred offering in Texas and will anchor a card of five stakes. The program includes the Grade 3, $250,000 Connally Turf Cup, a 1 1/2-mile race for 4-year-olds and up that drew a trio of entries from trainer Mike Maker.
