HALLENDALE BEACH, Fla. – Nations Pride, a Grade 1 winner each of the past three seasons, was installed Sunday as the 2-1 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational. A full field of 12 will go postward that includes Integration, Major Dude, and Mi Hermano Ramon.
Nations Pride won the Grade 1 Arlington Million in 2024, the Grade 1 Canadian International at Woodbine a year earlier, and the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby Invitational in 2022.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Cigar Mile winner Locked has been made the 5-2 morning-line choice among a full field of 12 horses drawn Sunday for Saturday’s $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park. The Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup will be the finale on an outstanding 13-race program that also includes the $1 million Pegasus Turf and $500,000 Filly and Mare Turf.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Eclipse Award finalist Gaming will battle impressive maiden winners Patch Adams and American Promise for Kentucky Derby points next Saturday at Oaklawn Park when he breaks from the rail in the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes that drew 10.
The 3-year-old colt Hypnus won his 1 1/16-mile debut in a maiden race Saturday in a faster time than the Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds on the same card, earning an 85 Beyer Speed Figure, seven points higher than Lecomte winner Disco Time. Travelling smoothly from midpack under Brian Hernandez Jr., Hypnus steadily gained from the three-furlong marker, hitting the front at the sixteenth pole and drawing smoothly away to a two-length win.
Built didn’t win the Lecomte Stakes, regressing from the 92 Beyer Speed Figure he earned winning the Gun Runner on Dec. 21 to a 78, but trainer Wayne Catalano, if nothing else, saw a colt that displayed heart.
Going around the far turn in the Lecomte, Built clearly appeared to struggle with the sloppy, sealed racing surface, an impression jockey Jareth Loveberry confirmed in post-race comments and that Catalano further asserted Sunday morning.
“He couldn’t stand up on it,” Catalano said. “He acted like he didn’t like it at all.”
Simply Joking bounced out of her convincing Silverbulletday Stakes victory in good order, trainer Whit Beckman said, and will likely run back Feb. 15 at Fair Grounds in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes, a stepping-stone to the Fair Grounds Oaks – and points beyond.
Simply Joking debuted Dec. 21 and won the six-furlong Letellier Stakes with a stalking trip. She went to the lead Saturday under Jaime Torres and, aside from racing greenly the final 50 yards, had no trouble with her first route trip. Simply Joking got an 87 Beyer, up from 84 in her debut.
The slowest raw time in recent Lecomte Stakes history also produced the lowest Beyer Speed Figure in recent Lecomte Stakes history, but trainer Brad Cox believes Disco Time will continue improving through the winter and into the spring of his 3-year-old season, and that the figure he earned Saturday does not define the colt.
Laurel Park in Maryland has canceled its nine-race Sunday card due to the winter storm that has descended into the Midwest, the mid-Atlantic, and the entire Northeastern seaboard.
Laurel sent out notice of the cancellation early on Sunday morning, just in advance of the arriving freezing rain and a forecast of snow later in the day.
Laurel opened its 2025 season on Friday. The Saturday card featured four minor stakes races. Sunday’s nine-race card did not feature any stakes races.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Despite overnight rains throughout the South Florida area, four potential starters for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational worked locally on Saturday including Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan at Gulfstream Park and likely favorite Locked over his winter base at Palm Beach Downs.
Dirt-route stakes winners First Resort and Poster, both Godolphin homebreds trained by Eoin Harty, are stuck in a holding pattern, preparation for their 3-year-old debuts compromised by winter weather in Kentucky.
First Resort won the Kentucky Jockey Club on Nov. 30 at Churchill Downs, earning a solid 88 Beyer Speed Figure, and a week later Poster captured the Remsen at Aqueduct with an 83 Beyer. Harty had both colts based at Turfway Park, where Poster last posted a timed workout on Jan. 3, First Resort on Dec. 27.
