Across the Board: Parting Pegasus World Cup thoughts
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The extremely rich Pegasus World Cup card at Gulfstream Park produced few surprises while, at the same time, playing out about as form-fully as one might expect.
In the $9 million Pegasus on dirt, 9-5 second choice City of Light used good overall speed to score a victory. With that horse and third-place finisher Accelerate retired now, it's the race preceding it, the $7 million Pegasus World Cup Turf, where we can take away some handicapping insights moving forward.
Bricks and Mortar used a good stalking position to rally nicely through the stretch and catch front-running Fahan Mura and Magic Wand in the final furlong of the Turf. Aside from the winner's performance, I was impressed by the way that the newly turned 4-year-old filly Magic Wand clearly improved upon her OK fourth place finish in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Churchill Downs in November.
Note that Bricks and Mortar's victory in this rich event was his sixth score from just eight career starts and his second win since returning to competition in December. It was also just his second start since October 2017 following the comeback from injury.
Obviously, trainer Chad Brown had the 5-year-old Bricks and Mortar ready for a terrific performance with a fine series of workouts leading up to this rich event. Given that, if and when we should see Bricks and Mortar kept in active training during the next weeks or months, monitor the works looking for the same sort of pattern before backing him at expected short odds in races like Churchill Downs' Old Forester Turf Classic (G1) and Belmont's Manhattan (G1).
All that said, I must repeat the criticism I spelled out in my column last Friday about this ultra- rich racing day: Races with such extremely high purses tend to distort the intrinsic value of stakes.
To put up $7 million, or $9 million for anything less than a true championship event simply creates unfair comparisons with stakes that may struggle to create races worth $1 or $2 million but actually have stronger lineups. There really is no need to set up such extremely rich races unless the track or the entire racing industry is looking for an easy way to destroy the financial balance in this terrific sport.
On the undercard Saturday, I did suggest that Aztec Sense would be formidable in the $150,000 Fred Hooper stakes at one mile around one turn on the dirt, and I gave multiple stakes-placed Soglio a solid chance to upset the $200,000, W. L. McKnight stakes at 1 1/2 miles on the grass. Aztec Sense did win the Hooper, while Soglio finished second in another solid effort.
As for horses to watch going forward, I liked the way longshot Delta Prince flashed excellent speed in his workouts leading into the Pegasus Turf. He now seems ready for an improved performance in his next try backing up to a distance like 1 1/16 or 1 1/8 miles. He certainly is being well-managed by trainer James Jerkens.
Steve Davidowitz has written many books on handicapping, including the classic, "Betting Thoroughbreds." His Across the Board columns appear regularly at Horse Racing Nation. Click here to read past editions.
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