Pegasus World Cup an option for Clark Handicap winner Leofric
Trainer Brad Cox won his first Grade 1 race, first Kentucky Oaks and first Breeders’ Cup event in 2018. Next, he could kick off 2019 with an entry in North America’s richest horse race.
Cox said Saturday that Clark Handicap (G1) winner Leofric will remain in training as his string moves from Churchill Downs to New Orleans for the winter. The Jan. 26 Pegasus World Cup — worth $9 million, at a cost of $500,000 to enter — is an option for the gray son of Candy Ride.
“The Pegasus is something we can look at,” Cox said. “I don’t want to run him just to say I have a horse in there. It will have to make sense moving forward. We’ll just have to see how he develops over the next month or two.”
Longer-term, Cox sees Leofric contending in Oaklawn Park’s lucrative stakes for older horses. He’s campaigned by Arkansas resident Steve Landers, who notched his first Grade 1 victory when Leofric hit the wire Friday night a neck in front of Bravazo.
The effort continued a breakout campaign for the 5-year-old, who since exiting the Razorback Handicap (G3) last February with a foot issue has returned to win four of his last five starts. The only defeat came in the Woodward Stakes (G1) at Saratoga, where Leofric was third.
“He’s just gotten really good this summer and fall,” Cox said.
It’s special,” he added. “We’ve had him a little more than two years. He’s had some setbacks and trips to the farm. He responds well. But like I said yesterday, he gives us it all every time he goes over there.”
Cox recently sent his other Grade 1 winner, the likely champion 3-year-old filly Monomoy Girl, to the farm for a break. Leofric, meanwhile, is a fresher runner having started his current form cycle in July.
He received a career-high 102 Beyer Speed Figure for the Clark which, given the caliber of horse he faced, compares well to Accelerate's 105 from the Nov. 3 Breeders' Cup Classic also run under the Twin Spires. Typically, Leofric then receives at least a month between starts.
“But if there’s a right spot and he’s doing well, there’s a chance we could look at a little prep race,” Cox said of targeting Gulfstream Park’s Pegasus World Cup. “It’s all up in the air right now."