Pegasus World Cup 2018 (Jan. 27) - Gun Runner

From Wikipedia: The Pegasus World Cup is an American Thoroughbred horse race whose first running was on January 28, 2017 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida. With a purse of $12 million for its inaugural running, the Pegasus World Cup surpassed the Dubai World Cup as the richest horse race in the world. It is run over the dirt at the distance of ​1 1�8 miles (9 furlongs) and is open to horses four years old and up. The Grade I rating has been assumed from the Donn Handicap.

Some links:

Pegasus World Cup - home page

Pegasus World Cup - Wikipedia

@PegasusWorldCup - Twitter

Contenders:

#5 COLLECTED - trained by Hall of Fame trainer Baffert, who saddled Arrogate to victory last year.

#7 FEAR THE COWBOY - At the Oakridge Training Center in Ocala, Fear the Cowboy breezed an easy five furlongs.

#12 GIANT EXPECTATIONS

#6 GUNNEVERA

#10 GUN RUNNER - 2017 Horse of The Year & Champion Older Dirt Male! My favourite moment of his was winning the Whitney Handicap (2017) with a horseshoe anchor in his tail

#11 SEEKING THE SOUL

#4 SHARP AZTECA - Sharp Azteca worked 5 Furlongs in :58.40 at Gulfstream Park West on January 20th, 2018.

#1 SINGING BULLET

#3 STELLAR WIND - girlpower! Stellar Wind earned an Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old filly in 2015. She is scheduled to be bred to American Pharoah in 2018.

#9 TOAST OF NEW YORK - I read a touching story of him which I can’t find now, but I have this quote from his trainer Jamie Osborne: ""My job is to get them there retaining their desire; as fit as I can get them; as comfortable, as sound, as pain-free as I can get them; and to give them the opportunity to show whether or not the ability still exists.â€�. There is also a number of videos on his twitter, in which Toast of New York shows his beautiful walk. And conformation.

#8 WAR STORY - War Story worked 5 Furlongs in 1:01.80 at Gulfstream Park West on January 20th, 2018.

#2 WEST COAST - 2017 Champion Three-Year-Old Male! And another horse from Bob Baffert’s barn.

Any bets? :slight_smile:

Interesting…this should probably go on FF’s schedule too. :slight_smile:

I personally find the Pegasus to be a glorified Allowance race since it’s more about the money than the field but I’m excited to see Stellar Wind and Gun Runner square off. I sort of wish it was later in the year to keep older horses around longer.

I will be watching nonetheless.

Yes! I’m thinking of more regular writeups on real life races, similar to Stallion Spotlights, but I probably wouldn’t be consistent so I don’t want to promise anything :wink:

To make it more fun, I’m offering my 2yo created filly [color=red]The Handmaiden to the first person who correctly picks the first four finishers of this race, in the correct sequence! Write your picks in this post before Jan. 25, 2022 10:00am, FF time. Like this:

  1. Toast of New York
  2. Gun Runner
  3. Collected
  4. Fear The Cowboy

Yeah, I think it will be an interesting race, but considering they only thing you have to do is pay $1mil to enter any horse. No sort of qualifications necessary lol I’ll be watching, but it will probably just end up being a match race between Stellar Wind & Gun Runner. Might make picks later, we shall see haha

I’ve updated the first post with videos of Sharp Azteca, War Story and Fear The Cowboy breezing.

Updated with Eclipse Awards for Gun Runner and West Coast :slight_smile:

I’m not doing this for the chance of getting the 2yo (besides, the deadline for submitting picks has passed) but my picks in order are:-

  1. Gun Runner
  2. Sharp Azteca
  3. West Coast
  4. Collected

Yeah honestly, don’t need another 2yo LOL but for the heck of it

  1. Gun Runner
  2. Collected
  3. Stellar Wind
  4. West Coast

Haha I hope that the filly didn’t un-motivate you :wink:

I added post positions and Singing Bullet!

Also not going for the filly (I have plenty!) but will attempt a for-fun handicap.

  1. Gun Runner
  2. Toast of New York
  3. Stellar Wind
  4. West Coast

*thinking Sharp Azteca 4th/5th.

Interesting, that most horses galloped yesterday… I wonder if my ponies should do that on the day before raceday, too :wink:

And it’s Gun Runner for the win, who retires to stud with 19 Starts: 12 - 3 - 2, $15,988,500. 2nd is the 2017 Eclipse Champion Three Year Old Male, West Coast. Gunnevera was 3rd and Fear the Cowboy was 4th - at least I guessed that one!

Race replay:

youtube.com/watch?v=HIZ8bhLQ0wQ

The Pegasus World Cup 2019, to be held on January 26, introduces a Grade 1 Turf Race for a 2019 Championship Series! The new race is worth 7 Million. The addition of the turf race, which will be run at 1 3/16 miles, aims to attract and showcase twelve of the best older turf horses from around the world.

Now there are two to add! :smiley: