Heavily favored Knicks Go leads from start to win $3M Pegasus World Cup.
Favorite not threatened in taking top spot in the $3 million Grade I race
Knicks Go went to the lead right out of the gate and dared the other 11 runners in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational to catch him. Nobody came close.
Picking up by far the biggest purse of his career, and doing so with ease, the heavily favored Knicks Go won the fifth running of the Pegasus on Saturday — his fourth consecutive victory, one that pushed his lifetime winnings to about $3 million.
“Great horses do great things,” trainer Brad Cox said.
“And he just did something great.”
Jesus’ Team was second and 25-1 long shot Independence
Hall was third. Knicks Go finished the 11⁄8 miles over the dirt at Gulfstream Park in 1:47.89 and paid $4.60, $3.60 and $3.
Jesus’ Team paid $8.60 and $4.80. Independence Hall paid $10 to show.
Knicks Go is owned by the Korea Racing Authority conglomerate, and the plan is to keep him running throughout the rest of the year — even though his future stud fee surely went up a bit after he added the Pegasus win to a resume that already included last year’s Breeders’ Cup dirt mile victory.
“Outstanding performance. … We’re honored to be here, to win the race,” said Jun Park, who was at Gulfstream representing the Korea group.
Starting from the No. 4 post, Knicks Go was guided to the rail early by jockey Joel Rosario. Before long, he was in the clear and simply stayed there.
“Joel has a lot of confidence in the horse and the horse has a lot of confidence in him,” Cox said.
Pegasus Day was a big day for Knicks Go’s connections, and also for Gulfstream, which had horseplayers trackside for the first time in more than 10 months. Pegasus Day always brings out celebrities as well; former NBA player Amar’e Stoudemire was at Gulfstream to give the call of “Rider’s Up!” moments before the race.
Attendance at Gulfstream was capped at 1,800, about one-sixth of capacity. Masks were mandatory and social distancing was required.