Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Sharp Azteca targets Pegasus
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After dominating Saturday’s Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, Sharp Azteca will return to south Florida this week and will most likely make his next start in the $16 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 27 at Gulfstream Park, trainer Jorge Navarro said Sunday.
“It’s 95 percent yes, we’re going in the Pegasus,” Navarro said by phone from south Florida. “The horse will tell me where he’s at once he gets here. I’m sure he’s going to be all right. I’m going to have enough time to get him ready.”
Navarro told the New York Racing Association publicity department that Sharp Azteca came out of the Cigar Mile with a cut on a hind leg, but called it superficial.
The Pegasus is run at 1 1/8 miles, a distance Sharp Azteca has yet to run. He did win the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup, a 1 1/16mile race, by 7 1/2 lengths in July at Monmouth Park. Among the horses he will have to face in the Pegasus is Gun Runner, the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and likely 2017 Horse of the Year.
“That horse is a serious horse, Gun Runner,” Navarro said. “Seeing how [Sharp Azteca] rated yesterday, we might have a chance.”
In the Cigar Mile, Sharp Azteca sat third early under Javier Castellano, took command turning for home, and drew off to win by 5 1/4 lengths over Mind Your Biscuits. Sharp Azteca ran a mile in 1:35.17 and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 115.
“We have a serious horse. He’s just coming into himself,” Navarro said. “I think people are really starting to enjoy this horse.”
Owners of horses interested in running in the Pegasus must make an initial payment – believed to be about $350,000 – by Dec. 15. The remainder of the $1 million payment to buy a spot into the field, which is limited to 12 runners, is due sometime in January.
Mind Your Biscuits, runnerup in the Cigar Mile, will van to Palm Meadows, a training center in south Florida, on Wednesday, trainer Chad Summers said.
Summers called the Pegasus “a longshot” but did not completely rule it out. Other options would include the General George at Laurel Park in February as a prep for the Golden Shaheen in Dubai, or the Gulfstream Park Sprint as a prep for the Grade 1 Carter at Aqueduct in April.
Catholic Boy’s options plentiful
Catholic Boy came out of his 4 3/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Remsen Stakes in good order and will get a little freshening at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, Fla., as his connections consider what road to take to a potential start in the Kentucky Derby.
Trainer Jonathan Thomas and John Panagot, racing manager for owner Robert LaPenta, said Catholic Boy would likely get three weeks off. They may not run him until the end of February or early March, which would rule out the Grade 3 Withers, at 1 1/8 miles, here Feb. 3.
“Ultimately, distance will play into how we map out our schedule,” Thomas said. “Certainly, he’s not going to back up to a mile. He’s going to stick around two turns, preferably something over a mile and a sixteenth if it comes up the right way.”
On March 3 there is the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth at 1 1/16 miles on dirt and the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on turf. Both could be options for Catholic Boy’s 3-year-old debut.
Catholic Boy has shipped for all four of his starts. He shipped from Del Mar to New York, where he took up residence in trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn for a month. Thomas credited Pletcher – for whom he once worked – and his staff for assistance in Catholic Boy’s preparations. Catholic Boy earned a 91 Beyer for the effort.
Avery Island, who finished second in the Remsen, will head to south Florida and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin’s Palm Meadows barn. However, McLaughlin said Avery Island would likely return to New York for the Withers. McLaughlin said Enticed, who won the Kentucky Jockey Club, would likely make his next start in the Grade 2, $350,000 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park, also on Feb. 3.
Wonder Gadot eyes Ky. Oaks
When Wonder Gadot won Saturday’s Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes at Aqueduct, it was her third win on as many surfaces. But trainer Mark Casse said Sunday that Wonder Gadot would be put on a path to get to the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 4.
“I’m going to keep her on the dirt,” Casse said Sunday. “She loves Churchill Downs, so you know what our goal will be.”
Casse has a plethora of soonto-be 3-year-old fillies and will want to separate them as he prepares them for the Oaks. Casse said he would consider shipping Wonder Gadot to Santa Anita for their 3-year-old filly stakes program.
“I think that track might suit her,” Casse said.
Indulgent’s future uncertain
Indulgent, the one-length winner of Saturday’s Grade 3 Go for Wand Handicap, will remain in New York while her connections determine her future.
The Go for Wand was Indulgent’s first career graded stakes victory and with her pedigree – she is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Frosted by Bernardini – solidified her status as a topflight broodmare prospect.
McLaughlin believes Indulgent has the pedigree to run farther and wouldn’t mind testing that theory in a race such as the $100,000 Ladies Handicap going 1 1/8 miles Jan. 21 at Aqueduct.
◗ Highway Star, who finished second in the Go for Wand, will get a break and is expected to run again in 2018. Highway Star’s runner-up finish propelled her past the $1 million mark in career earnings.