Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Maxfield, Mystic Guide will miss Pegasus due to virus
Neither Maxfield nor Mystic Guide, Godolphin homebreds based at Fair Grounds, will make the Pegasus World Cup Invitational later this month, their respective trainers said Sunday.
Both 4-year-old colts are getting over a relatively minor virus that has been circulating at Fair Grounds in recent weeks. Brendan Walsh, who trains Maxfield, said his horse was scheduled to go back to the track Monday, but an interruption in training rules out any chance of making the Pegasus.
“Some horses came down with something when the temperature dropped here,” Walsh said. “The only remedy is to back off on them. He showed some early signs, so we backed off. It’s curtailed any aspirations of going for a race like the Pegasus. The good news is he’s fine.”
Maxfield won his debut and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity as a 2-year-old of 2019, but missed the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with an ankle injury. He was an impressive winner of the Matt Winn Stakes in May, his first start back from a layoff, but during an early summer workout at Keeneland he fractured a cannon bone. Maxfield, showing better early speed than ever before, won the Dec. 19 Tenacious Stakes in his latest comeback, but now will have to wait until February, if all goes well, to make his 4-year-old debut.
“Can’t say for sure what we’ll do next, but we’ll be looking at running him back the first half of February,” Walsh said.
Trainer Mike Stidham also had been eyeing the Pegasus for Mystic Guide, last seen finishing second to Happy Saver in the Jockey Club Gold Cup some three months ago. But Mystic Guide was only walking under tack in the barn as of Sunday, and can’t be properly readied for the Pegasus.
“We’re out,” Stidham said of the Pegasus. “He had the temp for a few days and he’s still coughing. He needed to work this weekend for us to even consider that race.”
Stidham said that connections planned to bring Mystic Guide back to the races in a stakes race at either Oaklawn or Fair Grounds later this winter.
Stidham didn’t rule out an overseas start in a race such as the Dubai World Cup, but said it was “more likely” Mystic Guide would campaign domestically.
Amoss turns things around
Trainer Tom Amoss went winless with three Fair Grounds starters Sunday – noteworthy for a barn that ended the year smoking.
Before Sunday, Amoss had gone 14-7-2-0 at Fair Grounds since Christmas, a far cry from his stable’s 3-for-24 mark to start this Fair Grounds season.
“The way I started the meet they were whispering behind my back, it was so bad,” Amoss said. “There are all kind of things that go into turning it around.”
Amoss’s most recent winner was Defeater, who debuted with a maiden special weight win, beating a live pair of Godolphin homebreds, Colonel Bowman and Gershwin, in the Saturday nightcap, a dirt sprint. Defeater broke near the back of the field and made a sustained rally to win by 2 1/4 lengths, his sixfurlong time of 1:11.06 translating to a 76 Beyer Speed Figure. Defeater is by Union Rags out of Internal Affair, by Orientate.
“He’s a good horse and he’ll be even better going farther,” Amoss said. “He’s not athletic out of the gate, and I was worried about six furlongs because of that. The pace wasn’t quick, and he still ran them down.”
Defeater likely will make his next start in a two-turn allowance race – when and where is yet to be determined.
Also uncertain is the next start for No Parole, but Amoss said the newly turned 4-yearold Louisiana-bred “is getting ready quickly.” No Parole hasn’t raced since finishing sixth in the Grade 2 Phoenix Stakes on Oct. 2 at Keeneland, but posted two quick works on Dec. 26 and Jan. 2 at Fair Grounds.
“Rather than talking about a specific race, it’s fair to say he’ll be ready to run by the end of the month,” Amoss said.
No Parole won the Grade 1 Woody Stephens by nearly four lengths last summer at Belmont. Among his comeback options is the $100,000 Louisiana-bred Premier Sprint over five furlongs on Feb. 10 at Delta Downs.
◗ The Fair Grounds Thursday card filled enough races, but lacks a real feature. The highest-class fare is a female-restricted Louisiana-bred turf mile, race 4, with multiple allowance conditions and a $35,000 claiming option.