San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
BAFFERT WINS 3RD PEGASUS WORLD CUP
Bob Baffert was the first trainer to win the Pegasus World Cup Invitational twice. And now, he’s the first to win it three times.
National Treasure, the Preakness winner last year, dug deep in the stretch to win the 11⁄8-mile Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Saturday. The Grade I, $3 million race is the richest of the year at Gulfstream, and National Treasure — the 5-2 favorite — had to hold off hard-charging Senor Buscador in the stretch run to get the victory.
Crupi, a 30-1 shot, was third. National Treasure was ridden by Flavien Prat and returned $7.20 to win after finishing in 1 minute, 50.51 seconds.
“I’ve always thought he was that good a horse,” said Baffert, who has been dominant in the race with three firsts and two seconds out of his five career Pegasus entries. “And he’s getting better and better . ... We felt good about him but you still need a lot of luck. You have to ship well, you have to break well, I knew there was going to be a hot pace.”
National Treasure handled it all with ease and was all alone in the stretch until the very final strides.
Warm Heart, a filly that was sent off at 2-1, made a huge move along the rail to hold off 14-1 shot I’m Very Busy and 45-1 shot Catnip to win the Grade I, $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf.
Didia, a 7-2 favorite, was at the front most of the way and held off 27-1 shot Surprisingly to win the Grade II, $500,000 Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf.
Local colleges
UC San Diego women’s basketball (8-12, 4-5 Big West) fell to UC Davis (10-9, 6-3) 62-49 at home. Parker Montgomery led the Tritons with 13 points.
• The San Diego State women’s basketball team (14-9, 5-4 MW) cruised to a 7954 win over Boise State (13-8, 4-4) at home. Adryana Quezada led the Aztecs with 19 points.
Locally
Nikita Nesterenko and
Sasha Pastujov each scored three goals and added an assist as the San Diego Gulls completed a weekend sweep at the Iowa Wild by a score of 7-4 in AHL action. The Gulls won 6-3 on Friday at Wells Fargo Arena.
• Faced with spending the entire month of January on the road, the San Diego Seals survived a furious comeback at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center and held off the host Wings, 12-11, to capture their third straight victory and improve to 5-2 on the season.
Curtis Dickson, Tre Leclaire and Austin Staats each scored a team-high three goals.
NFL
Myles Garrett has got another new coach. The Cleveland Browns have hired Jacques Cesaire as their defensive line coach to work with Garrett, the favorite to win AP Defensive Player of the Year. Cesaire, who spent the past two seasons in Houston, will replace Ben Bloom.
• The Philadelphia Eagles hired Vic Fangio to be their defensive coordinator, the team announced. Fangio spent the past season with Miami in the same role. He finished 2022 as a consultant for the Eagles.
• The Carolina Panthers parted ways with former interim head coach and special teams coordinator Chris Tabor as well as offensive line coach James Campen.
Motorsports
A pair of Cadillacs dominated the first quarter of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, but after a Porsche from Team Penske took the lead seven hours into the twice-roundthe-clock endurance race, reigning IMSA champion Pipo Derani seized it back for General Motors. Matt Campbell had built a lead of more than 11 seconds Saturday night in the No. 7 Porsche 963 after both Cadillacs made driver changes.
Skiing
Norwegian skier Ragnhild Mowinckel kept her focus to win a wind-affected World Cup downhill after a series of crashes and delays marked a race that also had some dramatic results for the U.S. Ski Team. Racing on the course that will be used for the Milan-cortina Olympics in two years, Mowinckel finished 0.35 seconds ahead of American racer Jacqueline Wiles and 0.44 ahead of home favorite Sofia Goggia.
• French skier Nils Allegre sped to his first career World Cup victory as two late starters upset the higherranked favorites at a tight super-g on the classic Kandahar course. Wearing bib 18, Allegre beat Guglielmo Bosca by 0.18 seconds after the Italian finished and spent two minutes hoping for what would have been his maiden win.
Soccer
Xavi Hernández won’t continue as Barcelona’s coach after this season, saying he can’t get the team out of a slump. Xavi announced his decision, minutes after Barcelona lost to Villarreal 5-3 in the Spanish league, leaving it 10 points adrift of leader Real Madrid.
• Second-placed Nice needed a late penalty to scrape past Metz 1-0 at home and stay on the tail of French league leader Paris Saintgermain.
• Arkadiusz Milik could have cost Juventus dearly. Juventus was held by relegation-threatened Empoli to 1-1 after Milik was sent off in the 18th minute.
• Maidstone provided the kind of massive upset the FA Cup is known for, Brighton’s
Joao Pedro netted a hat trick, and Luton scored a last-gasp winner against Everton in the fourth round. Non-league side Maidstone pulled off one of the competition’s biggest surprises in years by beating second-division Ipswich 2-1 to reach the last 16 for the first time. Brighton is back there again after making the semifinals last year, after Pedro netted his first hat trick for the club in a 5-2 win over fellow English Premier League team Sheffield United. Luton also advanced after substitute
Cauley Woodrow scored in the sixth minute of added time to secure a 2-1 win at Everton in a matchup between teams battling to avoid relegation from the top-flight. And Newcastle ousted Fulham 2-0 away despite a subpar performance.
• Harry Kane scored his 23rd Bundesliga goal for Bayern Munich in a 3-2 win over local rival Augsburg that was marred by Kingsley Coman’s
knee injury. Bayern cut the gap to two points to leader Bayer Leverkusen, which was held by Borussia Moenchengladbach to 0-0.