South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Knicks Go takes home Pegasus World Cup
HALLANDALE BEACH — Knicks Go did exactly what was expected of him in the $3 million Pegasus World Classic on Saturday at Gulfstream. He broke running, had the lead by the first turn then played catch me if you can with 11 rivals. He never gave them a chance.
Joel Rosario rated him through moderate fractions, with Last Judgment serving as the sacrificial lamb trying to take something out of him. But the 40-1 longshot wasn’t good enough to make the even-money favorite or Rosario break a sweat.
Rosario said he was never concerned, even though Knicks Go had not run as far as the mile and an eighth of the Pegasus. “He’s been challenged before. He just runs faster and faster. I knew I would have something left.”
As it turned out he had more than enough left. When two or three challengers seemed to be emerging at the top of the stretch, Rosario asked for a little more and Knicks Go responded with a quick spurt that left everyone in his wake, battling for the lesser shares of the rich purse.
The final order resembled the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile with
Jesus’ Team again picking up the place, 2 ¾ lengths in arrears, just as he had at Keeneland in November. Independence Hall settled for third. Knicks Go ran the 9 furlongs 1:47.89.
The victory was the fourth in a row for Knicks Go since being transferred on a 10-race losing streak to trainer Brad Cox last year.
A jubilant Cox, one of the three finalists for the Eclipse Award as top trainer of 2020, said the victory establishes Knicks Go as one of the top older horses in training. “A horse like this is why you get out of bed seven days a week.”
Todd Pletcher, who has dominated the trainer’s standings for more than a decade, has a reputation for specializing in dirt horses but not being so successful on turf. Pletcher has long protested this is unfair, that it is a product of the type horses he is given.
In any case, he struck a blow against this school of thought in the co-featured Pegasus World Turf. Horses from the Pletcher barn ran 1-2-4 in the $1 million stakes. Colonel Liam, the 5-2 betting favorite under Irad Ortiz Jr., charged down the center of the course to out-game Largent, who had a rail skimming trip the entire mile and three-sixteenths. The two battled head and head from mid-stretch with Colonel Liam getting slightly the best of it in the final strides. Cross Border closed from the rear of the pack late to overcome Social Paranoia for third, preventing a Pletcher sweep.
Colonel Liam, now 3 for 4 on the turf, completed the distance in 1:53.09.