Pegasus World Cup Invitational
The second Pegasus World Cup, its purse bumped from $12M to $16M, will be run Saturday at Gulfstream Park. This year’s edition lacks the star power of last year’s, when Arrogate and California Chrome met three months after their initial showdown in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race Arrogate won by a half-length.
Unfortunately, the rematch didn’t come close to living up to its billing. Arrogate prevailed by nearly five lengths, with California Chrome, in the final start of his career, struggling home ninth. Still, the event was largely considered a success, in no small part because of the record $40.2 million in all-sources handle generated that day.
Even without the two retired superstars, this year’s Pegasus field is deeper than last year’s. Gun Runner, the probable oddson favorite, will have a chance to show why he was voted 2017 Horse of the Year, an honor that will be made official when the Eclipse Awards are announced on Thursday. Other expected starters include Collected and West Coast, who rounded out the trifecta with Gun Runner in
last fall’s BC Classic. Two other Classic starters, War Story (fourth) and Gunnevera (sixth), are also expected to be in the Gulfstream starting gate on Saturday.
The Pegasus World Cup differs from other multimillion-dollar dirt races (such as the BC Classic, Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup) in a couple of obvious respects. First, while the latter races are all run at 1¼ miles, the Pegasus is only a mile and an eighth. This is a good thing, in one sense, as it enables the race to attract horses who are better suited for the shorter distance; Sharp Azteca and Stellar Wind are two examples this year.
On the other hand, with so few stamina tests on dirt remaining, and with other 1¼-mile races having been recently reduced in one way or another – the purses for the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Santa Anita Handicap were slashed by $250,000 last year, and this year the Delaware Handicap loses its Grade 1 rating – it would have been nice if the Pegasus were also run at the classic 1¼-mile distance.
A second obvious difference between the Pegasus and the BC Classic, Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup is that it is run in the middle of winter. This fact makes it highly unlikely that the Pegasus will draw top horses from Europe, thus belying its claim to be a “world” event. The race’s relatively isolated position on the calendar also means that, with the exception of the San Antonio Stakes, the Pegasus has no real preps scheduled close to the race. Gun Runner, West Coast, Stellar Wind and Gunnevera, all of whom last raced in the Breeders’ Cup, will be making their first start in 12 weeks. Of course, months-long layoffs before major races are nothing new these days.
The huge sums of money available in the Pegasus, BC Classic and Dubai WC ($16M, $6M and $10M, respectively) are unfortunately causing established stakes with relatively small purses – even the likes of the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Santa Anita Handicap – to be bypassed by the best horses. Elite horses can make enough money running only three to five times a year, including perhaps an appearance at Saratoga or Del Mar during the summer, before being shipped off to stud – which of course is still where the real money is.