Godolphin's Clark (G1) winner Proxy had his final major workout Saturday before the $3-million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park, turning in another strong – if a bit eventful – performance at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
The 1 1/8-mile Pegasus World Cup for 4-year-olds and up headlines a program of eight stakes, seven graded, worth $5.3 million in purses including the $1-million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) and $500,000 Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf Invitational (G3).
The 5-year-old Proxy's official time for the six-furlong move to the seven-eighths pole was 1:13.20, the fastest of two works at the distance Saturday morning. But it wasn't all smooth sailing.
Trainer Michael Stidham designed the work's first five-eighths of a mile to be in company with Godolphin's Global Sensation — achieved with the two working as a pair in a lively 1:00.40 — with Proxy working an additional eighth-mile past the wire. With a crush of horses working right after the track's renovation break, exercise rider Arturo Aparicio ran into traffic past the wire and had to steer Proxy around a couple of horses galloping out from their own workout.
“Basically Proxy had to go around those horses and weave a little bit to navigate around the turn,” Stidham said by phone. “It probably cost him a length or two in the final time. But a very nice work. He finished up well and went on out real nice and continued to gallop out well down the backside.
“The last work [five-eighths in a minute flat] and this work were the two important works. I just wanted to see him finish up willingly and then continue around the turn with good energy,” he added. “He did that last time and this time really well.”
Godolphin is a finalist to win its sixth Eclipse Award as North America's outstanding owner and its third as outstanding breeder, one of each came under its Darley banner. Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's international racing and breeding operation swept both Eclipse awards for 2021.
The 2022 winners will be honored Jan. 26 at the Eclipse Awards winner at The Breakers in Palm Beach. Godolphin's $16.3 million in purse earnings easily led all owners last year, with its 88 victories ranking fifth.
“Every May right after the Derby, we get anywhere from about 15 to 18 2-year-olds that come into our barn,” Stidham said of training for Godolphin. “For a trainer, it's like a dream come true to have the pedigrees, the stallions they breed to and the dams these horses are out of. Most are either graded stakes winners themselves or producers of graded stakes winner. Those are the kinds of horses that get unloaded off a van and into our barn.
“If you try to go buy those pedigrees at a sale, you'd spend millions of dollars trying to duplicate those horses. As the recipient of those kinds of horses, as a trainer there is no better spot to be in,” he added. “You never know when a Mystic Guide [winner of the Dubai World Cup (G1) in 2021] or a Proxy is coming off the van. It's very exciting.”
Stidham said Godolphin's patience with horses such as Proxy is a hallmark of Sheikh Mohammed's program.
“I've been doing this 45 years now,” Stidham said. “There's no better job to have than working for them in the industry, because of that reason. They hire trainers they believe in and have confidence in. Certainly, we have to discuss all our decisions and plans with them, but they give us the ability to do the right thing, no matter what, for the horses. There's no hesitation if we say, 'This horse has a little of this or a little of that. We need to slow down. Or we need to stop.' It's always what's best for the horse.”
Proxy is a good example of that theory in practice. Big things were expected from the son of super sire Tapit out of the millionaire mare Panty Raid, a Grade 1 winner on turf and synthetic and Grade 2 winner on dirt as well as the dam of graded stakes winner Micheline.
But Proxy's camp ditched Kentucky Derby (G1) dreaming and regrouped after the colt finished fourth in both the Louisiana Derby (G2) and Lexington (G3). Proxy resumed racing 10 1/2 months later, winning an allowance race in New Orleans. He had two seconds and a pair of thirds before earning his first stakes victory in his Grade 1 debut in Nov. 25 Clark, which also was at the Pegasus distance of 1 1/8 miles.
“We talk about it, that Proxy wasn't quite where he needed to be to go into the Triple Crown,” Stidham said. “It wasn't 'Oh well, why don't we do this or that?' It was a done deal. Believe me, the reason Mystic Guide did what he did was because of that, allowing us to go slow with him and skip some of the big races, including the Breeders' Cup. With Proxy, skipping the Triple Crown has allowed us to get to winning the Clark. I don't think a lot of people realize how important those decisions are in a horse's career, for their future.”
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