Trainer Brad Cox is tightening the screws with Gold Square LLC's Cyberknife in preparation for concluding the 4-year-old colt's racing career in the $3-million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) at Gulfstream Park.
Second in a photo finish in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) in his most recent start, Cyberknife is the anticipated favorite for the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus for 4-year-olds and up on Jan. 28. Gulfstream's showcase program that day includes the $1-million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1), a 1 1/8-mile stakes for older horses, and the $500,000 Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G3), a 1 1/16-mile stakes for older fillies and mares on turf.
The 4-year-old Cyberknife was recorded working five-eighths of a mile in a sparkling minute flat in company with the talented mare Astute on Sunday morning at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans. Fair Grounds clocker Billy Pettingill caught Cyberknife galloping out six furlongs in in a powerful 1:11.74 under exercise rider Edvin Vargas.
The minute matched the fastest of 34 works at the distance. Regular rider Florent Geroux will be aboard for the Pegasus, Cyberknife's last start before joining Spendthrift Farm's stallion roster in Lexington.
“A really good move,” Cox said by phone. “Our horse is doing very, very well. It's really amazing that he's continued to get better with the long campaign he had. He had a brief break after the Breeders' Cup. He went over and showed (for prospective breeders) at Spendthrift for around a week, came back and looked great. Since then we've made this march toward the Pegasus. This will be his last run. It will be bittersweet. Hopefully he goes out a winner.”
Cyberknife finished second by a head to the older Cody's Wish in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland.
“It was a big effort,” Cox said. “I was very proud of the race. He never quit. He was fighting back at the end. He ran a great race. It was a great finish. Obviously I wish we were on the other end of it. But look, he came out of the race great and hopefully we can get one last win with him before he goes off to stud.”
Cyberknife has had five works since the Breeders' Cup. On Jan. 1, he also worked five furlongs, but the move was recorded as a half-mile in :49 seconds because of fog.
“Last week he had a good solid move,” Cox said. “This week he obviously picked up the pace with a big gallop-out. We've got two works left. We'll ship the week of the race and see how things go.”
Cyberknife's record of 5-4-1 and $2,087,520 in 12 starts includes victories in Oaklawn Park's Arkansas Derby (G1) and Monmouth Park's Haskell (G1), along with a second in Saratoga's Travers (G1) and third in Parx's Pennsylvania Derby (G1).
Cox is hoping Cyberknife can conclude his career in the same fashion as his sire, 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner, who captured the 2018 Pegasus World Cup. This will be Cox's third straight appearance in America's most lucrative dirt race for older horses outside the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). He won the Pegasus World Cup in 2021 with another Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile runner-up, Knicks Go. That horse went on to capture the Breeders' Cup Classic to be voted 2021 Horse of the Year but finished second in the 2022 Pegasus behind Life Is Good.
Cox said Cyberknife will be his only entrant in the Pegasus World Cup stakes. Set Piece, an invitee to the Pegasus Turf, is getting his usual winter break and won't run, he said.
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