Bruce Lunsford homebred Art Collector (Bernardini) sat the trip beneath Junior Alvarado and sprung a 15-1 upset in Saturday's $3-million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. at Gulfstream.
California invader Defunded (Dialed In), winner of last fall's GI Awesome Again S. and off as the 5-2 second choice, was 4 1/2 lengths back in second. Pacesetter Stilleto Boy (Shackleford) stayed on for third, the same position he filled in last year's renewal.
Alvarado, who rode the Bill Mott-trained Olympiad (Speightstown) to four graded-stakes victories and a runner-up finish behind Flightline (Tapit) in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic last year, was riding Art Collector for the first time in the Pegasus.
“We scripted it that way and it turned out that way,” Mott said. “That doesn't happen very often, but [jockey] Junior [Alvarado] rode him and did a great job. I told him just ride him like you ride Olympiad, and he rode him the same way.”
Mott continued, “He's done that before. These kinds of races, you just have to wait and see. These are competitive races. You get the horse as good as you can and hope the horse shows up.”
Art Collector raced in fourth around the clubhouse turn as Stilleto Boy narrowly led Defunded through an opening quarter in :23.61. Cruising along nicely in an outside third, Art Collector set his sights on the top two while three wide on the far turn, struck the front less than a quarter of a mile from home and put the race to bed from there to win going away.
Art Collector, winner of the 2021 GI Woodward S. at Belmont, followed a sixth-place finish in that term's GI Breeders' Cup Classic with a 12th-place finish in the G1 Saudi Cup. He got back on track with a wire-to-wire win in Saratoga's Alydar S. Aug. 4 and successfully defended his title in the GII Charles Town Classic S. Aug. 26. The bay concluded his 5-year-old campaign with a fifth-place finish in the GII Lukas Classic Oct. 1.
“Originally, we were thinking of going to the Cigar Mile with him, and October, end of October, he had a foot abscess,” Mott said. “So we had to scrap all our plans. I told Bruce, I said, well, we're going to miss that. Let's go to Florida.”
“[Trainer] Bill [Mott] and I have had a long-term relationship, back with Vision and Verse,” Lunsford said. “We talked about it, and I give Bill credit for this, he said we're going to try something different. Let's lay him off. And he just kept getting better and better.”
Favored MGISW Cyberknife (Gun Runner), a painful second in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland in November, failed to duplicate his sire's heroics from the same wide draw in post 10 and was a disappointing sixth. Cyberknife is scheduled to begin his career at stud for a fee of $30,000 this upcoming breeding season at Spendthrift Farm.
“He didn't look like he fired to me,” trainer Brad Cox said. “He had a little bit of a wide trip and at the three-eighths pole I could kind of tell he wasn't traveling. He broke well but they got away from him. It reminded me a little bit of the race at Parx when he ran third there. It wasn't to be. It didn't work out.”
Pedigree Notes:
Art Collector's second dam Bunting was bred by and began her career racing for Mrs. John Hay Whitney's Greentree Stables, finishing runner-up to Inside Information (Private Account) in the 1994 GI Ashland S. and the GI Black-Eyed Susan S. before she was purchased by Seth Hancock, on behalf of Bruce Lunsford and Lanny Holbrook, for $500,000 at that year's Keeneland November Sale. She was victorious in one of three subsequent appearances for Bill Mott before being retired and covered by Storm Cat.
Bunting was an immediate hit at stud, as her first foal became Vision and Verse, winner of the 1999 GII Illinois Derby and second to Lemon Drop Kid (Kingmambo) in the GI Belmont S. and GI Travers S. Bunting's next foal of import was her filly of 2003, Performing Diva (Storm Cat), second in the 2005 GII Darley Alcibiades S., and four years later, Bunting produced a filly by Distorted Humor. The versatile Distorted Legacy won the Sky Beauty S. on the dirt and was second in the GI Flower Bowl Invitational S. on the grass ahead of a close fourth in that year's GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf.
Distorted Legacy is the dam of three winners from four to race, including the Bill Mott-trained Classic Legacy (Into Mischief), a juvenile maiden winner at Aqueduct Dec. 3 with Junior Alvarado at the controls. She is also responsible for the 2-year-old filly Kingdom Come (Justify), a yearling filly by Medaglia d'Oro and was most recently covered by Gun Runner.
Art Collector, one of 16 worldwide Grade I/Group 1 winners for his late sire, is set to enter stud at Claiborne Farm upon the conclusion of his racing career.
Saturday, Gulfstream Park
PEGASUS WORLD CUP INVITATIONAL S. PRESENTED BY
BACCARAT-GI, $2,944,000, Gulfstream, 1-28, 4yo/up, 1 1/8m,
1:49.44, ft.
1–ART COLLECTOR, 123, h, 6, by Bernardini
               1st Dam: Distorted Legacy (SW & GISP, $421,466), by
                               Distorted Humor
               2nd Dam: Bunting, by Private Account
               3rd Dam: Flag Waver, by Hoist the Flag
O/B-Bruce Lunsford (KY); T-William I. Mott;
J-Junior Alvarado. $1,680,000. Lifetime Record: 21-11-1-0,
$4,012,490. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ ***Triple Plus***
  Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free
  Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Defunded, 123, g, 5, Dialed In–Wind Caper, by Touch Gold.
($210,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Michael E. Pegram, Karl Watson
& Paul Weitman; B-Athens Woods LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert.
$560,000.
3–Stilleto Boy, 123, g, 5, Shackleford–Rosie's Ransom, by
Marquetry. ($420,000 3yo '21 FTKHRA). O-Steve Moger;
B-John & Iveta Kerber (KY); T-Ed Moger, Jr. $280,000.
Margins: 4HF, 1 1/4, 1 1/4. Odds: 15.50, 2.90, 45.50.
Also Ran: Last Samurai, Proxy, Cyberknife, Skippylongstocking,
White Abarrio, Get Her Number, Simplification, O'Connor (Chi),
Ridin With Biden. Scratched: Endorsed, Hoist the Gold.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO,
sponsored by TVG.
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