Independence Hall Training Well After Malibu Flop, Will ‘Take A Swing’ At Pegasus

When last seen at Gulfstream Park, Independence Hall was finishing fifth in the track's marquee race for 3-year-olds, the 2020 Florida Derby (G1). Ten months later, the son of Constitution returns for Gulfstream's most important race for older horses, Saturday's $3 million Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational (G1).

Much has changed between trips to South Florida for the colt co-owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Twin Creeks Racing Stables, and Kathleen and Robert Verratti. Following his disappointing finish as the 3-1 third choice in the Florida Derby, he was given a sabbatical and later moved from the East Coast-based trainer Michael Trombetta to Michael McCarthy in California.

McCarthy won the 2019 Pegasus with City of Light.

The Pegasus will be the first start for Independence Hall since he finished fifth of six, nearly 10 lengths behind Charlatan in the Malibu (G1) on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita Park. McCarthy expected a much stronger performance in the seven-furlong Malibu on the opening day of Santa Anita's winter season.

“For one reason or another, which I can't put my finger on, he just did not seem to fire that day,” McCarthy said. “I have to draw a line through it. The horse has trained forwardly since.”

Independence Hall has had two breezes this month. The most recent was six furlongs in 1:12.60 at Santa Anita on Saturday.

“His work was very, very good,” McCarthy said. “If you bring a horse into a $3 million race, I think this is the kind of work you want to bring him in off.”

Jockey Flavien Prat will ride Independence Hall for the first time in the Pegasus.

Robert Verratti purchased Independence Hall as a yearling from Constitution's first crop for $100,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September sale as a pinhooking prospect. On the advice of his bloodstock agent Dennis O'Neill, Verratti decided to hold onto the colt, as a buy-back at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale of 2-year-olds in 2019. After Independence Hall easily broke his maiden at Parx in September, Eclipse and Twin Creeks purchased interests in the colt.

Independence Hall promptly built his reputation as a Kentucky Derby prospect for his ownership group with a 12 ¼-length win in the Nashua (G3) and a 4 ½-length win in the Jerome at Aqueduct and was second as the 3-5 favorite in the Sam F. Davis (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs. The lackluster Florida Derby outing led to a pause in his career and a vacation at WinStar Farm.

“They just decided that he needed a little time off, a bit of a mental freshening more than anything. It seems to have done him some good,” McCarthy said. “The horse has come to me in very good order. The body of work he put together last year I thought was very good. We are just trying to go ahead and build on that.”

McCarthy said that Independence Hall arrived from Kentucky during the summer and was ready to resume training. He had his first breeze on Sept. 26 and won a 6 ½-furlong optional claimer on November 8.

“The horse fell into a pretty nice routine once he got here, was very straight forward,” McCarthy said. “The first race for us at Del Mar, obviously we were expecting a decent performance with him. I thought the way he won was more or less what we had been seeing in the morning. It was a perfect setup for a race like the Malibu.”

Though the Malibu did not work out as his connections had hoped, the colt came out of the race well and they decided the next challenge would be the nine-furlong Pegasus, which offers the highest purse in North America for older horses outside the Breeders' Cup.

“It was one of those things, as some of the invitees started falling by the wayside, this became more and more of an option,” McCarthy said. “It's $3 million. It's a good spot to take a swing at something like this. You may never get this chance again until Breeders' Cup time, nine months from now, for this kind of money. Why not?”

McCarthy welcomes the opportunity to join Hall of Famer Bob Baffert as a two-time Pegasus-winning trainer.

“That would be awfully nice,” he said. “I'm bringing a horse in who is training as well as I could ask him to be. We'll see what happens.”

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Tax Chasing Clean Break In Second Pegasus Shot

Tax, a big bay gelding who returned from a six-month layoff to impressively win the Harlan's Holiday (G3) Dec. 12, gets his second shot at Pegasus glory Saturday when he lines up with 11 others for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational (G1).

Owned by R.A. Hill Stable, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Hugh Lynch and trained by Danny Gargan, Tax was claimed out of his second race for $50,000 in October of 2018. The son of Arch has since won three graded races and nearly $1 million.

After stumbling at the start of last year's Pegasus and finishing ninth, Tax was off for six months after a fifth-place finish in the Oaklawn Handicap (G2). Gargan said the plan originally was to run at Keeneland in the fall and then the Breeders' Cup, but a temperature kept the colt away from the races until his victory in the Harlan's Holiday.

Gulfstream host and analyst Acacia Courtney talked to Gargan about Tax getting a clean break in this year's Pegasus under jockey Luis Saez, the big colt's maturity, and the ownership group.

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Pegasus World Cup Post-Position Draw To Be Live Streamed On Wednesday

Post positions will be drawn, and odds announced for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational (G1) and $1 million Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational Turf (G1) Wednesday, at 1:45 PM at Gulfstream Park.

The virtual event can be seen on:

https://gulfstreampark.com/racing/live-stream

www.facebook.com/PegasusWorldCup

Pegasusworldcup.com/livestream

Limited seating is available, and tickets can be purchased at Pegasusworldcup.com.

Fans can watch and wager on the Pegasus World Cup at 1stbet.com and xpressbet.com.

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Pegasus Turf Is Another Twist In The Story For Anothertwistafate

Both the blinkers and the man who suggested them – jockey Joel Rosario – will be on Anothertwistafate Saturday in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Turf (G1) at Gulfstream Park.

Following Anothertwistafate's fourth-place finish in the Seabiscuit Handicap (G2) on Nov. 28 at Del Mar, Rosario recommended adding blinkers to the horse's new trainer, Peter Miller. Five weeks later, with blinkers in place, Anothertwistafate and Rosario rolled to a 2 ¼-length victory in the San Gabriel (G2) at Santa Anita.

Miller chuckled as he told the story about his conversation with Rosario after the Seabiscuit.

“When he tells you something you listen,” Miller said. “He's one of the jocks that I really respect his opinion. When he tells you something he's right most of the time.”

The San Gabriel victory was the first on turf for the 5-year-old owned by Peter Redekop and gave him stakes wins on all three surfaces: synthetics, dirt and grass. It was another significant step forward for the Anothertwistafate, who was away from the races for 16 months following the 2019 Preakness (G1), and earned him invitations to both of the major races on the Pegasus program. His connections opted for the 1 3/16 miles Turf.

Redekop purchased Anothertwistafate for $360,000 as a 2-year-old in 2018 and sent him to trainer Blaine Wright, who operates stables at Golden Gate Fields in Northern California and Emerald Downs in Washington state. Wright developed the colt into a stakes winner and guided him to the Preakness, where he finished 10th. Following the extended layoff to recover from surgeries and setbacks, Wright prepped him on works to win the Longacres Mile (G3) on Sept. 10 at Emerald Downs. With the graded stakes on dirt on his resume, Anothertwistafate was part of a group of a half-dozen Redekop horses moved to Miller's barn on the more-lucrative Southern California circuit.

“Mr. Redekop and his racing manager, Dr. Bryan Anderson, wanted to try him on the grass because he's got a grass pedigree being by Scat Daddy,” Miller said. “He also was 3-for-3 on synthetic, which can portend to success on the grass. When they sent him to me they wanted to try him on the grass and it's been so far, so good.”

Right from the start of the experiment, Miller was confident that Anothertwistafate could handle the surface switch.

“Once we breezed him on the grass at Del Mar you could tell that he dug it,” Miller said.

Redekop was born in a Mennonite colony in 1935 in what is now the Ukraine. The family faced oppression for its religious beliefs and was displaced to Germany at the end of World War II. After spending some time in the Netherlands, the family emigrated to Canada, arriving in Winnipeg in December 1948. Four months later, Redekop and his family moved further west to British Columbia. In partnership with his cousin, Peter Wall, Redekop became a very successful real estate developer in Vancouver. Redekop and Wall purchased their first race horses in 1968 and Redekop has been so successful in the sport in the province that he is a member of British Columbia's racing Hall of Fame.

When Justify, bred by Vancouver resident John Gunther and his daughter Tanya, won the 2018 Triple Crown, Redekop decided to buy a horse by Justify's late sire, Scat Daddy. Thirteen days after Justify won the Belmont Stakes, Redekop purchased his Scat Daddy at the Ocala Breeders' Sale.

The colt was named after the song “Simple Twist of Fate” from Bob Dylan's 1975 album Blood on the Tracks. Redekop's racing manager Bryan Anderson, his wife Carol and their daughter Victoria collaborate on the naming of the horses in the stable. Anderson said that Simple Twist of Fate was a name already registered with The Jockey Club. Since Redekop prefers that his horses have names that start with the letter “A”, making them easier to find on the workout lists, the Anderson team developed a variation to Simple Twist of Fate.

Anothertwistafate had a troubled trip in his career debut on Nov. 3, 2018 at Santa Anita and ended up a well-beaten ninth. Wright took him back to Golden Gate Fields, where he won his next three starts on the synthetic track by a combined 16 lengths. The third of those wins, the El Camino Real Derby, earned him an automatic berth in the Preakness. He ran second by a neck in the Sunland Park Derby (G3) and second by a 1 ¾ lengths in the Lexington (G3) at Keeneland and ended up short of qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby.

After the Preakness, he did not compete again until his facile score in the Longacres Mile.

“He's traveling great right now,” Miller said. “He came to me in great shape from Blaine Wright. He's maintained that level of health and soundness.”

Anothertwistafate has won five of 10 lifetime starts and has earned $490,505 in a career spread over four seasons.

“He's really a talented horse,” Miller said. “If he continues to put it together, like he did in his last race, I can certainly see, if he stayed sound, some big races in his future. Hopefully, maybe, the Breeders' Cup at the end of the year.”

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