Pegasus World Cup | Horse Racing Free Tips

Knicks Go Puts In First Post-BC Work As He Prepares For Pegasus World Cup

Korea Racing Authority's Knicks Go, seeking to become the first repeat winner of $3 million Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., recorded his first workout since capturing the Longines G1 Breeders' Cup Classic a month ago.

The dark gray worked what was clocked as a three-eighths of a mile in :36.20 under exercise rider Edvin Vargas early Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Trainer Brad Cox said he timed Knicks Go galloping out a half-mile in :48 1/5.

“Well in hand, and I think he was out the five-eighths in 1:01 and 3,” Cox said. “He definitely hasn't regressed since the Breeders' Cup. He's been training extremely well, galloping great. Wanting to do more. You could definitely tell that the last week, 10 days, he was wanting to do more. He was very strong throughout this morning, around both turns and even up the backside (afterward). The outrider collected him around the half-mile pole, so he seems to be the same Knicks Go that we saw before the Classic.”

Knicks Go is the prohibitive favorite to be voted Horse of the Year and older male champion.

Cox, who is seeking to repeat as the Eclipse Award recipient as North America's outstanding trainer, said Knicks Go will ship in a few days to the trainer's New Orleans division at the Fair Grounds.

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Life Is Good Could Take On Knicks Go In Pegasus; Medina Spirit To Saudi Cup

Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Life Is Good could be pointed to the Pegasus World Cup, WinStar President and CEO Elliott Walden told the Thoroughbred Daily News this week. It brings up the potential of two Breeders' Cup winners facing off in the Jan. 29 contest at Gulfstream Park, as trainer Brad Cox has indicated that Classic winner Knicks Go may make the Pegasus his final career start before heading off to stud.

Life Is Good, the 3-year-old son of Into Mischief trained by Todd Pletcher, put in an extraordinarily dominant performance in the Dirt Mile. Walden believes the victory brings Life Is Good into the discussion for the 3-year-old Eclipse Award.

“I think he is the best 3-year-old in the country and I think he showed that,” Walden told the Thoroughbred Daily News. “It's unfortunate that he couldn't show that in the Derby and some of the other big races we're always trying to win. But, at the same time, you take what the horse gives you. And you have to be grateful for that. He's such an athlete that we're just lucky to have him. I always felt like if you take care of the horse they will take care of you.”

Meanwhile, trainer Bob Baffert reports that Kentucky Derby first-place finisher Medina Spirit, also in the running for the 3-year-old Eclipse Award, is most likely to make his next start in the Feb. 26 Saudi Cup.

The third contender for the 3-year-old Eclipse Award, Travers winner Essential Quality, will stand the 2022 season at Darley.

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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Knicks Go May Target Pegasus World Cup For Final Start

Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic winner and defending G1 Pegasus World Cup champ Knicks Go could cap his brilliant career in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 29 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

The Pegasus may turn into a showdown between two of the standouts of the 38th Breeders' Cup, Knicks Go, the likely 2021 Horse of the Year, who won the Classic by 2 ¾ lengths, and Life Is Good, who cruised to a 5 ¾ length victory in the G1 Dirt Mile.

Trainer Brad Cox said Sunday morning at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., that the Korea Racing Association star was a possibility for the Pegasus before heading off to start his stud career at Taylor Made Farm.

“If he comes out of it good and he trains well, we'll point for the Pegasus,” Cox said. “It's a good purse, it's a surface he likes and if he's doing well, there have been horses that won the Breeders' Cup and ended their careers with that, between the likes of Gun Runner and City of Light. It's always a nice race that you can pick off hopefully before going off to stud.”

Knicks Go kicked off a superb 2021 season with a 2 ¾ length gate-to-wire score in the Pegasus World Cup. He won five of seven starts during the season and has 10 wins from 24 career starts.

Spendthrift Farm's Life Is Good was knocked off the Triple Crown trail in March when a bone chip was found in his left rear ankle. The chip was removed by surgery and during his recovery he was transferred from Bob Baffert in California to Todd Pletcher in New York. Life Is Good was a narrow second in his comeback race, the seven-furlong G1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and won the one-mile G2 Kelso Handicap by 5 ½ lengths at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., on Sept. 25. The Dirt Mile was his return to two-turn racing and should set him up for Gulfstream's big race.

“That's what we'd spoke about prior to the race that our sort of two-race plan was the mile and then stretch him out further in the Pegasus,” Pletcher said Sunday. “He certainly ran well enough to proceed in that direction if everything goes smoothly, but we haven't really had any time to really firmly discuss our entire plans yet. I'm sure once everybody gets back to their headquarters, we'll have that conversation.”

Life is Good came into the Breeders' Cup with a big reputation and he delivered a strong performance, leading from gate to wire under Irad Ortiz, Jr. He completed the mile in 1:34.12 after opening fractions of :21.66, :44.94, and 1:08.76.

“It was everything that we were hoping for and then maybe even more,” Pletcher said. “The horse had trained spectacularly coming into the race and I felt like he was sitting on a big race. When he broke cleanly, you could tell they were going quickly and there were some other horses trying to be involved. My first concern was just, hopefully, he hadn't gone too fast, but it seemed like he was relaxed and settled. In spite of the fact that he was rolling right along, he was doing it comfortably.

“I think that's kind of what we've come to expect from him. It's one of those horses that's extremely fast, has a very high cruising speed, and the ability to continue doing it. What was even more impressive to me than the :21 and four and 44 and change and 1:08 and change, is that he essentially won geared down. Then Irad had to reach up and grab a hold of him in the middle of the turn. Galloping out, he was still full of horse. I don't think he could have been any more impressive.”

Trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday that Classic runner-up Medina Spirit is a possibility for the Pegasus World Cup. He said the primary goal is the Saudi World Cup because the colt's owner is from Saudi Arabia and that it was too early to decide whether to run at Gulfstream first.

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Life Was Good, Very Good

There is talk that Breeders' Cup winners Knicks Go (Paynter) and Life Is Good (Into Mischief) will meet in the Jan. 29 GI Pegasus S. at Gulfstream. I'll take Life Is Good. He was that good Saturday in the GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

Nothing against Knicks Go or any of the other winners over the weekend at Del Mar, but the best horse over the 14 races that make up the Breeders' Cup was Life Is Good. He put in a sensational performance in the Dirt Mile in an effort that suggested that, if he stays healthy, he is on the verge of becoming one of the brightest stars this sport has seen in a while. I can't wait for his 4-year-old year.

It's not that he snuck up on anyone. In March, he won the GII San Felipe S. at Santa Anita by eight lengths over Medina Spirit (Protonico) and was so dominant that it was easy to see him winning the GI Kentucky Derby. Maybe even the Triple Crown. Then his luck turned. He suffered a slight injury to a hind leg and had to have ankle surgery to remove a chip. The Triple Crown races were out.

Things got even more complicated when his trainer, Bob Baffert, got into hot water. The owners, WinStar Farm and the China Horse Club, pulled him out of the Baffert barn and sent him to Todd Pletcher in New York.

The result was that they had to hit the reset button. He was ready to go again, but the plan was to bring Life Is Good along slowly and start off sprinting. He ran a huge race in defeat when second behind star sprinter Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) in the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial and then beat a couple of tomato cans in the GII Kelso H.

Still not ready for a mile-and-a-quarter, Life Is Good went into the Dirt Mile instead of the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. On paper, he was easily the best horse, but he still had to prove it.

It turned into one of those races where it wasn't that he won, it was how he won. Unlike in the Classic, where no one went after Knicks Go early, Life Is Good never got a breather. Chased by the Baffert-trained Eight Rings (Empire Maker) and the Japanese entrant, Jasper Prince (Violence), Life Is Good sizzled through an opening quarter-mile in :21.88. They kept applying the pressure through a half-mile in :44.94 and six furlongs in 1:08.76. On the same day where pace pressure did in favorites Gamine (Into Mischief), Jackie's Warrior and Letruska (Super Saver), Life Is Good had every right to give up after being pushed so hard so early. Instead, he put it in another gear and drew off to win by 5 3/4 lengths. The final time for the mile was 1:34.12, good for a Beyer figure109. (Knicks Go got a 112).

“It was just an amazing race,” said WinStar President and CEO Elliott Walden. “I feel like he was one of the better horses I've ever been around. Because his season had gotten broken up, he hadn't been able to put races together back to back to back. Yesterday, to see him put it all together like that was just amazing.”

“I was a little worried,” Walden said of the fast early pace. “I was worried when Ginobili (Munnings) made a little move to him at the two-and-a-half. I knew that Ginobli loved Del Mar and he is a good horse in very good form. But then he didn't get to him and when Life Is Good spurted away I felt very good about it.”

Perhaps the only knock on Life Is Good is that he's never gone beyond a mile-and-a-sixteenth, but there's nothing to suggest that nine, and even 10, furlongs will be beyond his reach.

Walden confirmed that the Pegasus is next on Life Is Good's schedule and added that the G1 Saudi Cup is a possibility. That could be the start of a very good 4-year-old year.

In the meantime, it's tempting to look back at what might have been. This horse obviously has the talent it takes to win a Kentucky Derby. After all, he beat Medina Spirit twice, in the GIII Sham S. before thrashing him in the San Felipe. Since then, Medina Spirit won the Derby and the GI Awesome Again S. and finished second in the Classic.

Nonetheless, Walden would rather look ahead than in the rear view mirror.

“Yes, I think he is the best 3-year-old in the country and I think he showed that yesterday,” he said. “It's unfortunate that he couldn't show that in the Derby and some of the other big races we're always trying to win. But, at the same time, you take what the horse gives you. And you have to be grateful for that. He's such an athlete that we're just lucky to have him. I always felt like if you take care of the horse they will take care of you.”

Considering that he is a 3-year-old Grade I winner with a stellar pedigree, it's a relief that WinStar and the China Horse Club are going to bring Life Is Good back next year. Then again, why retire a horse when it seems like his career is just getting started? After a terrific win in the Breeders' Cup, the best is surely yet to come.

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