Pegasus World Cup | Horse Racing Free Tips

Trainer Jose D’Angelo ‘Driving The Truck’ On The Road To Success With Jesus’ Team

Trainer Jose D'Angelo put thousands of miles on his truck last year while giving his stable star, Jesus' Team, a tour of East Coast and Midwest racetracks.

“When Jesus' Team left Florida to go to Monmouth, when he went from Monmouth to Saratoga and back to Monmouth, when he went to Pimlico and when he went to Kentucky and back to Florida, I drove him there in the truck,” said D'Angelo, recalling the extensive road trip that produced Grade 1 placings in the Preakness (G1) at Pimlico and Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) at Keeneland, as well as a lifetime of memories for a horsemen who was only in his first full year of training in the U.S. “Everywhere he went, I drove the truck.”

After hitting the road with Grupo 7C Racing Stable's reformed claimer for a full schedule of major stakes engagements last year, the 30-year-old native of Caracas, Venezuela will save a lot on gas for the 4-year-old son of Tapiture's 2021 debut start in Saturday's $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) at Gulfstream Park. Jesus' Team will only have to make the short trip from his home at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, to compete in the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus, which will co-headline Saturday's program with the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1).

“I'm very excited about the race. I feel blessed,” D'Angelo said. “I feel like Jesus is going to run a big race Saturday, but I'm also very nervous.”

D'Angelo may have a case of big-race jitters leading up to the Pegasus World Cup, but that doesn't mean that he lacks confidence in his horse or his ability to bring him into one of the world's richest races in peak form. He's been there, done that in Venezuela.

He grew up in a Thoroughbred racing family, the son of trainer Francisco D'Angelo, the leading trainer in Venezuela on multiple occasions, and the grandson of a prominent Thoroughbred journalist. After attending university to study business administration for two years, D'Angelo dropped out to pursue a training career with his father's blessing.

“I learned everything I know from my father. He was a great trainer in Venezuela. He won many titles in Venezuela. He is my role model, 100 percent,” he said.

D'Angelo experienced a full range of emotion at La Rinconada after saddling his first starter at the end of 2012.

“My first race I won, but he was disqualified,” D'Angelo said. “The horse's name was Dasha. It was the 23rd of December.”

Merry Christmas, indeed.

D'Angelo's spirits were quickly lifted when he saddled his first official winner with his third starter, Queen Norma, at La Rinconada.

In 2014, D'Angelo saddled Dreaming of Gold for a victory in the Clasico Simon Bolivar, becoming the youngest trainer to saddle the winner of Venezuela's most prestigious race.

“When the horse won his first race for me, I told the owners, 'We have the horse to win the Clasico Simon Bolivar.' They looked at me like I was crazy,” D'Angelo said. “Dreaming of Gold wasn't the best horse in Venezuela, but he beat the best horses. Jesus wasn't the best horse in Florida, but he beat the best in Florida and ran in the Preakness and Breeders' Cup. Both horses are very, very similar.”

D'Angelo had continued success and achieved his goal of becoming the leading trainer in Venezuela in 2018.

“It was my goal. After that, I moved to Florida,” said D'Angelo, who joined his father, who had ventured to South Florida in 2015 to resume his training career. “To come here was always my dream.”

D'Angelo, who had saddled Forze Mau for a second-place finish in the Copa Velocidad on the 2017 Clasico del Caribe undercard at Gulfstream while based in Venezuela, saddled his horse since relocating to the U.S. at Gulfstream Park June 8, 2019, when Cocktail Skirt came up a nose short of victory while finishing second in a $12,500 claiming race. He broke through with his first U.S. victory with his third overall U.S. starter, Beach Dreaming, whom he had claimed out of a $12,500 claiming race and went on to score at the same level June 27, 2019. D'Angelo didn't have to sweat out an inquiry following the 5-year-old mare's dominating 2 ¼-length victory, but she was claimed out of the race.

D'Angelo quickly established himself in South Florida while finishing the 2018 season with 15 victories from 57 starters. His early success certainly was a contributing factor to Jesus' Team being transferred to his stable last spring, a partnership that also achieved early success. The Kentucky-bred colt, who had broken his maiden in his fifth career start for a $32.000 claiming price, won at first asking by 6 ¾ lengths in a $25,000 claiming race at Gulfstream May 8.

“When he won, I thought that race was very impressive. When he came back to the barn it was like he didn't race,” D'Angelo said. “The next time he worked, the way he galloped out, he was a different horse.”

Jesus' Team made a significant jump in class next time out in a June 10 stakes-quality optional claiming allowance at Gulfstream, in which he finished second behind graded-stakes winner Sole Volante, who went on to run in the Belmont Stakes (G1) and Kentucky Derby (G1), and ahead of Florida Derby (G1) runner-up Shivaree.

“He ran green in that race, but he finished second with a big heart,” his trainer said.

D'Angelo revved up his truck, led Jesus' Team onto a van, and hit the road for an amazing adventure that included a fourth-place finish behind Authentic in the Haskell (G1) and a second-place finish in the ungraded Pegasus at Monmouth, a third-place finish in the Preakness, and a second-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile behind likely Pegasus favorite Knicks Go. Jesus' Team tuned up for the Pegasus with a victory in the Dec. 5 Claiming Crown Jewel upon his return to Gulfstream.

“I would like to be a great trainer in this amazing country and have great horses to run in the big races,” D'Angelo said. “The experience I lived last year was the best in my life, for sure.”

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This Side Up: Honor Abides in Pegasus of Clipped Wings

It's the obvious question in South Florida this week. Back in January 2017, everything was henceforth going to be different. The language was brash, it was immoderate, it certainly wasn't to the taste of traditionalists. But like it or not, it looked a game-changer. Yet here we all are, four years on, asking whether the whole project has failed; or whether, despite its apparent humiliation, it retains enough momentum never to permit a return to the old ways?

No, we're not talking about the latest senior citizen to retire to Palm Beach. True, Donald Trump has sufficient interest in the Turf to have introduced Secretariat to his very first public utterances when embarking, at just the same time, on a revolution of his own. “If Secretariat had come in second,” Trump remarked in his victory speech, “he would not have that big, beautiful bronze bust at the track at Belmont.” Let's leave unexplored the curious choice of the word “bust”. It was simply gratifying to see that Secretariat remained sufficiently in the cultural mainstream to convey Trump's idea of “superstardom.”

As it happens, he had already invoked Big Red on the campaign trail, in the course of a characteristic digression on his own pedigree. “They used to say Secretariat doesn't produce great horses,” he observed. “Actually Secretariat wasn't one of the best, if you want to know the truth.” The incensed reception of this remark was instructive of the automatic virulence of so much political discourse today. In context, he can only have been referencing Secretariat's failure to establish a sire line–presumably an Alabama rally had limited interest in his record as a broodmare sire–yet indignant opponents decided that Trump had pronounced him overrated as a racehorse. Which only went to show, depending on your vantage, either that his enemies would disparage him whatever he said; or what happens if you make a habit of mendacity and disrespect.

Anyway, the point is that Trump returns to civilian life in the same week that a parallel cycle appears to face a Florida crossroads of its own. Because it would be churlish to pretend that the GI Pegasus World Cup has achieved the radical transformation it promised four years ago. And the question now, even as a more traditional presidential style is restored, is whether the departure of Donald should coincide with the return of the Donn?

Arrogate won the inaugural Pegasus in 2017 | Horsephotos

Its own prize fund slashed, and squeezed by one of nearly grotesque size in Riyadh, the Pegasus certainly appears to be in a precarious place. The inaugural running in 2017 offered a $12 million purse, subscribed at $1 million per starting gate, and duly lured Arrogate (Unbridled's Song) and California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) to a rematch after their Breeders' Cup showdown. In 2018, the prize fund augmented to $16 million, the winners of 43 graded stakes were headed by Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}), Stellar Wind (Curlin) and West Coast (Flatter). But the following year, with entry halved to $500,000 and the prize fund down to $7 million, the field began to lose depth even behind the stellar City of Light (Quality Road) and Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky), with an aggregate 26 graded stakes.

Last year, entry suddenly became free for invitees but the purse duly shrank to $3 million. And, on the day, only Seeking the Soul (Perfect Soul) and Higher Power (Medaglia d'Oro) could bring a solitary Grade I apiece. In fairness, the race lost its headline act only through a late injury to Omaha Beach (War Front). But Maximum Security (New Year's Day) was diverted to plunder the riches of the sands, just like Charlatan (Speightstown) this time round. If that still leaves three Grade I winners on Saturday, in Knicks Go (Paynter), Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB}) and Math Wizard (Algorithms), this is not the race that had caused valuable stallion prospects to relay their retirement. The companion race on grass, meanwhile, is now down to $1 million from $7 million.

Yes, the hosts have retained a valid place for the Pegasus in our elite program. For a start, the purse still ranks very highly–not least now that it's a bet-to-nothing. More important, perhaps, is the one entry requirement that was introduced with the changed format last year. After all the industry's talk about raceday medication, participants in the Pegasus would be obliged to walk the walk.

So the race is still trying to light a way ahead. But its original path has implicitly been abandoned. It has evidently been perceived that even the wealthiest would become reluctant to buy a gate at so exorbitant a cost, at least for a horse only with an outside chance–and especially now that there was a magic carpet to ride into the desert. Any hopes of a media rights frenzy had faded and it began to feel as though stakes would be paid simply to make the richest horses richer.

Admittedly a similar model appears to have been more sustainably adapted by the Everest in Australia. Maybe that's partly because sprint races tend to be more of a crapshoot; but perhaps it's principally because there isn't a $20-million alternative for the same pool of horses four weeks later.

Mucho Gusto captured last year's edition of the Pegasus | Zoe Metz

I must admit I have never been comfortable with any of these “super races”. Almost invariably they set out to challenge and dilute a calendar that has evolved, generation by generation, by testing what works best for a) the horse population and b) the racefans. They are casinos opened in the middle of nowhere. Nobody drove that way before but now, seeing those neon lights flashing gaudily in the empty night, people fill up the tank and make a special journey.

But Thoroughbreds don't refuel like motor cars. Putting on extra mileage to go flat out in January, February and March, whether in Florida or halfway round the world, is bound to cause wear and tear–and will duly cost depth and quality in historic prizes through the year.

Nor did fans really gain much even when the Pegasus was able to seduce newly minted champions into one more lap of honor, literally hours before disappearing to the rural Bluegrass. I'm sure many fans would have preferred investment in cherished old races that have lost some of their luster in recent years, like the Big Cap at Santa Anita–ironically, of course, one of the first “super races” when inaugurated as “the Hundred-Grander”–or the Gold Cup since its transfer there from Hollywood Park.

As it is, fans might look at this Pegasus field and think how nice it would be to have the Donn back. That race served its purpose beautifully over the years, advertising the hardiness and class required of any future stallion setting out on so arduous a domestic campaign. True, the gelded Forego, the infertile Cigar and the tragic Saint Liam could not recycle those assets; but those that did included Deputy Minister, Medaglia d'Oro, Quality Road and now Constitution, who won the penultimate running.

The Donn honored the family who presided over Gulfstream in its pomp, and now we must all wait and see quite what the Stronach legacy will ultimately prove to be. We may not do so very complacently, but who knows? Perhaps posterity will acknowledge most gratefully the welfare innovations introduced to the Pegasus.

Code of Honor schooling ahead of the Pegasus this week | Coglianese

In the meantime, while we're taking the longer view, I'd certainly be gratified to see Code of Honor make everyone ask themselves afresh how they allowed his sire to slip through their grasp. A full brother to Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), exported to Japan! Both Noble Mission and Frankel carried their speed in a manner that was always going to adapt to dirt, given the chance, and sure enough Code of Honor emerged from his sire's first crop to claim second in the Derby.

Okay, he should have remained third according to the 45th President, who denounced the disqualification of Maximum Security as political correctness. But Code of Honor–typically of the chlorophyll allergy that has doomed his sire, a $70,000 RNA at Keeneland September–went on to win historic dirt prizes in the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup. Trying to turn him into a pure miler last year didn't really work, but he's the one horse in this field that has unfailingly kept the best of company throughout his career. He'd be an old-school winner that might help–not least by thriving on a raceday regime of hay, oats and water–to restore the bearings of a 21st Century pioneer that otherwise seems to be losing its way.

Because it's time we sought true grandeur, not grandiosity. Biggest doesn't always mean best, nor even does richest. And no President, any time soon, will be invoking that gargantuan statue of a mythical creature, looming over the Gulfstream parking lot, ahead of the modest one depicting a real Pegasus in the Belmont paddock.

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Knicks Go Headlines Pegasus World Cup

Knicks Go (Paynter) rides a red-hot streak, including a career high in the Breeders' Cup, into Saturday's $3-million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. at Gulfstream, in which he was installed as the morning-line favorite. An upset winner of the GI Breeders' Futurity S. back in 2018, the gray was transferred from trainer Ben Colebrook to Brad Cox at the end of a disappointing 2019 season. Romping by 7 1/2 lengths in his debut for Cox in an Oaklawn optional claimer Feb. 22, the Korea Racing Authority colorbearer was sidelined with a knee chip following that effort and underwent surgery. Knicks Go returned to the track better than ever, demolishing a Keeneland optional claimer by 10 1/4 lengths Oct. 4, earning a 107 Beyer Speed Figure, and followed suit with a decisive score in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile Nov. 7, for which he registered a 108 Beyer.

“I'm a big believer that speed is good at a mile and an eighth and beyond–obviously it depends on how much other speed is in the race,” said trainer Brad Cox. “But I think he can get it. I think he's a horse that once he gets free and loose, he runs with a lot of confidence. I'm excited. I really do think he'll handle a mile and an eighth. In his three races with us last year, there was horse left. In the Breeders' Cup, Joel [Rosario] reached up and grabbed him four or five jumps from the wire, so he was still going.”

Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB}) looks to return to winning ways in this event after several on-the-board efforts. Victor of the 2019 GI Runhappy Travers S., the WS Farish homebred kicked off 2020 with a victory in the GIII Westchester S. June 6 and rallied for third next out in the GI Runhappy Metropolitan H. July 4. Fourth in the GI Whitney S. Aug. 1, the chestnut checked in second in the Oct. 3 GII Kelso H. at Belmont and the Nov. 27 GI Clark S. last time at Churchill Downs.

Tax (Arch) will try to make amends for a sub-par effort in last year's Pegasus. Capturing the 2019 GII Jim Dandy S., he was benched after a seventh in Code of Honor's Travers. Returning with a second behind that rival's barnmate Performer (Speightstown) in the GIII Discovery S. at the end of 2019, the gelding failed to fire in last term's Pegasus, finishing a non-factor ninth. Fifth when next seen in the May 2 GII Oaklawn H., the dark bay hit the sidelines again and returned with a dominant victory in this venue's GIII Harlan's Holiday S. Dec. 12.

“He's better now than he's ever been,” said trainer Danny Gargan. “We always knew he was a really good horse. He's grown and developed into a better horse than he was last year. I think with age he's getting better and getting stronger, healthier. He has a few little issues we had to work through, and he's gotten through them. I'm expecting a big performance.”

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Tax Team Hoping Perseverance In Pegasus World Cup Will Finally Pay Off

No owners have supported Gulfstream Park's Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational program more than Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and R.A. Hill Stable.

With Tax in Saturday's $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) for the second straight year, Dean and Patti Reeves and Randy Hill will have competed in the headliner four of the five years since the stakes was transformed from the Donn Handicap into one of the world's most lucrative races for older horses. The only year the partners weren't in the Pegasus, they were represented in the 2019 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) with Channel Maker.

Now, they just need to hit the board for the first time in a Pegasus event. Tax finished ninth last year after stumbling badly at the start of the 2020 edition. He's raced only twice since, finishing fifth in the May 2 Oaklawn Handicap (G2) and returning from a 7 1/2-month hiatus for a dominating front-running 4 1 /2-length victory in Gulfstream Park's Harlan's Holiday (G3) Dec. 12. Luis Saez has the return mount for the Pegasus.

“I think he's as good as anybody in the race, and I think we'll be very competitive,” said Dean Reeves, who campaigns his large stable with wife, Patti. “I think this is the best shot for Randy and I, hopefully, to get some of our money back that we put into the Pegasus. Because we've had a horse in it every year since they started it, and maybe perseverance will pay off for us.”

Trainer Danny Gargan claimed Tax out of a $50,000 maiden claiming race in his second career start with owner Hugh Lynch. Gargan offered part of the horse to Reeves and Hill, but they decided they had enough horses and weren't interested. After Tax finished third in Aqueduct's 2018 Remsen Stakes (G2), “We called Danny up and said, 'We just became interested,'” Dean Reeves recalled with a laugh.

The gelded son of the late Claiborne Farm stallion Arch has been a terrific acquisition, including winning Aqueduct's Withers (G3) in his next start for his new owners and taking second in the 2019 Wood Memorial (G2) to land in the Kentucky Derby (G1). While he languished home 15th in a quagmire that day, Tax rebounded to be a close fourth in the Belmont Stakes (G1) and went on to capture Saratoga's Jim Dandy (G2). If he finishes in the top seven in the Pegasus, he'll become a millionaire.

After the Oaklawn fifth-place performance that Gargan says was deceptively good, Tax was given time off with the goal of pointing to the Breeders' Cup. A particularly untimely temperature kept him out of a Breeders' Cup prep race, with the Pegasus then becoming the objective.

“It seems like the best thing we did was giving him some time over the summer,” Dean Reeves said. “He ran as good as we've ever seen him run in the Harlan's Holiday.”

Gargan, who could win his first Grade 1 race in the Pegasus, agrees.

“He's doing tremendous,” he said. “The time off helped him grow up. He's a better horse than he used to be. I think this year is going to be the best of his career. He's bigger, he's stronger, he's doing better, eats better. He looks phenomenal. When he was a young horse, he had some issues, little things that plagued him through his 3-year-old year that have gone away with time and the layoff.”

The Reeveses were fairly new to horse racing, and definitely new to the sport's top echelon, when they bought into a 2-year-old named Mucho Macho Man, whose eventual nine victories and $5.6 million in earnings included the 2013 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Santa Anita. He also finished third in the 2011 Kentucky Derby.

If the Reeveses quickly were at the top of the sport, they subsequently learned how difficult that is to achieve.

“I want to say it was five years before I won a graded stakes again,” Dean Reeves said. “I thought you just go down there and buy you another one, and they're going to be like Mucho Macho Man. It really showed me what a great accomplishment that horse had in his career, what he was able to accomplish with [trainer] Kathy (Ritvo) and the work everybody did. I realized five years later, when Classic Rock won a Grade 3, just how difficult it was. Looking back, it's tough to win a Grade 1. Those are few and far between.”

Mucho Macho Man got better with age, and Dean Reeves believes the same is true for Tax.

“I understand how everybody has to look at it financially,” he said of deals with stud farms. “But we're retiring some of these horses well in advance of them reaching their full potential. I think I saw that in Mucho Macho Man. He ran well as a 4-year-old, finishing second in the Breeders' Cup, but then won it as a 5-year-old.

“I see a lot of similarities between Mucho Macho Man and Channel Maker, how as they've gotten older how they've gotten so much better,” he added. “And I think they become so mentally tough. I just think Tax is going to have a tremendous year, and I hope we run well in the Pegasus.”

Reeves and Hill finished eighth in the 2017 Pegasus with Breaking Lucky and 12th in 2018 with Toast of New York, while Channel Maker was fifth in the 2019 Pegasus Turf, sparking Reeves to quip, “I'd have loved to have had Mucho Macho Man run in it.”

Mucho Macho Man was sent to stud at age 7 in 2015, his subsequent progeny including 2020 Pegasus World Cup winner Mucho Gusto. With both Tax and the 7-year-old gelding Channel Maker, a leading contender to be voted 2020's male turf champion, Reeves doesn't have to worry about a stallion career.

“Let me tell you: I used to go, 'Oh, it's a gelding. I don't want him,'” Reeves said. “Now, to have a gelding that can run and win money for you for four or five years is great. For Tax, we may run in the Pegasus three times with him or three more times. We may go to Dubai or Saudi Arabia with him. A lot of his competition is retired, so having a good gelding is not a bad deal.

“Channel Maker's another gelding. Look, it isn't all about being a stallion. I mean, we're in it for the races. Hey, if we can win it, they still pay you,” he added.

While Mucho Macho Man retired from the track to a palatial stud home, first at Adena Springs and now at Hill 'n' Dale Farms, most horses don't have such post-racing guarantees. The Reeves' are big supporters of the nonprofit Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, which accredits, inspects and awards grants to its approved aftercare organizations to retrain, retire and adopt out horses using industry-wide funding.

“It's important to make sure retired horses get a good home,” Dean Reeves said. “When you buy them, you think they're all going to be superstars. Some obviously have more talent than others, but that doesn't mean they're not trying. They become like family. When they do leave the nest, so to speak, you want to make sure who they're going to, keeping the (registration) papers so they don't race anymore, just doing your due diligence.

“We've gotten as much satisfaction seeing some of our horses come back as great dressage horses or eventing horses, where people send us pictures of them when they've won ribbons and awards. We just love that. We take a lot of pride in seeing them where they access in a second career,” he added.

The Reeveses also are supporters of accredited TAA facilities such as New Vocations in Lexington, Ky., and South Carolina's Equine Rescue of Aiken and other organizations. They are among the horse owners committing a percentage of any Breeders' Cup earnings, such as Channel Maker's third in the $4 million Longines Turf, to the TAA.

“Patti and Dean Reeves have been very successful in Thoroughbred racing, and they really do care about their horses long term,” said TAA operations consultant Stacie Clark Rogers. “Their stable has been very supportive of the TAA and of our TAA accredited organizations.”

Florida consultant Jay Stone and trainer Kathy Ritvo are instrumental in helping the Reeveses find new homes for their equine retirees. Patti Reeves says she works to spread their horses around and find the best match, including what its new career might be.

She points to Mac Daddy Mac as a prime example. The Reeveses purchased the colt after he won his debut at Santa Anita at 40-1 odds, finishing second in a Grade 3 stakes in his next start. A throat issue compromised his ability, and Mac Daddy Mac was ultimately retired after three more races spread over his 3- and 4-year-old seasons. Now he's finding success in the show world, with equestrian Ashley Keller retraining Mac Daddy Mac into an eventing horse at Chattahoochee Hills Eventing near Atlanta, where the Reeveses live.

“He was a great horse, just loved his job, had great personality,” Patti Reeves said. “We found a new home for him in the Atlanta area at Chattahoochee Hills Eventing. (Keller) taught him dressage, jumping, eventing. What she has done with this horse is amazing. He's just a great example of a horse that just because he couldn't race, he wasn't done. You're involved in racing, but that's just a short part of their life. We care about the entire program for the horse. We don't want to just be good to the horse while they're racing. We want to make sure they end up in good places and are treated well.”

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