Pegasus World Cup | Horse Racing Free Tips

Gulfstream Announces Significant Purse Increases for Championship Meet

Gulfstream Park's 2022-23 Championship Meet will feature significant purse increases for maiden special weight and allowance races, the track announced Wednesday. The signature meet, gets underway Dec. 26. Gulfstream also announced substantial purse increases for the same conditions during the current Sunshine Meet from Dec. 1 through Dec. 24.

Gulfstream's Championship Meet will once again feature Pegasus World Cup Day with the $3-million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S., $1-million GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational S. and $500,000 GIII Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf S., as well as the $1-million GI Florida Derby Apr. 1 and $400,000 GII Fountain of Youth S. Mar. 4.

Maiden special weight purses will total $84,000 (including $14,000 from FTHA-FOA) beginning opening day of the Championship Meet Dec. 26–an increase of $24,000. Allowance races will total $86,000-$88,000 (including $14,000 from FTHA-FOA)–an increase of $25,000.

The Sunshine Meet's December calendar will see maiden special weight purses total $70,000 ($10,000 from FTHA-FOA) and allowance purses total between $71,000-$73,000 ($10,000 from FTHA-FOA). Increases will be $10,000.

December will also mark the start of racing on Gulfstream's new turf course, which has been enhanced with new drainage and irrigation systems.

The post Gulfstream Announces Significant Purse Increases for Championship Meet appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Pletcher Talks Life Is Good, Colonel Liam, Top 3YOs On Writers’ Room

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Tuesday fresh off of a pair of seven-figure wins at Gulfstream and amid one of the hottest streaks of his training life. Sitting down with Joe Bianca, Bill Finley and Jon Green as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Pletcher talked about Life Is Good's dazzling win in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. and what's next for the superstar son of Into Mischief, a planned Dubai trip for MGISW turfer Colonel Liam (Liam's Map), what he thinks of his ample stable of Triple Crown nominees and more.

Asked about the plan for Life Is Good going into the Pegasus relative to how the race played out, Pletcher said, “When you're coming up with a strategy for a race, you know what you want to do, but you don't always know what your opponent wants to do. I thought when Knicks Go drew the rail, their hands were cuffed and they were going to have to come out running. And we wanted to come out running and play to our horse's strength, which is his speed. It surprised me a little bit that he cleared off as easily as he did. But if you look back to the Allen Jerkens at Saratoga, he's super fast. He was a couple of lengths in front of Jackie's Warrior down the backside. He didn't break great [in the Pegasus], but his second, third and fourth steps were really good, and he got [to the lead] the right way. I was pretty confident turning up the backside, but he still had some running to do. And we were just delighted with his performance. It was everything we hoped for.”

Pletcher added that Life Is Good's first post-Pegasus breeze would likely come this Friday, with his next start expected to come in the Mar. 26 G1 Dubai World Cup, and GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational S. would likely be on that plane with him.

“If everything stays on course [with Life Is Good] and we go to Dubai, we're going to take him as well for the [G1] Dubai Turf,” he said. “It's the same timing as with Life Is Good, so we feel the timing's good. I feel like he came out of the Pegasus Turf even better than he went into it, so taking a shot at a race like that is worthwhile.”

The conversation turned to a potential third, synthetic surface potentially being installed at Belmont Park as has been done at Gulfstream and whether or not that would help keep some turf horses in New York who would normally ship south during the winter months.

“To be honest with you, I I don't know what the synthetic would do there, and one of the things that we're sort of learning during this [Gulfstream] meet is which horses handle the Tapeta and which ones don't,” Pletcher said. “And I haven't been able to do it without actually running them on it. We've had several horses that have won Tapeta races that were off the turf who were coming off turf wins and they handled it fine. We had a couple other ones that were coming off good turf races that we ran on the Tapeta, and you can tell in the first 100 yards that they hated it. So that was one of the things that was difficult for us before [with synthetic tracks]. I can think of an example at Keeneland. Years ago, we had a filly named Wait A While who was a top class turf mare. She worked at Keeneland on the synthetic, going a ridiculous :46 flat [half-mile], with her neck bowed, in hand the whole way. We were running in the [GI] First Lady. It rained, it came off the turf and I was like, off that breeze, I have no reservation running her at all. But that afternoon, she never tightened the bridle. She hated it. So it's a little bit tricky to get a line on [the track] without running on it. So could it keep some turf horses in New York? Possibly, yeah I think it could, and then it would just be a matter of seeing if they actually took to it.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, XBTV and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers discussed the ongoing silence over hearings to adjudicate to the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby, Jonathon Kinchen's suspension from the NHC Tour and Thursday night's Eclipse Awards. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The post Pletcher Talks Life Is Good, Colonel Liam, Top 3YOs On Writers’ Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Irad Ortiz, Jr. Talks Life Is Good, Recent Suspension On Writers’ Room

It was an eventful few months for three-time Eclipse champion jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. Shortly after scoring a hat trick of victories at the Breeders' Cup, Ortiz was suspended 30 days for careless riding at Aqueduct. Upon his return, the 29-year-old picked up where he left off at Gulfstream, piloting winners left and right and over the weekend, added two more seven-figure Grade I wins to his trophy collection with victories in the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational S. on back-to-back winner Colonel Liam (Liam's Map) and Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. aboard emergent superstar Life Is Good (Into Mischief). Tuesday, the sometimes polarizing rider sat down with the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to discuss his success, his suspension, his rise to the top of the game and whether or not he pays attention to either the positive or negative attention he receives from racing fans.

“Honestly, I know my horse is fast, but I never thought I was going to be on the lead by three or four lengths,” Ortiz said when asked if he was surprised by how easily Life Is Good outran presumptive Horse of the Year Knicks Go (Paynter) in the Pegasus. “But that's racing. [Sometimes] after the gates open, everything changes. I let him go into the first turn and then I just used my judgment. He was feeling good, he was running relaxed and going the right way, so I just didn't mess with him, I let him do his thing and keep going. The difference between him and some other horses; some other horses can go fast and hold their speed for six furlongs or a mile, but he can stay the distance. It's really hard to find a horse that can stay with his same speed and finish the way he finishes.”

Asked about the 30-day suspension he was handed by New York Racing Association stewards for a Dec. 3 incident in which he crowded a horse on the rail, causing apprentice jockey Omar Hernandez Moreno to fall off his mount, Ortiz took responsibility and said he had no issue with the punishment.

“We learn from our mistakes,” he said. “I made a mistake, it was not intentional, but I'm grateful and glad that the kid is okay. The stewards did their job. I agreed with them 100%. They gave me 30 days and I took it right away, I didn't say anything because I knew I made a mistake, so I'll pay for it. That's why they're there, to watch everybody and try to keep all the jockeys safe. I'm not perfect, I'm human, and now I'll just turn the page, learn from it and try not to do that again.”

Ortiz was also asked to reflect on his meteoric rise to the top of racing and whether or not he foresaw this level of success when he first came over to the U.S. in the late 2000s.

“I'm grateful and I thank god I am where I am, but when you get here, there are a lot of good jockeys,” he said. “I work hard, but you never know what's going to happen. Are you going to get the opportunities right away or not? Sometimes it'll take you five, six, seven, eight years until people start giving you a chance. So I always had big dreams, but I never pressured myself like, 'I have to be there.' It never was like that. I just worked step by step and tried to do the right thing every time someone gave me an opportunity. And that's the way we did it. My agent, Steve Rushing, does a great job, and since I started working with him, everything changed a little bit. I got better numbers. I got better chances. We got better horses. You need a little bit of everything: you need a good agent, you need to do the right thing, you need the right horses and you need the opportunity from the owners and trainers.”

Elsewhere on a jam-packed show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, Lane's End, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, XBTV and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers discussed the courtroom drama in Seth Fishman's doping trial, the back-and-forth of the Bob Baffert vs. NYRA hearings and T.D. Thornton's comparison of racing's current era to the steroid era in baseball. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The post Irad Ortiz, Jr. Talks Life Is Good, Recent Suspension On Writers’ Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Pegasus Double Nets Irad Ortiz Jockey Of The Week Title

In the days leading up to the Pegasus World Championships, it was touch and go as to whether Irad Ortiz, Jr. would be released to ride following a knee injury at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 7. But the three-time Eclipse Award-winning Ortiz, Jr. was medically cleared and rode into the winner's circle in both Grade 1 events of the day. With the wins, Ortiz, Jr. was voted Jockey of the Week. The honor, which is voted on by a panel of racing experts, is for jockeys who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 1,050 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys in the United States.

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher gave a leg up to Ortiz, Jr. on defending champion, Colonel Liam in the G1 World Cup Turf Invitational. Despite a layoff of nearly eight months, Colonel Liam went off as the favorite in the field of 12. While racing off the pace, Ortiz, Jr. and Colonel Liam crept steadily closer to the leader, stablemate, Never Surprised. The pair took command at the eighth pole and drew clear to win by a length in 1:47.48 for the 1 1/8-mile distance. Ortiz, Jr. has now won three of the four runnings of the World Pegasus Turf Invitational.

“He didn't lose a step,” said Ortiz, Jr.. “He's healthy and he's strong. He did everything right. I asked him a little early and when I asked him to go, he just went on.”

The G1 Pegasus World Cup was thought to be a match race between presumed Horse of the Year Knicks Go with Joel Rosario in the irons for trainer Brad Cox and Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Life Is Good ridden by Ortiz, Jr. for trainer Todd Pletcher.

Off as the slight favorite, Life Is Good took control a sixteenth of a mile into the race and was never seriously threatened, covering 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.91 to post a winning margin of 3-1/4 lengths.

“I respect the other horse a lot,” said Ortiz, Jr. “I thought it was going to be a match race. But going into the first turn, my horse was so fast so I just let him do this thing. I felt like a lot of horse and I couldn't wait to let him run. I just wanted to get to the second turn. But when I let him go, he kept going.”

Ortiz, Jr.'s statistics for the week were 27-6-6-6 for an in-the-money rate of 66 percent and total purse earnings of $2,508,970 to lead all jockeys.

Other nominees for Jockey of the Week were Victor Carrasco with three stakes wins at Laurel. Harry Hernandez who won two stakes races at Sunland and led all jockeys for the week in wins with 11, Jose Ortiz who won the G3 Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf, and Joel Rosario with two stakes wins at Gulfstream Park and two stakes wins at Sam Houston.

Source of original post