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| Photo: Mark J. Terrill |
The first running of the Pegasus World Cup is getting closer and although there are supposed to be 12 horses racing, the world has it's eyes on just two: The richest horse in the world, California Chrome, and his main rival , the incredibly fast three year old who defeated him in the Breeders' Cup Classic.
California Chrome will be going into the Jan. 28 Pegasus World Cup with the $100,000 Winter Challenge at Los Alamitos Race Course on Dec. 17 which was customized as a prep race for the final start of the five year old champion. Arrogate's connections have not yet committed him to the race, but it looks very likely that he will run and he is being geared toward it "silently" by Bob Baffert. He likely won't be using a prep race to ready him, but Arrogate has proven that he doesn't need one to run his best seeing as he had a similar gap between his win in the Travers Stakes(G1) and the Breeders' Cup Classic(G1).
California Chrome breezed five furlongs, handily, earlier today at Los Alamitos in a time of 1:00.40. Arrogate's last workout was on Dec. 1 at Santa Anita where he went an easy four furlongs in 49:00.00.
Unfortunately, having the two champions in the starting gate is making it difficult for other owners to enter with nobody willing to pay $1,000,000 for a spot when there is no chance of beating either California Chrome or Arrogate. One other possible candidate in the hearing is Gun Runner who recently claimed grade 1 status in the Clark Handicap(G1) on Nov. 25 where he defeated previous winners of the race in Effinex and Hoppertunity.
As the race approaches, we will see what other owners step up and buy places for their horses. One thing we can definitely expect is that only top level horses will be entered to run for a chance to win the richest race in the world against to of the best horses in the world.
Delighted to see Pegasus news. I have no doubt ARROGATE will be there. Of course, CHROME. All 12 entries were purchased a few months ago and the purchasers will want to get some return for their $1,000,000 cost. So, I'm expecting a full field. THEY'RE probably waiting until closer to the race to make announcements as so much can go wrong in 2 months.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely, this is one race that rich owners want to get involved with. I just don't know whether to back chrome or arrogate
DeleteI believe the 3 most likely finishers were already mentioned,Gunrunner being the third.This horse is getting better with each race,imo.He could have won the Pa.Derby,but ran out of real estate.I was standing at the finish line,and thought he was coming on like a freight train.No disrespect to Connect,who is another horse being considered for the Pegasus World Cup.Just pray all horses and jocks come out of the race as they went into it...healthy.
ReplyDeleteI have great respect for Gun Runner myself, as I do for all offspring of Candy Ride, I think he is one of those horses that will get better with age and time off. I feel similarly about Connect, he is doing very well and should be in some good races next year. I pray for the horses too, my only concern is the date of the race, it comes between the Breeders' Cup and Dubai World Cup and I hope it doesn't affect the US entries for the Dubai World Cup in the future.
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