3 minute read

This year's editions of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Gr1 and Gr1T are without any International runners.

They will also be run in front of a very small audience at Gulfstream Park, which will have to be pre-booked, seated and temperature checked.

Originally it was all about the dirt edition with people paying $1 million for a slot in the 12 runner race and the winner takes all.  This has morphed over the 5 years into two races with the same name – one on dirt and one on turf and the prize money split between them.  They no longer require entrance fees and the prize money is $3 millions for the dirt and $1 million for the turf version.

The really good thing about these races is, and was the case last year, that the horses cannot run on Lasix.

The Turf has a pair of Pletcher runners in the first two spots in the market – Colonel Liam on 7/2 and Largent on 9/2.  Anothertwistafate comes in from California with Peter Miller saddling the son of Scat Daddy on 5/1 and another West Coaster Say The Word on 6/1.

The Dirt version has the interestingly-named Knicks Go on top from Brad Cox's yard and Joel Rosario riding.  The horse is owned by the Korea Racing Association hence the "K" and "nicks" is a popular term in Korea – think the equine version of K-Pop.  He's on 5/2 with Code of Honor on 9/2, one we quite like is Tax on 5/1 with Sleepy Eyes Todd and Jesus' Team both on 8/1.

The winner gets an automatic entry into the Saudi Cup in 4 weeks or the Dubai World Cup at the end of March.