Pegasus World Cup cheat sheet

The $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Saturday, Jan. 28, will be the richest race in the history of Thoroughbred racing. The 1 1/8-mile race on the main track at Gulfstream Park drew the top three finishers from the Breeders’ Cup Classic — Arrogate, California Chrome and Keen Ice, respectively — chasing the top prize of $7 million to the victor. The race will be televised on NBC with live coverage beginning Jan. 28 at 4:30 p.m. ET.

1. Arrogate (7-5)

Jockey: Mike Smith

Trainer: Bob Baffert

Owner: Juddmonte Farms

Career record: 6 starts – 5 wins – 0 seconds – 1 third

Career earnings: $4,084,600

Earnings per start: $680,767

Pedigree: Unbridled’s Song – Bubbler, by Distorted Humor

Color: Gray or roan

Age: 4

Running style: Pacesetter/Presser

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Lightly raced Arrogate made his stakes debut in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 27 and galloped to a track record-setting 13 ½-length win after leading from start to finish in a freak performance. He followed with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, in which he reeled in 2014 Horse of the Year California Chrome to prevail by a half-length. Arrogate is owned by Saudi Arabian Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms, trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert and ridden by Hall of Famer Mike Smith. Juddmonte on Dec. 22 reached an agreement to purchase Coolmore Stud’s starting spot in the Pegasus World Cup.

2. Prayer for Relief (50-1)

Jockey: Florent Geroux

Trainer: Dale Romans

Owner: Zayat Stables

Career record: 45 starts – 8 wins – 6 seconds – 10 thirds

Career earnings: $2,027,948

Earnings per start: $45,066

Pedigree: Jump Start - Sparklin Lil, by Mr. Sparkles

Color: Dark bay or brown

Age: 9

Running style: Stalker/Closer

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Prayer for Relief spent most of the last two years in Dubai and twice competed in the Group 2 Godolphin Mile Sponsored by Meydan Sobha. Since returning to the U.S., Prayer for Relief finished fifth in the Grade 2 Fayette Stakes and ninth in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap. He won three stakes in 2013, including the Grade 3 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap, but enters the Pegasus on a 20-race winless stretch. Owner Zayat Stables raced 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Prayer for Relief will run in the Pegasus starting spot owned by Jeff Weiss and Rosedown Racing.

3. Neolithic (30-1)

Jockey: John Velazquez

Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Owner: Starlight Racing

Career record: 7 starts – 2 wins – 3 seconds – 0 thirds

Career earnings: $109,028

Earnings per start: $15,575

Pedigree: Harlan's Holiday - Swingit, by Victory Gallop

Color: Dark bay or brown

Age: 4

Running style: Presser/Pacesetter

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Both of Neolithic’s two career wins have come at Gulfstream Park. His only previous stakes experience was a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Discovery Stakes at Aqueduct in November 2016. Neolithic closed his 3-year-old season with a career-best performance in a Gulfstream allowance race that earned him a 121 Equibase Speed Figure. Owner Starlight Racing’s founder and co-managing partner Jack Wolf serves as chief executive officer of the Pegasus World Cup.

4. Noble Bird (25-1)

Jockey: Julien Leparoux

Trainer: Mark Casse

Owner: John C. Oxley

Career record: 20 starts – 7 wins – 4 seconds – 0 thirds

Career earnings: $1,069,945

Earnings per start: $53,497

Pedigree: Birdstone - Anyhow, by Tiznow

Color: Chestnut

Age: 6

Running style: Pacesetter/Presser

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Noble Bird is a multiple graded stakes winner, whose most important victory to date was a win in the 2015 Stephen Foster Handicap. He won three of nine races in 2016, including a win in October at Keeneland in the Grade 2 Hagyard Fayette Stakes, in which he recorded a new career-best 121 Equibase Speed Figure. He enters the Pegasus off a dull seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap in November at Churchill Downs. When Noble Bird is good, he’s very good, but he has a history of throwing in occasional clunkers. He should be a factor in the early pace and provide some company to Arrogate, California Chrome and a few others. Owner John Oxley won the 2001 Kentucky Derby with Monarchos. Noble Bird will run in the Pegasus starting spot owned by Earle Mack.

5. War Story (50-1)

Jockey: Antonio A. Gallardo

Trainer: Jorge Navarro

Owner: Loooch Racing Stables, Ellis, Weaver and Imaginary Stables

Career record: 17 starts – 4 wins – 3 seconds – 2 thirds

Career earnings: $559,395

Earnings per start: $32,906

Pedigree: Northern Afleet – Belle Watling, by Pulpit

Color: Chestnut

Age: 5

Running style: Closer

Notable achievements and interesting facts: War Story has placed four times in graded stakes races but is still looking for his first graded stakes score entering the Pegasus World Cup. After an unplaced finish in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Classic, War Story finished fourth in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile Handicap before his first stakes victory in the Queens County Stakes at Aqueduct. The back-to-back 108 Equibase Speed Figures earned in the Cigar Mile and Queens County mark a career top. War Story is a half-brother to Grade 2 winner Land Over Sea, the runner-up in the 2016 Kentucky Oaks. War Story will run in the Pegasus starting spot owned by Dan Schafer.

6. War Envoy (50-1)

Jockey: Luis Saez

Trainer: Craig Dollase

Owner: Ruis Racing and Wendy Ruis

Career record: 21 starts – 2 wins – 3 seconds – 4 thirds

Career earnings: $235,970

Earnings per start: $11,237

Pedigree: War Front - La Conseillante, by Elusive Quality

Color: Bay

Age: 5

Running style: Closer

Notable achievements and interesting facts: War Envoy placed in group stakes races in Ireland and England as a 2-year-old. He came to North America in 2015 and made his stateside debut in the Breeders’ Cup Las Vegas Dirt Mile, finishing 11th. He is winless in his last eight races and has made 18 of his 21 lifetime starts on turf. His third dam (maternal great-grandmother) is 1988 Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors.

7. Shaman Ghost (20-1)

Jockey: Jose Ortiz

Trainer: Jimmy Jerkens

Owner: Stronach Stables

Career record: 12 starts – 6 wins – 1 second– 1 third

Career earnings: $1,339,311

Earnings per start: $103,024

Pedigree: Ghostzapper – Getback Time, by Gilded Time

Color: Bay

Age: 5

Running style: Stalker/Closer

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Shaman Ghost is a homebred of Frank Stronach, the owner of Gulfstream Park, a 12-time Eclipse Award winner and creator of the Pegasus World Cup. Shaman Ghost is a son of Stronach’s best racehorse, 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper. He upset heavily favored Frosted in the Woodward Stakes in September 2016 to earn his first career Grade 1 victory. Shaman Ghost also won the 2016 Brooklyn Invitational Stakes in his second start for trainer Jimmy Jerkens. In 2015, Shaman Ghost won the Queen’s Plate, which is a classic race for Canadian 3-year-olds, and was named Canada’s champion 3-year-old male.

8. Semper Fortis (50-1)

Jockey: Tyler Gaffalione

Trainer: Doug O'Neill

Owner: Reddam Racing

Career record: 12 starts - 2 wins - 4 seconds - 2 thirds

Career earnings: $179,405

Earnings per start: $14,950

Pedigree: Distorted Humor - Rebridled Dreams, by Unbridled’s Song

Color: Dark Bay or Brown

Age: 4

Running style: Closer/Stalker

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Semper Fortis is still in search of his first stakes win but he did finish second three times in stakes in 2016, including a runner-up finish by a head in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Derby. His owner (Paul Reddam), trainer (Doug O’Neill) and jockey (Mario Gutierrez) teamed to win the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands and Preakness Stakes in 2012 with I’ll Have Another and the 2015 Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and 2016 Kentucky Derby with Nyquist. Semper Fortis is a half-brother to 2015 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes winner Carpe Diem, 2016 Golden Rod Stakes winner Farrell, and 2010 Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity winner J. B.’s Thunder.

 

9. Keen Ice (12-1)

Jockey: Javier Castellano

Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Owner: Donegal Racing

Career record: 19 starts – 2 wins – 2 seconds – 5 thirds

Career earnings: $2,387,245

Earnings per start: $125,644

Pedigree: Curlin – Medomak, by Awesome Again

Color: Chestnut

Age: 5

Running style: Deep Closer

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Keen Ice is best known for defeating American Pharoah in the 2015 Travers Stakes in what was only his second and most recent career victory. He finished third to American Pharoah in the Belmont Stakes and second in the Haskell prior to his Travers coup. In 2016, Keen Ice disappointed in two races in Dubai before he was given a vacation and transferred to trainer Todd Pletcher. He closed from off the pace to finish third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and closed the year with a second in the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday Stakes. Keen Ice will run in the Pegasus starting spot owned by Jerry and Ronald Frankel.

10. Breaking Lucky (25-1)

Jockey: Luis Contreras

Trainer: Reade Baker

Owner: Gunpowder Farms, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds, R.A. Hill Stable

Career record: 16 starts – 3 wins – 4 seconds – 3 thirds

Career earnings: $612,376

Earnings per start: $38,274

Pedigree: Lookin At Lucky - Shooting Party, by Sky Classic

Color: Chestnut

Age: 5

Running style: Stalker/Presser

Notable achievements and interesting facts: A Canadian classic winner in 2015, Breaking Lucky won the 2016 Seagram Cup Stakes and was the runner-up in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap. He also finished fourth by a neck in a blanket finish in the Woodward Stakes in September 2016. An interest in Breaking Lucky was sold to Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, which campaigned 2013 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Mucho Macho Man, and Terry Finley’s West Point Thoroughbreds. The West Point partnership group that purchased an interest in Breaking Lucky includes legendary race caller Tom Durkin.

11. Eragon (50-1)

Jockey: Edgar Prado

Trainer: Laura Wohlers

Owner: James McIngvale

Career record: 20 starts – 10 wins – 1 second – 2 thirds

Career earnings: $250,993

Earnings per start: $12,550

Pedigree: Offlee Wild - Express Time (ARG), by Shy Tom

Color: Bay

Age: 6

Running style: Closer

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Eragon was purchased by James McIngvale to race in the Pegasus World Cup after the racehorse McIngvale initially purchased the slot for, champion Runhappy, was retired. Eragon most recently won the Gran Premio Hipodromo De Palermo in November 2016. He was the first Pegasus World Cup contender to arrive at Gulfstream on Jan. 5 and adds an element of mystery to the $12 million race having never raced in North America. Eragon is a five-time stakes winner and three-time Group 1 victor in his native Argentina.

 

12. California Chrome (6-5)

Jockey: Victor Espinoza

Trainer: Art Sherman

Owner: California Chrome LLC

Career record: 26 starts – 16 wins – 4 seconds – 1 third

Career earnings: $14,502,650

Earnings per start: $557,794

Pedigree: Lucky Pulpit – Love the Chase, by Not For Love

Color: Chestnut

Age: 6

Running style: Presser/Pacesetter

Notable achievements and interesting facts: California Chrome and his rags-to-riches story captured the heart of the America when he won the 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, but his 2015 season was more memorable for its miscues than its successes. Chrome rebounded in a big way in 2016, winning six straight races to begin the year, including the Dubai World Cup, TVG Pacific Classic, and Awesome Again Stakes, before finishing second to Arrogate in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. In his final start of 2016, he won the Winter Challenge Stakes and posted the highest Equibase Speed Figure (132) for any horse in a North American race in 2016. He is the richest North American-raced Thoroughbred of all time with more than $14.5 million in lifetime earnings. With the $7 million winner’s share, California Chrome would become the all-time leading money-earning Thoroughbred racehorse, passing Japan’s Orfevre ($19,005,276).
Also-eligibles/Alternates (can only replace horse from specific ownership group):

Stanford (for Arrogate)

Sea Raven (for Breaking Lucky)

Madefromlucky (for California Chrome)