Accelerate Speeding Towards The Pegasus Trophy
Accelerate will bid the racing world a fond adieu this weekend after the Pegasus run. The lightly raced Looking At Lucky colt won six of his seven starts last year, including the Breeders’ Cup Classic. It was his victory over the mighty Arrogate which shot him to instant stardom in San Diego Handicap (2017) which will be remembered for time immemorial. Accelerate will be guided by Jockey Joel Rosario
City of Light is perhaps the strongest challenger who can throw a spanner into Accelerate’s perfect plans.
This race is also City of Light’s swan song. City of Light has five wins in 10 starts along with four runner-ups finishes and a third-place finish, with $1.66 million in earnings.
Experts suggest that it’s the Quality Road colt’s ability to cut brutal fractions and gear-up in the final furlongs which will give him the edge in this match. While Accelerate usual modus operandi would be to show elevated energy in the middle stretch and then glide through for the home-run. Furthermore, Accelerate is a ten furlong horse, while the Pegasus is a 9 furlongs race.
"He's rightfully in the running for Horse of the Year, so he handles a mile and an eighth fine," City of Light’s trainer Michael McCarthy of Accelerate, who has run his best races at 10 furlongs.”
Antonio Sanos trained-Gunnevera who was runner-up to Accelerate in the Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Classic has shown a fondness for doing well at Gulftsream.
The horse is at his prime and headed to Dubai at the end of the quarter, “First we will focus on the Pegasus World Cup and making sure we have a very good performance in it. Then, focus on training the horse towards the Dubai World Cup as next possible race for him. In the months of mid-February to March is when his serious training for race will take place,” said Sanos.
Audible is one of five Group One winners in the 12-horse field. He also shows an affinity for the track. The other top-level winners in the field are Gr.1 Clark Handicap (2017) winner Seeking the Soul and Gr.1 Cigar Mile Handicap (2018) victor Patternrecognition who will be joined by his runner-up in the Gr.1 Cigar Mile – True Timber.
Undefeated Mexican-bred Kukulkan, is the wild card in the field. The Mexican-trained runner colt won the Triple Crown in Mexico City before his US debut where he easily won the Caribbean Classic at Gulfstream. For this race he is guided by champion jockey Frankie Dettori.
Bravazo was the only horse besides Triple Crown winner Justify to run in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. However, the son of Awesome Again has been winless in his last nine starts and its unlikely he will break the spell with the Pegasus. Having said that, five times he finished in the top three and there is a high probability of the Wayne Lucas trained entire making the trifecta.
Tom's d'Etat's promising career has been hindered by ankle issues. He has six wins from nine starts, of which there is one recent stakes’ win.
"He just deserves a chance," Stall added. "He's always deserved a chance. Things just didn't materialize early in his career. He's in top shape right now, so we're going to take a shot, " trainer Al Stall Jr. said in an interview to Bloodhorse.
Multiple graded-stakes winning Stronach Stables' homebred Something Awesome and Bernardini colt Imperative seem to be in fine form.
But the race is still a visible contest between the newly crowned Eclipse Award (For Older Dirt Male) – Accelerate and City Of Light.
1st Gun Runner (S. Asmussen, F. Geroux), 2nd West Coast (B. Baffert, J. Castellano), 3rd Gunnevera (A. Sano, L. Saez), 4th Fear The Cowboy (S. Santoro , T. Gaffalione), 5th Seeking the Soul (D. Stewart, J. Velazquez), 6th Stellar Wind (C. Brown, J. Rosario), 7th Collected (B. Baffert, M. Smith), 8th Sharp Azteca (J. Navarro, I. Ortiz), 9th Giant Expectations (P. Eurton, G. Stevens), 10th War Story (J. Navarro, J. Ortiz), 11th Singing Bullet (D. Romans, R. Albarado), 12th Toast Of New York (J. Osborne, F. Dettori)
Distance: 1 1⁄8 miles (9 furlongs), Surface: Dirt, Track: left-handed, Qualification: Four-year-olds and up, Weight: 124 pounds (56 kg) with allowances, Purse: $12 million (2017), $16 million (2018), $9 million (2019)
Credit: Pallavi Shevade pallavi.shevade@secretariatsworld.com