Cyberknife Among 12 Initial Invitees For Pegasus World Cup Invitational
The last big race of the 2022 horse racing season is on January 28. Twenty horses were recently invited to run in the 7th annual Pegasus World Cup Invitational; who were they?
Cyberknife Among 12 Initial Invitees For Pegasus World Cup Invitational
The Stronach Group disclosed its list of 20 horses for the 7th running of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational on January 4. Multiple Grade I stakes winner Cyberknife tops the list of the 12 original invitees that will have a chance to run for a purse of $3 million on January 28, 2023, at Gulfstream Park if they accept the invitation. The race winner will earn approximately $1.8 million of the total purse.
The Pegasus World Cup Invitational is a one and an eighth-mile Grade I race. The race, named for the Greek mythical horse, is for 4-year-old and upward horses.
Arrogate won the inaugural Pegasus World Cup Invitational in 2017 with a race record of 1:46.83. Gun Runner, City of Light, Mucho Gusto, Knicks Go, and Life is Good are the other horses that have won the race. Bob Baffert is the only trainer who has two victories in the event.
The Top Invitees
In addition to Cyberknife, seven of the original invitees are Group I winners. Argentine-bred Super Corinto, who made his U.S. debut in his last outing, is the only non-American Grade I winner as he was victorious in a Group One race in Chile. Here is a look at the top six North American entrees.
Cyberknife will likely be the favorite in his last race before starting a stallion career. The 3-year-old son of Gun Runner captured the Arkansas Derby and Haskell Stakes this racing season while finishing a head short of winning in the Breeders Cup Dirt Mile. Cyberknife has a 12-5-4-1 record with over $2 million in career winnings.
Defunded (13-5-3-1, $608,100), trained by Baffert, will also be among the favorites. The 4-year-old gelding from Dialed In has won his last two starts with victories in the GI Awesome Again Stakes and the G3 Native Diver Stakes. He has five wins in 13 career starts, with three seconds and one-third for $608,100 in career earnings.
Proxy, a 5-year-old son of Tapit, is nearly a millionaire. He has four wins, earning a lone Grade I stakes win in the Clark Stakes on his last outing (November 25). Proxy also has five second-place finishes, and one-third in 13 career starts for earnings of $971,220.
White Abarrio has four career victories, although the 4-year-old colt is winless since finishing first in the one-and-one-eighth-mile Florida Derby in February. The 2022 Kentucky Derby entrant also won the G3 Holy Bull and finished third in his last outing GI Cigar Mile.
Get Her Number, another Dialed In colt, has five career victories. The 5-year-old’s lone GI stakes victory occurred back in 2020.
Art Collector is one of the field’s oldest and most raced horses. The nearly 7-year-old grandson of A.P. Indy has 10 wins in 20 outings and winnings over $2.3 million. His 2021 victory in the Woodward Stakes is his lone GI of four graded stakes trophies.
The Others
Skippylongstocking, a 4-year-old colt by Exaggerator, has four wins in 14 starts. Two of his wins have come in his last three outings, both of which are grade 3 stakes, with the latest being in the Harlan Holiday at Gulfstream Park on December 31. He finished out of the money in the Grade I Pennsylvania Derby, Kentucky Derby, and Preakness.
Stilleto Boy, a 5-year-old gelding by Shackleford, is the only invitee to already raced in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational. The 5-year-old gelded son of Shackleford finished third in last year’s event, one of his four career GI bronze medal finishes. He has two victories, including in the G2 2022 California Stakes.
Chilean horse O’Connor – who has won at Gulfstream – Simplification, and Last Samurai round out the other first 12 invitees. All three horses are graded stakes winners.
The eight horses on the reserve list are Barber Road, Endorsed, Hoist the Gold, Law Professor, Muad’dib, Pappacap, Pioneer of Medina, and Ridin with Biden.
