Godolphin’s newly turned four-year-old First Mission continued serious preparation for Gulfstream Park’s $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) on Jan. 27 with another five-eighths of a mile ‘bullet’ work Saturday at the Fair Grounds racetrack in New Orleans.
With exercise rider Kelvin Perez up, First Mission worked five furlongs in a minute flat, his 1:00 time the co-fastest among 50 works at the distance Saturday. First Mission’s 1:00.20 eight days earlier also was the bullet at five-eighths. Regular jockey Luis Saez has the Pegasus mount.
“He’s a great work horse,” said Brad Cox, a finalist to win his third Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding trainer when the 2023 champions are announced two days before the Pegasus. “He’s continued to do the same here at the Fair Grounds in preparing for the Pegasus. He looked fantastic this morning. We actually took him to the track today (jogging a mile Sunday) because we’re due some cold weather in the next few days and we may miss a day of training. But overall, super pleased with how he’s moving and how he physically looks and how he is acting. I think he’s set up for a big run to start his four-year-old season.”
The 1 1/8-mile Pegasus will be First Mission’s first race since he was second by a nose to fellow Pegasus contender Trademark in Churchill Downs’ Clark (G2) the day after Thanksgiving in only his fifth career start. Keeneland’s Stonestreet Lexington (G3) winner in his third start, First Mission was scratched from the Preakness Stakes with a minor ankle issue before returning to Keeneland to win an allowance race off a six-month layoff.
“We obviously had a setback Preakness week,” Cox said earlier this month. “We gave him a little time and he came back and ran huge off the layoff there at Keeneland. To come back in a Grade 2, facing older horses and him just being three and as lightly raced as he is, I thought he ran huge. We think he’s a tremendous talent and we’re excited about 2024.”
The tradeoff for the disappointment of missing any Triple Crown race now figures to work in the First Mission team’s favor.
“He didn’t have to go through a tremendous amount as a three-year-old, and we have a fresh horse,” Cox said. “He looks that way. He’s carrying good flesh, weight is great, attitude is good and he’s continuing to work very well.”
Cox, the Eclipse Award trainer in 2020 and 2021, won the 2021 Pegasus with eventual Horse of the Year Knicks Go, who came into the season’s first Grade 1 race for older horses on dirt off victory in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1). Knicks Go capped his 2021 championship season with victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), then made his career finale before going to stud in the 2022 Pegasus, finishing second.
Cox also had the favorite in last year’s Pegasus, with multiple Grade 1 winner Cyberknife finishing sixth in his first and last start as a 4-year-old before going to stud.
Unraced at two and facing only his sixth career start, First Mission provides a much different scenario from either Knicks Go or Cyberknife.
“Knicks Go had a good start to his career but we picked him up when he was four, and he started rolling at five,” Cox said. “We’re hoping First Mission can make that jump from three to four. Like I said, he’s so lightly raced you’d think he’s going to improve physically and mentally and just figure out the game as he goes.
“Cyberknife never had a break. I think his run in the Pegasus may have been proof that he was just kind of flat and maybe ready for a break, though he’d trained well. Different approach with this horse also being 4 coming into it. Cyberknife was off to the stud after the race. First Mission is going to be off to stud, but we’re hoping it’s going to be next year.”
The Cox-trained Pennsylvania Derby (G1) winner Saudi Crown, also a Pegasus invitee, likewise worked Saturday at the Fair Grounds, his 1:00.20 the third-fastest at five furlongs that morning. Saudi Crown, whose FMQ Stables ownership is from Saudi Arabia, is entered in Saturday’s Louisiana Stakes with the intent of running there as a prep for the Saudi Cup in Riyadh on Feb. 24, Cox said.
Il Miracolo Breezes for Start in Pegasus
Alexandres LLC’s Il Miracolo breezed five furlongs Sunday morning at Gulfstream Park in preparation for a start in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1).
The son of 2018 Pegasus champion Gun Runner covered the distance in 1:00.92 with Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano aboard.
“He went really good. I liked the way he did it today,” Castellano said. “He did it in good time and galloped out beautiful.”
Trainer Antonio Sano also expressed his pleasure with the workout.
The workout was the fifth in a series of workouts for the Pegasus World Cup following a third-place finish in the Clark (G2) at Churchill Downs.
Il Miracolo, who ran in the Holy Bull (G3), Fountain of Youth (G2) and Florida Derby (G1) last season without success, has blossomed during his four-year-old season, in which he captured the Smarty Jones (G3) at Parx and has been stakes-placed in the Pennsylvania Derby (G1) at Parx and the Fayette (G2) at Keeneland, as well as the Clark.
Sano saddled $5.6 million earner Gunnevera for a third-place finish behind Gun Runner in the 2018 Pegasus.
Current list of invitees
Dynamic One, Grand Aspen, Saudi Crown, First Mission, National Treasure, Skippylongstocking, O’Connor, Senor Buscador, Newgrange, Trademark, Hoist the Gold, Il Miracolo
Reserve list
Crupi, Ny Traffic, Red Route One, Wizard of Westwood, Nimitz Class, Castle Chaos, Steal Sunshine
Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes Winners
Year, Horse, Age, Jockey, Trainer, $2 Win Bet
2023: Art Collector, 6, Junior Alvarado, Bill Mott, $33
2022: Life is Good, 4, Irad Ortiz, Jr., Todd Pletcher, $3.60
2021: Knicks Go, 5, Joel Rosario, Brad Cox, $4.60
2020: Mucho Gusto, 4, Irad Otiz, Jr., Bob Baffert, $8.80
2019: City of Light, 5, Javier Castellano, Michael McCarthy, $5.80
2018: Gun Runner, 5, Florent Geroux, Steve Asmussen, $4.20
2017: Arrogate, 4, Mike Smith, Bob Baffert, $3.80
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