As the field entered the starting gate for the 9th Pegasus World Cup Invitational, WHITE ABARRIO marched right into his number four spot with assertion and barely moved a muscle. The almost-white superstar six-year-old, a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Gulfstream lover, stared straight ahead while his rivals got set around him.

With his regular rider Irad Ortiz on board and making his third start since last January for his former trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., White Abarrio was on a mission when the gates opened. He was out to prove that he was back.

Over a fast Florida dirt, White Abarrio let fellow grey Saudi Crown zip to an early lead while he stayed three lengths back in fifth place. Favoured Locked, trained by Todd Pletcher and considered the up-and-coming star in the older horse ranks, had a botched beginning and was well off the pace early in the 1 1/8 mile event.

White Abarrio cruised up to Saudi Crown at the quarter pole and by then it was clear the stretch runners were going to have too much to do. White Abarrio flew clear and won by 6 1/4 lengths in 1:48.05, paying $7.80 to his loyal fans. Locked was up for second and Skippylongstocking, also trained by Joseph, finished third.

Wagering on the 13 race Gulfstream card, #PegasusWorldCup day, was $41,700,226, down over $6 million, about 12 percent, from 2024’s $47,320,906 and down from 2023’s $43,886,543 and 2022’s $43,876,000.

This was the ninth career win in 20 races for White Abarrio, whose sire Race Day (Tapit) was sent off to Korea by Spendthrift Farm late in 2020. White Abarrio, owned by C2 Racing Stable of Mark and Clint Cornett, Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and Antonio Pagnano, had been trained by Joseph early in his career when he won the Florida Derby as a three-year-old. The horse was moved to Richard Dutrow in June 2023, won the Whitney and Classic before he was 10th in the Saudi Cup and a well-beaten fifth in the Met Mile last June.

“It really has been a full circle,” said Mark Cornett, who also races horses at Woodbine with trainer Martin Drexler. “We never really lost any faith in this horse after we shipped over to Saudi. The horse was on the plane for about 24 straight hours, unfortunately, on the tarmac in Miami. Then we drew the one hole over there. I wasn’t happy with that at all. In fact, I told Rick, go ahead and scratch the horse, and he laughed at me.

“Then he came back over here and the Met Mile, and I didn’t like the situation, a lot of things that were going on. That’s when I made the decision. I talked to Clint and the partners and we decided, this is is the perfect time to give the horseback to Saffie. Let’s get him back down to Gulfstream to his home base, where we know he loves the circuit and this track down here.

“Nobody lost faith in the horse. We kind of mapped out a plan from this race backwards. We went back and analyzed the two races prior to the big race he ran in the Whitney. They were both one-turn races, and I kind of wanted to copy that. There’s just something about it where the horse really excels coming off of two sprint-type races.”

White Abarrio, whose future plans have yet to be determined, has earned over $6.8 million.