2017 Pegasus World Cup Entries (G1)

2017 Pegasus World Cup Race | Gulfstream Park Saturday, January 28, 2017

NOTE: The “rank” of each contender for the 2017 Pegasus World Cup race found in the table below is based on the “All Active Power Rankings” of “active horses” ranked by fans of HorseRacingNation.com.

For more information and the complete list of rankings, visit horseracingnation.com.

Updated January 28, 2017 – NOTE: The official post position order can also be found in the table below.

The official field will be drawn at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. 15 horses have entered, but only 12 will draw in to the race with 3 runners on the AEs list:

Arrogate, Mike Smith – Hasn’t ran since November but working like a freight train for this one. Owns two wins from the 1 hole.

Breaking Lucky, Luis Contreras – Off the board in only Gulfstream effort. Best effort 4th in Woodward three races ago.

California Chrome, Victor Espinoza – Terrible draw for this hard-knocking champ who looks to go out a winner in his final race. Great horses do great things and a furlong less than the BC Classic should help.

Eragon, Edgar Prado – Would be quite the shock if somehow this guy were to beat North America’s best in training.

Keen Ice, Javier Castellano – The only one with a real shot at the upset (if they were running this at Saratoga) He’ll be making his 4th start for Pletcher but 11 lengths is a lot of ground to make up. Still the only “other” one.

Neolithic, John Velazquez – Love the fact that he’s two for two at Gulfstream but he’ll get a taste of what it’s like to face real runners today. Nice race last time and Johnny V. will have him on the front-end from the start.

Noble Bird, Julien Leparoux – With the exception of the G1 Stephen Foster in ’15, he’s been unable to show he belongs at this level in four subsequent G1 tries.

Prayer for Relief, Florent Geroux – I mean come on. This horse is 9 now and hasn’t seen the winner’s circle since Moby Dick was a minnow. The put up $1 million as a gesture of faith in the future of the Pegasus World Cup as an international horse race but this poor guy is the one that has to do all the running and his name says it all.

Semper Fortis, Tyler Gaffalione – His name is U.S. Navy jargon for ‘Always Courageous’ but this “sailor” will have to become an Air Force pilot to get home first in this one.

Shaman Ghost, Jose Ortiz – Broke his maiden here in ’15. Switched barns last May in preparation for this race. Will run in the Stronach colors off back-to-back improving efforts with the addition of Lasix. On the board finish is expected but the top spot may be too tall this time.

War Envoy, Luis Saez – Not sure what they’re thinking with this guy. He was 6th last out in a 5f turf race at Del Mar. Two non-factor efforts on dirt in 21 lifetime starts. Not sure who owner/trainer Ruis is but he had a $1 million to put up and if he wins we’ll know who he is then, won’t we.

War Story, Antonio Gallardo – In the words from the song by Edwin Starr “War, Huh! What are we fighting for? Absolutely nothing!” comes another warrior running because they put a saddle on his back. That last race at Aqueduct over the inner was nice. That’s where he belongs.

AEs:

Madefromlucky (if for some reason California Chrome isn’t able to go)

Sea Raven (if for some reason Breaking Lucky isn’t able to go)

Stanford (if for some reason Arrogate isn’t able to go)

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