1/28 (GP): $12MM Pegasus World Cup

[ScottJ]

Maybe I am the minority voice here, but I have not seen a single compelling argument as to why thoroughbred racing needs a $12,000,000 race in the middle of the winter racing season - aside from putting a one hour focus on Florida if the television networks even give a damn. Where do I have this story wrong?

[1] We have all but dropped handicap racing in the United States which was the true genesis of an older horse "triple crown". The comment that these older horses would not be ready to travel 10f in January tells you that this cannot be a "triple crown" event of any level. You want an older horse triple crown in line with the history of the game? How about getting back to true handicap racing and, god forbid, ask a horse to travel more than 1 1/8 miles while doing it?

[2] While it is for those who really follow the names to have a California Chrome versus Arrogate rematch, are we now saying that the Breeder's Cup Classic is not enough from just two months back? Gulfstream Park would be holding this race in complete obscurity without those two signed on.

[3] This $12,000,000 event has limited sustainability. This is the Spend a Buck Jersey Derby from 1985 in a new suit.

[Kasept]

Door opens at least a crack for Gun Runner to go to Pegasus
By Marcus Hersh

The decision by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry to lift a quarantine of the Fair Grounds backstretch on Jan. 21 puts Fair Grounds-based Gun Runner one step closer to racing in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream.

The state-administered quarantine due to an outbreak of equine herpesvirus will be lifted Saturday for 42 barns in which there have been no reported incidences of the virus provided no further cases are reported in the next two days. Gun Runner is stabled in a barn in which there have been no EHV-1 cases.

David Fiske, the racing manager for co-owner Ron Winchell, said Wednesday afternoon that should the quarantine been lifted the Pegasus would be "very much in play" for Gun Runner, who has been trained to make the race, should the chance arise, and is scheduled to work again this weekend. Twelve horse already are listed as starters in the race, a full field, but Gun Runner's owners could have a deal to swap their horse for one of the announced starters if it becomes possible.

But there would be several hurdles still to clear. A Fair Grounds movement restriction barring horses coming into and going out of the track remained in place late Wednesday afternoon. Even if that restriction - at least for horses leaving the track - is lifted, Gun Runner would have to be cleared to ship into Florida in general and Gulfstream in particular, both of which might be unwilling to accept any horses from Fair Grounds so close to the EHV-1 event. There have, however, been no cases of the far more serious neuropathogenic strain of the EHV-1 virus reported since Dec. 31, and the horse that tested positive that day has recovered and returned a negative test Tuesday.

[knickslions2]

Originally Posted by Kasept

Door opens at least a crack for Gun Runner to go to Pegasus
By Marcus Hersh

The decision by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry to lift a quarantine of the Fair Grounds backstretch on Jan. 21 puts Fair Grounds-based Gun Runner one step closer to racing in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream.

The state-administered quarantine due to an outbreak of equine herpesvirus will be lifted Saturday for 42 barns in which there have been no reported incidences of the virus provided no further cases are reported in the next two days. Gun Runner is stabled in a barn in which there have been no EHV-1 cases.

David Fiske, the racing manager for co-owner Ron Winchell, said Wednesday afternoon that should the quarantine been lifted the Pegasus would be "very much in play" for Gun Runner, who has been trained to make the race, should the chance arise, and is scheduled to work again this weekend. Twelve horse already are listed as starters in the race, a full field, but Gun Runner's owners could have a deal to swap their horse for one of the announced starters if it becomes possible.

But there would be several hurdles still to clear. A Fair Grounds movement restriction barring horses coming into and going out of the track remained in place late Wednesday afternoon. Even if that restriction - at least for horses leaving the track - is lifted, Gun Runner would have to be cleared to ship into Florida in general and Gulfstream in particular, both of which might be unwilling to accept any horses from Fair Grounds so close to the EHV-1 event. There have, however, been no cases of the far more serious neuropathogenic strain of the EHV-1 virus reported since Dec. 31, and the horse that tested positive that day has recovered and returned a negative test Tuesday.

Looks like Gun runner will not be inthe race per Drf

[Kasept]

Reddam swaps Semper Fortis in for Ralis..

[MaTH716]

Will all the horses be carrying the same weight?

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by MaTH716

Will all the horses be carrying the same weight?

Does Arrogate toting RHT around count?

[MaTH716]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Does Arrogate toting RHT around count?

Eh, probably not since he won the BC Classic with him on his back.

[Pants II]

Originally Posted by ScottJ

Maybe I am the minority voice here, but I have not seen a single compelling argument as to why thoroughbred racing needs a $12,000,000 race in the middle of the winter racing season - aside from putting a one hour focus on Florida if the television networks even give a damn. Where do I have this story wrong?

[1] We have all but dropped handicap racing in the United States which was the true genesis of an older horse "triple crown". The comment that these older horses would not be ready to travel 10f in January tells you that this cannot be a "triple crown" event of any level. You want an older horse triple crown in line with the history of the game? How about getting back to true handicap racing and, god forbid, ask a horse to travel more than 1 1/8 miles while doing it?

[2] While it is for those who really follow the names to have a California Chrome versus Arrogate rematch, are we now saying that the Breeder's Cup Classic is not enough from just two months back? Gulfstream Park would be holding this race in complete obscurity without those two signed on.

[3] This $12,000,000 event has limited sustainability. This is the Spend a Buck Jersey Derby from 1985 in a new suit.

1. That would require a national authority with teeth and that's unlikely to happen. The owners and trainers with the stock and power to control the game don't want fair racing. They want the illusion that their horse is just as good as past champions who had weight on their back. Adversity is a triggering word in North American racing.

2. It isn't enough. The good horses don't run enough. This is a bold move with a high ceiling.

3. We shall see. I strongly disagree.

[Kasept]

Deal reached to point Gun Runner to Pegasus, Ruis says
By Matt Hegarty

Gun Runner, the 2016 Clark Handicap winner, will start in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28 in the slot owned by Mick Ruis Sr., provided the horse clears quarantine at Fair Grounds in New Orleans in the next several days and is allowed on to the grounds of Gulfstream Park in Florida, Ruis said late on Thursday night.

Ruis said that he reached a deal with the co-owners of Gun Runner just recently, and that he had a discussion with an official at Gulfstream on Thursday afternoon indicating that the horse would be allowed on to the track grounds provided the horse tests negative for equine herpesvirus and clears other protocols. Ruis Sr. would not name the official of Gulfstream he had talked to.

Gun Runner has been stabled at Fair Grounds all winter. The track has had two horses tests positive for the neuropathic strain of equine herpesvirus, a highly contagious disease, toward the end of last year, leading to a general quarantine of the backstretch. With no horses testing positive for the more dangerous strain of the disease since Dec. 31, that quarantine could be lifted for most of the barns on the backstretch as early as Saturday, according to the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. The draw of the Pegasus is on Monday.

Early on Thursday, P.J. Campo, the general manager of Gulfstream, said that no one had contacted him yet about whether the track would allow in horses from Fair Grounds if the quarantine is lifted.

“I haven’t discussed it with upper management, but we’d definitely have to see [Gun Runner] test negative, along with everyone else in that barn,” Campo said. “And we’ll go with what the state vets are saying.”

Gun Runner, who has been trained by Steve Asmussen in recent weeks as if preparing for the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus, had been on the short lists of Pegasus slot owners for most of last year, but the quarantine at Fair Grounds seemed to dim his chances of participating in the race. Still, some slot holders had held out hope that the horse would be released from the track in time to participate in the race.

Doug Cauthen, a representative of Three Chimneys Farm, which owns Gun Runner with Winchell Thoroughbreds, did not return a phone call on Thursday.

Ruis said the partnership agreed not to release details of the deal to start Gun Runner. Ruis and 11 others purchased a starting slot in the Pegasus last year for $1 million each, with the right to market the slots as each owner saw fit. The winner’s share of the Pegasus is $7 million, with second receiving $1.75 million, and third $1 million.

Gulfstream Park is owned by a private company controlled by Frank Stronach, who owns a slot to the Pegasus and his pointing his homebred Shaman Ghost to the race. The idea to hold a race in which owners fund the entire purse with marketable starting slots was Stronach’s.

Ruis, an ex-trainer, had earlier designated a horse he owns, War Envoy, as his starter in the race. If Gun Runner is able to run in the Pegasus, War Envoy, which made his last start in an optional claiming race, will start in the Poseidon Stakes, a $400,000 race on the Pegasus undercard open to horses designated by Pegasus slot owners as back-ups for their slots in the race.

[Benny]

What to do if your horse draws poorly @ GP 1 1/8 ? I recallpp 7 on out is up against it, but no one has addressed it yet. Too soon i guess,