Three-Time Grade 1 Winner Program Trading Early Favorite
Pletcher, Maker, Brown All Seeking to Become First 3X Winner
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Six millionaires, four Grade 1 winners and three trainers chasing an unprecedented third victory in the richest grass event of the winter help comprise a star-studded field set to contest Saturday’s $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1) at Gulfstream Park.
The eighth running of the Pegasus Turf for 4-year-olds and up, scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the grass, is part of a blockbuster program that features 10 stakes, seven graded, worth $5.675 million in purses including the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) and $500,000 TAA Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G2).
Post time for the first of 13 races is 11 a.m. ET. The Pegasus Turf will go off as Race 12, with a scheduled post time of 4:54 p.m. ET. NBC will provide live national television coverage from 4:30 to 6 p.m. ET.
Introduced in 2019, the Pegasus Turf’s list of winners includes 2019 Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar; two-time European Group 1 heroine Warm Heart, the lone filly winner; and Colonel Liam, the only two-time winner having captured consecutive runnings in 2021 and 2022.
Trainer Graham Motion, seeking his first Pegasus Turf win, will send out the Grade 1-winning pair of Test Score and One Stripe. Amerman Racing’s 4-year-old homebred Test Score is coming off a breakthrough sophomore campaign where he registered three wins, one second, three thirds and $1.36 million in purse earnings from eight starts.
Never beaten by more than four lengths in 2025, Test Score notched wins in the Transylvania (G3) at Keeneland, Belmont Derby (G1) at Saratoga and Twilight Derby (G2) at Santa Anita before finishing the season running third by a half-length in the Hollywood Derby (G1) Nov. 29 at Del Mar. This will be his first time facing older horses.
“He was really unlucky last time out. He had a brutal trip. I think you could definitely make the case to say he was the best horse,” Motion said. “I said to Mr. Amerman if things went well, we would point him for this race, but if he needed more time we would give it to him. He seems to have handled everything very well. He’s such a classy horse and if he was doing well, I wanted to take a shot in this race. After this I’ll probably freshen him up for the spring, but he’s here and I thought this was a good opportunity for him. He was always a classy horse. I think he really hasn’t done much wrong, to be honest, but this is going to be a big step up against older horses for the first time.”
Hollywood Racing and Rikesh Sewgoolam’s 5-year-old One Stripe won the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas (G1) to end 2024 and L’ormarins King’s Plate (G1) to open 2025 in his native South Africa, the latter a ‘Win and You’re In’ qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1). He has raced three times since coming to North America last summer, running fifth in the Woodbine Mile (G1) and last after setting the pace in the Mile before getting his first victory going a mile over Gulfstream’s turf course Dec. 26.
“The Breeders’ Cup was kind of a disaster. He drew the one hole and ended up going to the lead which is just not his style at all, so I was really encouraged to get him back on track in the allowance race,” Motion said. “I think after the Breeders’ Cup I was able to take a deep breath with him and kind of give him a chance to catch up and I think that really helped him. That allowance race just came at a really good time. He had one kind of easy work since the Breeders’ Cup and then one proper work. Everything just fell into place. It was a great prep for him.”
Manny Franco is named to ride Test Score (8-1) from Post 1, while Gavin Lerena has the call on One Stripe (12-1) from Post 4.
Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey will also send out a pair of contenders in search of his first Pegasus Turf victory. Magic Cap Stables’ millionaire Fort Washington, fifth in last year’s race after drawing in off the reserve list, is a four-time graded-stakes winner who earned Grade 1 credentials in the 2025 Arlington Million (G1) going 1 ¼ miles on the Colonial Downs turf. He ran once more, finishing sixth in the 1 ½-mile Kentucky Downs Turf Cup (G2) over Labor Day weekend, before being shut down for the season.
“He runs hard,” McGaughey said. “His race was kind of a fouled-up race at Kentucky Downs but sometimes that happens down there. We’ve been pleased with him. I had never won the Arlington Million so to win that was a lot of fun, and to get him a Grade 1 win was a nice accomplishment. He came out of it fine, and we gave him a little bit of a break.”
Fort Washington (10-1) has been third or better in four of seven tries on the Gulfstream turf, his lone victory coming by a nose in last winter’s 1 1/16-mile Canadian Turf (G3). Junior Alvarado rides from outermost Post 12.
“I don’t know that two months ago I really had this race on my radar, but he’s come back and trained really well,” McGaughey said. “I would think going a mile and an eighth here, he’s run really good over this track so it should be a pretty good spot for him. You don’t get these kinds of opportunities that much. I think he deserves a chance.”
West Point Thoroughbreds and Jimmy Kahig Racing’s 5-year-old Cugino (7-2) is a multiple stakes winner including back-to-back scores in the one-mile Red Bank at Monmouth Park and 1 3/8-mile Red Smith (G2) at Aqueduct last fall that followed a season-opening allowance win at Aqueduct and sixth-place finish in the Fourstardave (G1) at Saratoga.
“I gave him some time last winter and he came back and won the allowance. I shouldn’t have run him in the Fourstardave at Saratoga; it was my mistake,” McGaughey said. “He came back and won two stakes and was second in another one. I think all is good. We’ll run him Saturday and then probably give him a little time until the big races in the summer.”
Hall of Famer John Velazquez gets the riding assignment from Post 10 on Cugino, whose name means ‘cousin’ in Italian. Most recently he finished second by less than a length under jockey Flavien Prat in the Gulfstream’s Pegasus Turf prep, the Dec. 20 Fort Lauderdale (G3) behind Wolfie’s Dynaghost’s track-record 1:43.42 for 1 1/8 miles on the grass.
“I thought he ran really well. That horse is a good horse that was in front. I thought, and so did Prat, that at the head of the stretch he was going to be able to catch him and the winner just kept going,” McGaughey said. “I’ve never seen horses run that fast before on the turf, so I was very pleased with the way he ran. Disappointed he got beat, but a 4-5 shot beat him on a track that favored him. He came out of it good and we’re looking forward to next week.”
The 5-2 program favorite for the Pegasus Turf is Klaravich Stables’ Program Trading, a three-time Grade 1-winning millionaire trained by Chad Brown, who won last year’s race with Spirit of St Louis as well as the inaugural edition with Bricks and Mortar. The lightly raced 6-year-old has finished first or second in eight of just 10 career starts. He returned from more than a year away to be second in the Bernard Baruch and Turf Mile (G1) before running 10th last out in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) Nov. 1.
Mike Maker and Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher are also seeking to become the first three-time Pegasus Turf winner. Maker, who won with Zulu Alpha in 2020 and Atone in 2023, will send out Paradise Farms Corp., David Staudacher and Angelo Carlesimo’s 7-year-old Chasing the Crown (20-1), most recently fifth in the Fort Lauderdale.
Chasing the Crown also ran behind Wolfie’s Dynaghost when seventh in the Nov. 8 River City (G3), again at 1 1/8 miles, both races coming after the son of Skipshot won the one-mile Tight Shot overnight handicap at Kentucky Downs.
“Both of Wolfie’s Dynaghost’s last two races were monstrous, and [Chasing the Crown] had to come from a little further back. He ran well last time,” Maker said. “He’s an honest horse and he shows up every time. He gives me a lot of confidence every time I lead him over.”
Chasing the Crown, a troubled third by 3 ½ lengths in last year’s Pegasus Turf, will have Joel Rosario aboard from Post 9.
“He was unlucky to lose last year. He had some trouble in the race and he only got beat a length and a half,” Maker said. “The horse couldn’t look any better or be doing any better. We’ve been pointing to this for a year.”
Pletcher, the only back-to-back Pegasus Turf winner with Colonel Liam, is represented by Spendthrift Farm’s 6-year-old Major Dude (8-1). Third or better in 17 of 26 career starts with more than $1.4 million in purses earned, he also returns from last year’s race when he ran sixth, beaten three lengths, despite having to steady in deep stretch. A minor illness forced him to skip the Fort Lauderdale.
“He got a little temperature a couple days before the Fort Lauderdale so we had to miss that, but he’s been training very well since,” Pletcher said. “He tends to run well fresh so we’re taking that angle into this.”
Major Dude has not raced since winning the one-mile Artie Schiller on the Aqueduct turf by a length Oct. 11. It was his fifth stakes win including graded scores in the 2024 Fort Lauderdale (G2) and 2023 Kitten’s Joy (G3) at Gulfstream. Irad Ortiz Jr. rides from Post 7.
“He’s been a very consistent horse [and] shows up every time, but tends to run his best when given a little extra time in between races,” Pletcher said. “It would be pretty cool to win it a third time. We need to get away alertly, and hopefully he’s able to do that. He’s a very cool horse, a great horse to train. We’ve been very lucky to keep him around as long as we have.”
Kretz Racing’s Southern California-based 7-year-old Cabo Spirit (Post 8, 8-1) is the sixth Pegasus Turf millionaire and has placed in 21 of 39 lifetime starts, the seventh and most recent win coming in front-running fashion Dec. 28 in the 1 1/8-mile San Gabriel (G3) at Santa Anita. The five-time graded-stakes winner has raced away from the West Coast only three times and not since the 2023 Mint Millions at Kentucky Downs.
Savio-Cannon Thoroughbreds’ 5-year-old Call Sign Seven (Post 6, 15-1) exits a late-running half-length triumph in the 1 1/16-mile Seabiscuit Handicap (G2) Nov. 29 at Del Mar, just his second stakes attempt and his first race in 10 months. His trainer, Michael McCarthy, has a history of success shipping in to win Gulfstream stakes including the 2019 Pegasus World Cup with City of Light.
CYBT, McLean Racing Stables, Saul Gevertz, Michael Nentwig and Ray Pagano’s 6-year-old Almendares (Post 5, 20-1) was bred in England and began his career in Ireland before coming to the U.S. in the summer of 2023. He has raced exclusively in Southern California with a restricted stakes win in last July’s one-mile Wickerr at Del Mar, has placed in seven graded-stakes and last out was fifth by less than a length in the Seabiscuit.
Also from the West Coast is Alice Bamford and Michael Tabor’s 7-year-old Astronomer (Post 11, 15-1). Five times graded-stakes placed, he ran fifth in the Wickerr and second by a half-length in the Seabiscuit then was beaten 1 ¼ lengths when second in the San Gabriel.
JSM Equine’s 5-year-old Beach Gold (Post 3, 15-1), trained by Patrick Biancone, has a record of success over the Gulfstream turf with a record of 3-1-2 from seven starts. A 22-1 upset winner of the Preview Turf Mile last summer at Ellis Park, he was third in the Mint Millions Invitational (G3) at Kentucky Downs and most recently third by three lengths in the Fort Lauderdale.
Little Red Feather Racing, Madaket Stables and Old Bones Racing Stable’s Balnikhov (30-1), 10th in last year’s Pegasus Turf, is the lone also-eligible.