Breeders' Cup Classic king Knicks Go set for Pegasus swansong

Breeders’ Cup Classic hero Knicks Go is set to close out his career by bidding for back-to-back victories in the Pegasus World Cup, where he could take on the most impressive winner of the Del Mar meeting in Dirt Mile winner Life Is Good.

The top-class front-runners are being aimed at the $3 million contest at Gulfstream Park on January 29, a race won by the previous year’s Classic scorer in two of the five runnings.

Knicks Go backed up Dirt Mile glory when justifying favouritism in the Pegasus in January and would bid to become the first dual winner of the race.

Trainer Brad Cox said: “If he comes out of it good and trains well, we’ll point for the Pegasus. It’s a good purse, it’s a surface he likes and if he’s doing well, there have been horses that won the Breeders’ Cup and ended their careers with that, between the likes of Gun Runner and City Of Light. It’s always a nice race that you can pick off hopefully before going off to stud.”

Life Is Good was the widest-margin winner of the Breeders’ Cup meeting, routing the Dirt Mile by five and three-quarter lengths for a first top-level success.

The star colt beat subsequent Kentucky Derby winner and Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up Medina Spirit, who will be aimed at the Saudi Cup, on his first two starts when trained by Bob Baffert before switching to Todd Pletcher.

Pletcher said: “Our two-race plan was the mile at Del Mar and then stretch him out further in the Pegasus. He certainly ran well enough to proceed in that direction if everything goes smoothly, but we haven’t really had any time to really firmly discuss our entire plans yet.”

The two-day Del Mar meeting set a new record for Breeders’ Cup betting at $182,165,297, a rise of 4.3 per cent on the previous record set in 2019 according to officials.

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