US racing: Shane Ketteridge has two tips for Gulfstream's Pegasus card

Nicest
8.36 Gulfstream Park
1pt win

Life Is Good
10.34 Gulfstream Park
3pt win

The sixth running of the $3 million Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes is billed as a match between Knicks Go and Life Is Good – and it’s easy to see why.

Both are coming into the race off the back of Breeders’ Cup victories in the Classic and Dirt Mile and they stand head and shoulders above the opposition.

Knicks Go has been drawn in stall one, which could be a problem if this front-runner doesn’t get out of the stalls quickly enough, but he ought to do and should get to the lead under Joel Rosario. And that will be perfect for Irad Ortiz Jr on Life Is Good.

Todd Pletcher’s colt has the potential to be very special. He has won five of his six races, which include a Grade 3, a pair of Grade 2s and an annihilation of his rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar in November.

This is his first big test but he is a high-class animal, as is Knicks Go, but the latter will have a target on his back and Life Is Good has all the attributes to be able to run him down late on before heading to Meydan for the Dubai World Cup.

A field of high-class females will line up for the $500,000 Grade 3 Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational Stakes over 1m½f on the turf and this one can go to the ex-Irish trained Nicest, who has been placed at the highest level and has impressed since arriving on American shores.

The four-year-old daughter of American Pharoah is trained by Michael McCarthy, having been with Donnacha O’Brien, and she has been running very well in top Graded races since her arrival.

She has enough ability to win this, so now could be her time in a race which should set up perfectly for her late closing style of running.

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