A cursory glance at the winner’s roll of the Pegasus World Cup during its nine years as the season’s first marquee race reveals names familiar to even the most casual horseplayer.
There’s Arrogate, Gun Runner, and Knicks Go—all Eclipse Award winners as Horse of the Year. There’s Breeders’ Cup winners White Abarrio and City of Light. And there’s plenty of chalk to brush off, since eight of the nine winners were either the favorite or the second choice.
Naturally, along with those marquee names come the A-list trainers. Bob Baffert has won three of these: Arrogate (who owns the event record at 1:46.83 for the 1 1/8 miles), Mucho Gusto and National Treasure. Bill Mott, Steve Asmussen, Brad Cox, Todd Pletcher and Saffie Joseph Jr. all have one of these on their CV.
Florida Fans
What are “one of these?” What is the Pegasus World Cup, and why is it a big, early deal?
The Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup is Gulfstream Park’s marquee race. Run for older horses over 1 1/8 miles, it sets the early tone for which older (4-years and up) horses are the ones to watch going forward this season. It was created in 2017 as the world’s richest race, featuring a $12 million purse. That purse rose to $16 million for the 2018 running, but dropped to $9 million in 2019 and to $3 million in 2020, where it sits now.
So while it may not be the richest race in the world anymore, the Pegasus remains a key barometer for older horses, an early barometer for later races, such as the Santa Anita Handicap, the Whitney at Saratoga, and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, which gives a berth to the Pegasus winner.
Which brings us to figuring out who that might be in this field of 12. And figuring that out starts with the 8-5 favorite, Disco Time. The Cox charge is unbeaten in five starts, crushing his competition by a combined 15 ¼ lengths and doing so at odds no greater than 2.32-1. Included here are two stakes wins: the St. Louis Derby at Fairmount Park and the Dwyer at Aqueduct, which came after an eight-month layoff.
Before that layoff, Disco Time won the Grade 3 Lecomte, one of the early events on the Kentucky Derby trail. All of this is to say that the Not This Time colt certainly warrants favorite status, but warrants it with a couple of caveats.
Second Choice
Should the fact Disco Time hasn’t run more than 1 1/16 miles, hasn’t faced older horses, and could be a bit of an underlay at 8-5 send you elsewhere, you’re likely to zero in on Cox’s other entry: Tappan Street (6-1). Last year’s Florida Derby winner was shaping up as a Derby contender before fracturing the condylar bone in his right front leg during an April workout.
After surgery and a nine-month recovery, Tappan Street returned with a tepid, one-length victory in a Gulfstream allowance optional claiming race as the 1-10 favorite.
Three others deserve attention, two of which are horses you’ll recognize: defending Pegasus champion White Abarrio (4-1) and Skippylongstocking (15-1). White Abarrio (24—10-2-3 and more than $7.1 million) is one of the most decorated runners this decade, winning the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic and last year’s Pegasus. And eight of the Race Day horse’s 10 career wins came on this track. But he hasn’t won a race since his Grade 3 Ghostzapper and hasn’t hit the board in his last three—all Grade 1s.
If you’ve paid attention to the Pegasus—or many stakes races around the country over the last six years—you’re familiar with Skippylongstocking (35—12-3-7, more than $3.7 million). This is his fourth consecutive Pegasus. He has a third, DNF, and a seventh in his previous three.
Power Prep
Joseph brings the 7-year-old Exaggerator horse in off a win in the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday, considered the Pegasus prep. But one of Skippylongstocking’s trademarks is an inconsistency that makes keying him on your tickets problematic. His 2025 results: 1-8-7-1-3-1-3. The eighth came in the Grade 2 Charles Town Stakes, the seventh in the Grade 1 Whitney.
One more to watch is Full Serrano (12-1). The expected pacesetter here, Full Serrano, won the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at 13-1, but couldn’t repeat last year and finished fifth in the same event. The 7-year-old Full Mast horse is another entry with a recent layoff, having sat out 10 months between that 2024 Dirt Mile win and an allowance score at Del Mar last September. Full Serrano (20—7-6-2, $936,423) finished first or second in five of his last six races, and if jockey Joel Rosario gets him out quickly, he should be a factor here.
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