Pegasus World Cup: Tom Collins analyses Gulfstream's winter showpiece

Blockbuster match races are generally met with sky-high expectations despite the limited regularity in which they deliver the showdown that everyone desires. 

However, that wasn’t the case last Saturday when we were treated to one of the best spectacles since the turn of the century as Shishkin and Energumene locked horns in a scintillating edition of the SBK Clarence House Chase. Is it too much to ask for a similarly captivating duel at Gulfstream Park tonight?

The Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (10.34), which offers a cool $3million purse and is run over 1m1f on the main track, will play host to a mouthwatering clash between the 2021 world’s highest ranked racehorse and the new kid on the block - Knicks Go versus Life Is Good. This is an immovable object versus an unstoppable force. A Breeders’ Cup winner versus a Breeders’ Cup winner. A champion versus a champion.

We had to wait until the final two furlongs to witness Shishkin and Energumene battle side-by-side at Ascot last Saturday, but there will be no such delay in the Pegasus with both horses possessing an abundance of early speed and the desire to dominate from the front. The race won’t be over in the first few strides, but it will almost certainly have a strong bearing on the outcome of Gulfstream Park’s winter feature.

Will Knicks Go end his career on a high?

Knicks Go, who rapidly progressed into the best horse in America since switching to Brad Cox’s barn in early 2020, enters the Pegasus on the back of four all-the-way victories. Among those were impressive successes in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga and, more recently, the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar.

Victorious at short odds in this race last year and set to be retired following Saturday’s renewal, Knicks Go has drawn the tricky inside post under Joel Rosario, who will surely have his eye on leading the nine-strong field around the first bend. Irad Ortiz, the partner of chief market rival Life Is Good, may have other ideas.

Can Life Is Good make the front?

Formerly trained by Bob Baffert and a one-time strong antepost favourite for last year’s Kentucky Derby before suffering a setback, Life Is Good will make just his seventh career start in the Pegasus and steps up in trip following a bloodless success as the short-priced favourite in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Speed maps anticipate him going to the front, though it’s hard to envisage Life Is Good being able to cross to the rail.

Both horses posted sharp works this month - Knicks Go rattled five furlongs around Fair Grounds in 1:00.40 just last week, while Life Is Good went slightly slower (1:00.90) in a maintenance breeze at Palm Beach Downs - and will line-up in rip-roaring form. This is the race we have been waiting for.

There is a chance they could hook up early and run each other into the ground, but their lesser-fancied opponents require huge career-best efforts to trouble an on-song Knicks Go or Life Is Good and therefore opposing both market leaders would appear foolish, at least from a win perspective.

Verdict

Younger legs often prevail and, given you are getting a bigger price on Life Is Good, he appears the best bet in a thrilling match-up. A pace-pressuring trip on the shoulder of Knicks Go will allow Ortiz to gather momentum turning for home and attempt to deny the Brad Cox trainee, who has been the recipient of an easy lead on each of his last two starts. Whatever the result, this will be a race to savour.