Favored National Treasure holds on to win Pegasus World Cup Invitational
After making headlines in May when he won the Preakness Stakes, National Treasure was relegated to the small-type footnotes in each of his four subsequent races, losing all of them.
But Saturday, eight months after his last visit to the winner’s circle, National Treasure made a long-overdue return to glory, winning the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park.
The Bob Baffert-trained 4-year-old held off late-closing Senor Buscador in Florida’s richest thoroughbred race to prevail by a neck. It was a long way back to the rest of the field, with Crupi settling for third, 4 1/2 lengths behind Senor Buscador.
“I have to give a lot of credit to [jockey] Flavien Prat,” said Baffert’s assistant trainer, Jimmy Barnes. “He just rode the horse excellently. When I gave him a leg up [before the race] I said ‘just get him out of the gate and put him in the race.’”
Prat did just that, settling just off the outside flank of early pacesetter Hoist the Gold, taking command rounding the final turn, and having just enough left in reserve to hold off Senor Buscador.
“We knew it was going to be a hot pace,” Barnes said. “But [Prat] gave him a breather down the backside. I got a little nervous toward the end there when they were still coming. But he’s a gutty little horse.”
Said Prat: “He’s very brave.”
It wasn’t that National Treasure had been losing to inferior horses during his four-race drought. All four defeats had come in Grade I races, including the Belmont and Travers Stakes, as well as a nail-biting nose loss to eventual Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita in November.
“He had been running against good horses, so we knew how good he was,” Barnes said.
The field for the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus wasn’t on par in terms of overall quality as those National Treasure had been facing. Not a single member of the colt’s 11 rivals had ever won a Grade I event.
Senor Buscador gave it everything he had to notch his first such premier victory, rallying from far back in the pack on what was a speed-favoring track to nearly corral National Treasure.
“I could feel the last 16th of a mile he was a little tired from making that huge run from the back,” said jockey Junior Alvarado, who was aboard Senor Buscador. “But my horse ran his heart out. He gave me a heck of a run. He gave me everything he had.”
It just wasn’t enough to catch and then overtake National Treasure, who was the lukewarm 5-2 favorite.
“I always thought he was that good of a horse,” said Baffert, who watched the race on TV from California. “I’m proud of him. He showed up.”
Turf race
Warm Heart received an expert ride from British jockey Ryan Moore, slipping through a narrow opening along the rail before prevailing by half-length over I’m Very Busy to win the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational.
The 4-year-old filly was sitting behind early pacesetter Main Event when Moore angled Warm Heart inside and guided her through a tight opening at the top of the stretch before holding off the late closers.
“Ryan gave her an incredible ride,” said winning trainer Aidan O’Brien.
Warm Heart lost the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf in November by only a neck, followed by a third-place finish in the Hong Kong Vase in December.
Warm Heart set a course record with the victory, finishing in a time of 1:44.45.
