Knightsbridge powers away in the stretch, Coglianese Photo
Gulfstream Park Press
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Godolphin’s Knightsbridge pulled away for a resounding victory in the $225,000 Fred W. Hooper Stakes (G3) presented by Visit Lauderdale after spending the first half of the race dueling with Life and Times.
Ridden by Junior Alvarado for trainer Bill Mott, the 5-year-old Knightsbridge required only mild urging as he posted a 4 ¾-length victory over Back Em Up, with Life and Times fading to third.
Knightsbridge, the betting favorite at 4-5, improved his lifetime record to five wins in seven starts, and the victory was his second straight in a Grade III event. The horse had won the Mr. Prospector Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream in December before making easy work of it Saturday in the one-mile Fred Hooper.
Sent out to a narrow lead by Alvarado, Knightsbridge was pressed early by Life and Times in fractions of 23.64 and 45.25 before putting away his challenger at the quarter pole and cruising under the wire in the final time of 1:35.12.
The 41st running of the Hooper for 4-year-olds and up going a one-turn mile on the main track was the fifth of 10 stakes, seven graded, worth $5.675 million in purses on a blockbuster Pegasus World Cup Day program anchored by the 10th anniversary of the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1).
The Fred Hooper is named after the pioneering owner and breeder that won the 1945 Kentucky Derby with Hoop Jr., bred 115 stakes winners and formed the national Thoroughbred Owners’ and Breeders’ Association and Florida Thoroughbred Owners’ and Breeders’ Association.
$225,000 Fred W. Hooper presented by Visit Lauderdale (G3) Quotes
Winning trainer Bill Mott (Knightsbridge): “I thought, this is a pretty good horse race. We’ll find out what the other one is made of. Our horse has more experience and more seasoning than [Life and Times], but that horse is obviously very talented and they wouldn’t have brought him if they didn’t think he was talented. Our horse was on his game today. He’s had his third race in this cycle and finally up to showing what we thought he could do. He’s showed signs of that before. Some of his races have been very easy wins, but today was against the better field and he drew away from them pretty handily. There’s one more race here [Gulfstream Park Mile (G3) Feb. 28] and we’ll see if that’s on the docket for him. Looking down the road, there’s plenty of options. We’ll just see what happens.”
Winning Jockey Junior Alvarado (Knightsbridge): “We’ve always thought very high of him. He was running every five, six, seven, eight months. Now it’s getting where he’s running more often. He showed up today. He ran a very good race today.”
“My horse was traveling beautifully, and I could see the horse on my inside was kind of struggling. I was always very happy with what I had underneath me and when I asked him, [I thought] he should be able to put him away, and he did today.”
