2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic champ White Abarrio (Jenny Doyle/Past The Wire)
David Joseph/Gulfstream Park
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Nominations for five stakes on the Dec. 21 Pegasus World Cup Preview Day program at Gulfstream Park, including the $165,000 Harlan’s Holiday (G3), the $215,000 Fort Lauderdale (G2) and $165,000 Suwanee River (G3), are available @gulfstreampark.com.
The Harlan’s Holiday, a 1 1/16-mile stakes for 3-year-olds and up, is the key local prep for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1), which will headline a Jan. 25 card at Gulfstream that will also feature the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1), the $500,000 Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf Invitational (G2), and seven other stakes (four graded).
C2 Racing Stable, Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdulaziz and Antonio Pagnano’s White Abarrio, the 2022 Florida Derby (G1) and 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner, is prominent on the list of 18 nominations but is scheduled to prep for the Pegasus World Cup in the $150,000 Mr. Prospector (G3) a week later at Gulfstream. White Abarrio’s trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. has nominated five others for the Harlan’s Holiday, including Two Twenty Racing and Joseph’s Comedy Town, who has found his best stride since transitioning back to dirt and winning three straight, two stakes, and finishing third in the Phoenix (G2) at Keeneland last time out.
Trainer Brad Cox is represented on the Harlan’s Holiday noms list by FMZ Stables’ multiple graded stakes-winning veteran Saudi Crown, Evan Ferraro and Stephen Ferraro’s Liberal Arts and Godolphin’s Kinetic.
Michael Iavarone and partners’ Steal Sunshine, who won the Gulfstream Mile (G2) last season for trainer Bobby Dibona; Wathnan Racing’s Tumbarumba, whom Brian Lynch saddled for a victory in the Hooper (G3) on Pegasus Day last season; and Mohammed Khaleel Ahmed’s Bendoog, the Bill Mott-trained Suburban (G2) runner-up; are also prominent on the Harlan’s Holiday noms list.
Live Oak Plantation’s Win for the Money, who captured the Nov. 2 Woodbine Mile (G1), and Whisper Hill Farm LLC’s Grand Sonata, winner of the Kentucky Downs Turf Cup (G2), top a list of 20 nominations for the Fort Lauderdale, a 1 1/8-mile steppingstone to the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational. Win for the Money and Grand Sonata, who both finished off the board in the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) last time out, are trained by Hall of Famers Mark Casse and Todd Pletcher, respectively.
The Suwannee River, a mile prep for the Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf, has attracted 23 nominations, including Team Valor International LLC and Gary Barber’s Bless My Heart, a Group 1 winner in South Africa whom Pletcher is preparing for her U.S. debut. Trainer Graham Motion nominated Golden Hostess, a South African import owned by Cayton Park Stud Ltd. A group winner in South Africa, Golden Hostess finished a rallying second in the Autumn Days at Aqueduct in her second U.S. start Nov. 8. Five Joseph-trained fillies and mares have been nominated to the Suwannee River, including e Five Racing Thoroughbreds’ Mrs. Gambolini, a lightly raced daughter of More Than Ready who is coming off a sharp optional claiming allowance score at Gulfstream.
The $140,000 Sugar Swirl, a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares that serves as a prep for the seven-furlong Inside Information (G3) on the Pegasus card, attracted 13 nominations, including Jorge Delgado-trained Olivia Darling, AMO Racing USA’s defending Inside Information champion.
The $140,000 Janus, a five-furlong turf dash that serves as a prep for the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint on the Pegasus program, drew 17 nominations, including last season’s winner Panther Island. Golden Kernel Racing Stable is also represented on the noms list by veteran turf sprinter Yes I Am Free. Both horses have been recently transferred to Cox.
