Program Trading leads a deep field in Saturday’s Pegasus Turf, Courtesy Gulfstream Park
Gulfstream Park Press
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Klaravich Stable’s Program Trading, a three-time Grade 1 winner of nearly $1.6 million in purses from 10 starts, was installed as the 5-2 morning line favorite for the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1) during Sunday’s post-position draw inside the Carousel Club at Gulfstream Park.
Program Trading and jockey Flavien Prat drew Post 2 against 11 rivals in Saturday’s eighth running of the Pegasus Turf for 4-year-olds and up, scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the grass as part of a blockbuster program featuring 10 stakes, seven graded, worth $5.675 million in purses.
A 6-year-old bay ridgling bred in England, Program Trading is unraced since finishing 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) Nov. 1 at Del Mar, just his third start of 2025 following more than a year between races. He also ran second in both the Bernard Baruch at Saratoga and Turf Mile (G1) at Keeneland.
Program Trading won the Saratoga Derby Invitational (G1) and Hollywood Derby (G1) as a 3-year-old in 2023, and the Turf Classic (G1) in one of just two starts as a 4-year-old in 2024. He has been off the board just twice, with five wins and three seconds for trainer Chad Brown.
Brown won the inaugural Pegasus Turf with subsequent Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar in 2019, also for Klaravich, and again with Spirit of St Louis last winter. He is one of three two-time Pegasus Turf-winning trainers in the field along with Mike Maker and Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher.
Pletcher, the only back-to-back winner of the Pegasus Turf with Colonel Liam in 2021 and 2022, is represented by Spendthrift Farm’s multiple graded-stakes winning millionaire Major Dude (Post 7, 8-1, Irad Ortiz Jr.), one of three horses returning from last year’s race after finishing sixth, beaten three lengths. The 6-year-old has two wins and two seconds in six career tries on the Gulfstream turf.
Maker won the Pegasus Turf with Zulu Alpha in 2020 and Atone in 2023. This year he will send out Paradise Farms Corp., David Staudacher and Angelo Carlesimo’s millionaire Chasing the Crown (Post 9, 20-1, Joel Rosario), who ran third in 2025. The 7-year-old is chasing his first graded win, having placed twice prior to last year’s race.
Grade 1 winner Test Score and South African Group 1 winner One Stripe will try the Pegasus Turf for trainer Graham Motion. Amerman Racing’s 4-year-old homebred Test Score (Post 1, 8-1, Manuel Franco) captured the Belmont Derby (G1) to open his 2025 season and capped it finishing third by a half-length in the Nov. 29 Hollywood Derby (G1).
Hollywood Racing and Rikesh Sewgoolam’s 5-year-old South African-bred colt One Stripe (Post 4, 12-1, Gavin Lerena) won Group 1 stakes in his native country to end 2024 and start 2025, earning his first North American victory in his third try in a one-mile optional claiming allowance Dec. 26 on the Gulfstream turf.
Also with two starters is Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, who has Cugino and Fort Washington. West Point Thoroughbreds and Jimmy Kahig Racing’s 5-year-old Cugino (Post 10, 7-2, John Velazquez) had a modest two-race win streak snapped when second by less than a length in Gulfstream’s Pegasus Turf prep, the Dec. 20 Fort Lauderdale (G3).
Magic Cap Stables’ 7-year-old Fort Washington (Post 12, 10-1, Junior Alvarado) is one of six millionaires in the Pegasus Turf, having run fifth in last year’s race. He became a Grade 1 winner in last summer’s Arlington Million at Colonial Downs, one of four career graded-stakes victories.
Rounding out the Pegasus Turf field are Kretz Racing’s millionaire Cabo Spirit (Post 8, 8-1, Mike Smith); Savio-Cannon Thoroughbreds’ Grade 2 winner Call Sign Seven (Post 6, 15-1, Ricardo Gonzalez); CYBT, McLean Racing Stables, Saul Gevertz, Michael Nentwig and Ray Pagano’s Almendares (Post 5, 20-1, Umberto Rispoli); Alice Bamford and Michael Tabor’s Astronomer (Post 11, 15-1, Jose Ortiz) and JSM Equine’s Beach Gold (Post 3, 15-1, David Egan) – all stakes winners who are multiple graded-stakes placed.
Little Red Feather Racing, Madaket Stables and Old Bones Racing Stable’s Balnikhov (30-1, Rispoli) is the lone also-eligible.
