Skippylongstocking battles with Poster to the finish line, Gulfstream Photo
Gulfstream Park Press
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Daniel Alonso’s Skippylongstocking fought off a stretch-long outside challenge by Poster to the finish line to prevail by a head in Saturday’s $150,000 Harlan’s Holiday (G3) at Gulfstream Park, earning the ageless 6-year-old campaigner a berth for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) Jan. 24.
The 1 1/16-mile stakes for 3-year-olds and up, a prep for the 10th running of the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus at Gulfstream, was featured on an 11-race program with five stakes, including the $200,000 Fort Lauderdale (G3), a 1 1/8-mile turf stakes for 3-year-olds and up that served as a prep for the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1).
The over-achieving son of Exaggerator, who captured the 2022 Harlan’s Holiday late in his 3-year-old season, entered Saturday’s renewal off a pair of disappointing efforts while finishing seventh in the Aug. 2 Whitney (G1) at Saratoga and eighth in the Aug. 22 Charles Town Classic (G2), in which he experienced the thumps (a spasmic contraction of the diaphragm similar to hiccups in humans).
“He came back, and you never know if they’re going to come back. When they run two bad races, you never know. You just try to observe what he’s telling you, and he was training as good as he has ever trained in his life.,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “He’s 6 going on 7, but trust me, his works were as good as he ever worked, and we were quietly optimistic that he would run well. But you never know. I think you have to ride the horse patient. I think that’s one of the keys to him. Apart from the thumps last time, we sent him hard against a huge bias that day and today he redeemed himself.”
Skippylongstocking, who captured the Gold Cup (G2) at Santa Anita in his start prior to his two most recent disappointments, was the recipient of a patient, well-judged ride from Tyler Gaffalione, who saved ground while following his pacesetting stablemate Hold My Bourbon around the first turn and along the backstretch past solid fractions of 22.87 and 45.95 seconds for the first half mile. As Hold My Bourbon, pressed by Con Compania, began to tire on the turn for home, Skippylongstocking dropped back slightly but quickly recovered under Gaffalione, who made a three-wide move into the stretch but was immediately joined on the outside by Poster, the 3-2 favorite ridden by Flavien Prat.
The stage was set for an epic stretch battle between the veteran multiple graded-stakes winner and Godolphin’s 3-year-old colt who had come back from a seven-month layoff with an impressive allowance victory at Churchill Downs. Poster put up a huge fight under Flavien Prat, but Skippylongstocking called on all of his experience to fight off the challenge.
“I’m so proud of him. All the credit goes to Saffie and his team. I got on him two weeks ago and Saffie said he’d been doing better than ever. The second we got on the track he warmed up so good, I knew he was going to run a big one for us,” Gaffalione said. “He battled the whole way – a gutsy performance. I’m very proud of him.”
Skippylongstocking ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.05 to win his 10th graded stakes during a career in which he’s earned more than $3.7 million.
“He got his momentum stopped. He ran into the back of my other horse that was backing up. Prat did a good job of seeing him there and actually waiting to make sure he got stuck, but Tyler was able to split,” Joseph said. “Poster had all the momentum and then he had to kind of dig and rally. It’s a gutsy performance and that’s the kind of horse he is. That’s why he’s had the career he’s had, because he has the heart. That’s something you can’t teach.”
Skippylongstocking, who was the 2-1 co-second choice with Hold My Bourbon Saturday, finished third in last season’s Pegasus World Cup, won by Joseph stablemate White Abarrio.
“If the draw’s good, he can win the Pegasus there’s no doubt about it. This year he ran huge against White Abarrio from a terrible post,” Joseph said. “If he draws good and gets the right setup, it’s not impossible. We’ll see.”
Eoin Harty-trained Poster, who was knocked off the Road to the Kentucky Derby with a condylar fracture of his right front leg in the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) in March, finished 5 ½ lengths clear of third-place finisher Catalytic in third.
