Zverev looks to continue winning ways in William L McKnight, NYRA Photo
Gulfstream Park Press
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Paradise Farms Corp. and David Staudacher’s Zverev, unbeaten since being claimed last summer, stretches out for the longest run of his career seeking a fourth straight win and first graded success in Saturday’s $225,000 William L. McKnight (G3) presented by Woodford Reserve Bourbon at Gulfstream Park.
The 59th running of the McKnight for 4-year-olds and up, scheduled for 1 ½ miles on the grass, is the fifth of 10 stakes, seven graded, worth $5.675 million in purses on a blockbuster Pegasus World Cup Day program that begins at 11 a.m.
A victory in the McKnight would be the record-extending sixth for trainer Mike Maker, who previously won with Red Knight (2023), Tide of the Sea (2021), Zulu Alpha (2019), Oscar Nominated (2018) and Taghleeb (2017). Zulu Alpha came back the next year to win the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1).
Zverev had won two of his first 10 starts prior to being claimed for $40,000 out of a runner-up finish last July at Saratoga. He came back less than a month later to win by a head as the favorite in a 1 3/8-mile turf optional claimer, the farthest the 5-year-old gelding has raced.
“It was a great claim. He gets better and better. To be honest, I wish he had him in the Pegasus Turf,” Maker said. “He was one of those horses I felt would get better with longer distances. He was just a very attractive horse.”
Zverev remained at 1 3/8 miles for a one-length optional claiming victory where he either led or ran second by a half-length all the way around Churchill Downs’ turf course. He rallied from far back to register a half-length triumph in the 1 ¼-mile Boone County over Turfway Park’s all-weather surface Dec. 6.
“He can do anything,” Maker said. “Churchill was a little bit of an illusion. It was a short field and a paceless race, so somebody had to be in front. But it’s nice when you’ve got one with tactical speed that can sit right off of it or come from way behind or go to the front if need be.”
Each of Zverev’s last two wins came over multiple graded stakes placed Common Defense, who in between ran second in the Red Smith (G2) to Cugino, who is the second choice on the morning line for the Pegasus Turf. Irad Ortiz Jr. is named to ride Zverev from the rail in a field of 12.
“He ran well at Churchill to beat a nice horse, then he came back at Turfway and beat the same horse, closing from way back,” Maker said. “I still like his [last] race better, so this race should be perfect for him.”
While Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey will send Cugino to the Pegasus Turf, he is represented in the McKnight by West Point Thoroughbreds, Woodford Racing, Ed Hudson Jr. and Lynne Hudson’s 6-year-old Ohana Honor.
This will be the fourth time at 1 ½ miles for Ohana Honor, who was a front-running winner of an April 2024 allowance and respectively ran eighth and fourth, the latter beaten three lengths, in the last two runnings of the Sycamore (G2), all at Keeneland. Overall he has been third or better in 12 of 19 career starts with $636,397 in purse earnings and is both Grade 1 and Grade 2-placed.
“I think he’s doing really well. The mile and a half is a little bit of a question mark, but I was there for his breeze the other day and I thought he breezed really well,” McGaughey said “If we get a decent pace I think he’ll be worth looking at.”
Flavien Prat will be aboard for the third straight race, breaking from Post 3. Last time out, they teamed up to win the 1 1/8-mile Knickerbocker Nov. 15 on the Aqueduct turf.
“He’s been somewhat under the radar kind of his whole career, but he’s a really good horse and I think he could be even better now than he was,” McGaughey said. “His race in the Knickerbocker was his best race. A mile and a half might not be perfect, but if we get a good pace in front of him I think that will help.”
The richest horse in the field is Little Red Feather Racing, Madaket Stables and Old Bones Racing’s Stable’s 7-year-old Irish-bred millionaire Balnikhov, who is also the lone alternate in the Pegasus Turf, a race where he ran 10th in 2025. His eight career wins include the 2022 Bryan Station (G3), 2023 San Francisco (G3) and 2024 Dinner Party (G3), the latter at 1 1/8 miles. He has won at as far as 1 3/8 miles and was second by a half-length in the 2024 Hollywood Turf Cup (G2) in one of three career tries at the McKnight distance.
Michael and Jules Iavarone and TCC Stables’ Missed the Cut is a three-time graded-stakes winner at Santa Anita including the 2023 Tokyo City (G3) and 2024 San Luis Rey (G3) each going 1 ½ miles, the latter on turf. He has made two of his 21 starts on the grass at Gulfstream, finishing sixth as the favorite in last winter’s Mac Diarmida (G2) and third by less than a length in a 1 ½-mile optional claiming allowance Dec. 27, his first start for trainer Bobby Dibona.
Summer Cause, winner of the two-mile H. Allen Jerkens Dec. 6 on the Gulfstream turf; Hammerhead, who won the 1 ½-mile Valedictory (G3) over Woodbine’s synthetic surface Dec. 6; Act a Fool, a winner of two straight; Gulfstream’s Dec. 13 Tropical Park Derby winner Layabout; multiple Grade 3-placed Padiddle; 8-year-old two-time graded-stakes winner Offlee Naughty, unraced since August 2024; Grade 3-placed Divin Propos; and Il Siciliano round out the field.
The McKnight is named after the American businessman and philanthropist who owned Tartan Farms and helped establish the Florida Thoroughbred breeding industry. Champions Dr. Fager and Ta Wee both carried the Tartan silks.
