HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Add another Grade 1 winner, Power Squeeze, to the list of likely starters in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25.
Power Squeeze was one of two new horses added to the updated list of 12 invitees to the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus World Cup released Wednesday, along with recent Grade 3 winner Skinner. They replace J B Strikes Back and Rattle N Roll, who have been withdrawn from consideration.
Power Squeeze not only becomes the potential seventh Grade 1 winner who will be in the starting gate for the Pegasus, she will be the lone filly in the field. Trained by Jorge Delgado, Power Squeeze upset the prestigious 1 1/4-mile Alabama this summer at Saratoga.
She is winless in two subsequent starts, having finished a distant seventh behind division leader Thorpedo Anna in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx before closing out her 2024 campaign by finishing second in the one-mile Rampart on Dec. 26. She was beaten a neck in the Rampart by 14-1 Windy Walk while a head in front of Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Soul of an Angel.
Two others, New York-bred Mama’s Gold and Grade 3 winner Society Man, were added to the reserve list for the Pegasus. The suddenly much improved Mama’s Gold closed out 2024 with two well-graded victories at 1 1/8 miles, including the Empire Classic, and would also be a possibility for the Grade 3 Fred Hooper, to be run on the Pegasus World Cup undercard, if he fails to draw into the main event.
Gun Song has first work back
Gun Song, who nearly shocked the racing world when coming within a neck of upsetting Horse of the Year candidate Thorpedo Anna in the Cotillion, returned to the work tab for the first time this winter, breezing a very easy three furlongs in 38.47 seconds here Wednesday.
Gun Song nearly became the only filly to defeat Thorpedo Anna in 2024 as a 44-1 outsider in the Cotillion. It was the penultimate start of a nine-race 3-year-old campaign for Gun Song that was also highlighted by a 3 1/4-length victory in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico and concluded with a heartbreaking second-place finish to Tarifa as the 4-5 favorite in the Grade 2 Mother Goose at Aqueduct.
Gun Song was given some time off following her gut-wrenching effort in the Mother Goose before returning to trainer Mark Hennig’s barn in early December.
“We talked briefly about the Breeders’ Cup after the Cotillion before deciding she’d had a long year and coming up with the plan to run just one more time, against 3-year-olds, in the Mother Goose, before giving her a break,” Hennig said. “I thought everything went great for her last season except for the Acorn, when I probably brought her back a little too quickly off the race at Pimlico.
“She really matured as the year went on and showed, with her performance in the Cotillion, that she can be a very tough filly to tangle with no matter who you are.”
Hennig said he has nothing specific picked out for Gun Song’s 2025 debut at the present time.
“We just let her stretch her legs a little bit to get her started today,” said Hennig. “We’ll let her tell us when to get serious. The distances of the [stakes] races for older fillies here has a tough progression to bring a horse along, so we’ll just have to wait and see before deciding whether to run her here this winter or not.”
Card finishes strong
A pair of allowance and optional-claiming races on the turf, both offering a purse of $96,000, highlight Friday’s nine-race program. Race 7, for older fillies and mares, will be decided at a 1 3/8 miles. Race 9, for 3-year-old fillies, will be run at 1 1/16 miles.
A field of eight long-winded turf specialists will contest the seventh, which is headed by Justdeny, runner-up in the Grade 3 Jockey Club Oaks Invitational going 11 furlongs late last summer at Aqueduct. Trained by Danny Gargan, Justdeny, the only member of the field with a win at the distance, has been idle since turning back to 1 1/8 miles and finishing a non-threatening sixth in the Grade 2 Sands Point three months ago.
Trainer Christophe Clement will counter the likely favorite with the pair of Youknownothing and I’m a Sure Thing, who finished second and sixth, respectively, in a 1 3/8-mile allowance race on Oct. 17 at Aqueduct. Other key contenders in the field are the lightly raced but steadily improving Bourbon Thief and Aspen Dawn, both of whom will be stretching out to 11 panels for the first time.
The graded stakes-placed Origami will likely be the public’s choice when taking on eight other 3-year-olds while making her local debut for trainer Jack Sisterson in the nightcap. Origami, who began her career in her native Ireland, made her U.S. debut at Del Mar on Dec. 1, finishing third, beaten 3 3/4 lengths by the odds-on wire-to-wire winner Clock Tower.
Ramsey Pond, third in the Wait a While Stakes to close out her juvenile campaign, also figures to attract plenty of support, as should the Brendan Walsh-trained pair of recent runaway maiden winner Lush Lips and graded stakes-tested Sashay Away.
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