Saturday, January 27, 2018 Race 1: 4 – 1 – 12 – 8 Happy Pegasus Day: I will never forget my first “big day” of racing. September 18th, 1993. It was Super Saturday at New York’s (and my home track) Belmont Park. I Race 2: 2 – 8 – 3 – 13 don’t think it could have rained any harder. The track was a sea of soupy slop by 9 a.m. I had just started my sophomore year in Race 3: 2 – 7 – 5 – 3 high school. The weather may have been crummy, but the horses did not seem to mind. It was an unforgettable (and wet) afternoon at Belmont Park, one that will be with me forever. Race 4: 13 – 12 – 3 – 6 (who in the coming months would cement himself as my favorite horse of all-time with his legendary 1994 campaign Race 5: 7 – 3 – 2 – 13 at three) handed the previously unbeaten his first loss in the Futurity. Strategic Maneuver won the Matron from here to West. And ? He singlehandedly Race 6: 11 – 5 – 12 – 1 defined what a tried-and-true mud lark is in my book. Nearly every slop / mud-loving Thoroughbred I have seen in the quarter Race 7: 10 – 8 – 1 – 2 century since that ‘93 Super Saturday, is measured up to Bertrando: he set the standard. And Bertrando barely exited a simple gallop while he dismantled a strong group of horses in Race 8: 3 – 5 – 1 – 9 the history-rich beneath Hall of Fame jockey – the fact that Stevens is still riding and Race 9: 7 – 10 – 8 – 3 competing in Saturday’s Pegasus aboard NY-bred Giant Expectations is pretty remarkable. Anyway, Bertrando’s 125 Beyer tour-de-force in that 1993 Woodward remains one of the Race 10: 6 – 7 – 8 – 1 greatest singular efforts I have witnessed as a racing fan. And this is what Thoroughbred racing is all about. Racing’s biggest Race 11: 11 – 9 – 1 – 10 days – just like this 2018 Pegasus World Cup Invitational – make lifelong fans out of many of us. It’s impossible to watch the power, beauty and athleticism of the Thoroughbred and not Race 12: 10 – 2 – 6 – 4 have a deep appreciation for the breed – Mother Nature’s masterpiece – carved deep into the soul.

Good ***GULFSTREAMPARK.COM Luck Gun Runner: Being*** completely honest, I wasn’t totally sold on Gun Runner heading into last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar. I admired his talent, naturally, and knew he was a very good horse but I questioned just how deep the fields he faced over the summer were. Obviously, I could not have been more wrong. So, with the hope that I’m not a race too late, here’s hoping Gun Runner goes out a winner in the $16 million Pegasus. He’ll anchor a late Pick 5 – 750k guaranteed pool, by the way – worth $40.50 for 50 cents. Best of luck and thank you for playing GP on Pegasus Day ’18! R8 : 1,3,5 -Ultimately think the H. Allen Jerkens rematch will settle this one; Markitoff dangerous at a $ R9: 7,8,10 -Hurricane Bertie – she was a good one – is simply about Curlin’s Approval R10: 6,7,8 -Pay Any Price has been Florida’s best turf sprinter since I arrived in May but this field is tough R11: 1,9,11 -Like the aforementioned Curlin’s Approval, if Celestine works out a trip from post 11, she wins R12: 10 -Legitimate Pegasus star beats these with his A-minus game