USA: Cody’s Wish will not run in the Pegasus World Cup, for which he is favourite with British bookmakers, as connections plot a domestic campaign geared towards a repeat success in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
The Bill Mott-trained four-year-old provided one of the major storylines of this year’s Breeders’ Cup with a fairytale victory at Keeneland.
However, he is unlikely to run again until May as connections target the Metropolitan Handicap, the G1 event better known as the Met Mile on the Belmont Stakes undercard won in 2022 by the brilliant Flightline.
Cody’s Wish is 5-2 favourite with Ladbrokes for the Pegasus – but the $3 million contest at Gulfstream Park on January 28 is not on the agenda for the Godolphin colt.
Michael Banahan, Godolphin USA’s director of bloodstock, also ruled out the prospect of any overseas trips to Saudi or Dubai. “That’s not the plan at the moment,” he said.
“We are working back from the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita next year to try and repeat what he did already,” Banahan added.
“We know he is a specialist seven-furlong, one-mile, one-turn horse – I know at Keeneland he did the two turns – but we feel that’s the best configuration of a racetrack for him and we can get more of those in America.
“So probably our mid-season target will be the Met Mile at Belmont and we will figure out the best way to get there.”
The son of Curlin’s victory at Keeneland was one of the most heartwarming in Breeders’ Cup history because of the special bond the four-year-old has forged with Cody Dorman, the 16-year-old after whom he was named.
Cody Dorman, who suffers a rare genetic condition that confines him to a wheelchair, is non-verbal and has to use a tablet to communicate.
Cody’s Wish has never been beaten when Dorman has been present at the track and as a Kentucky resident he can look forward to more trips to the racecourse to see his idol.
“Cody’s Wish is just taking it easy down in Florida at the moment,” added Banahan. “He has been in training for a solid year and a half without a break so it’s a working break; he is not out of the training.
“Before the Met Mile we will probably look at the Grade 1 at Churchill Downs on Derby weekend. He likes Churchill, has never been beaten there and it has that one-turn mile that suits him.
“When he ran down in Florida over a mile and a sixteenth at Tampa Bay in March that was probably just stretching him a little and we want to keep him in his comfort zone.”
Godolphin already have a live candidate for the Pegasus and possibly the Dubai World Cup in the Michael Stidham-trained Proxy, winner of the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs in November.
“Hopefully he will go for the Pegasus,” said Banahan. “He is a horse that wants to go a distance of ground so if everything comes together for him next year, he’d be our mile-and-an-eighth, mile-and-a-quarter type of horse.
“He will have had a nice break by the time of the Pegasus, two months from the Clark, training well, doing well, so if he continues to have a good December, January, we will certainly look at trying to run him in the Pegasus.
“The Dubai World Cup would very much be a consideration but we will take it one step at a time,” Banahan went on. “The Clark was a great win for him. He will probably need to step up again in the Pegasus and if he does that the Dubai World Cup would be the next race in the conversation. It would be great timing between the Pegasus and that.
“Distance will be the big factor as much as anything else. He’ll enjoy going a distance of ground and a mile and quarter will suit him very well.”
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