Preakness Stakes hero National Treasure entered the world Top Ten with a courageous effort to give trainer Bob Baffert his third winner of the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Saturday [Jan 17].
After holding late-running Senor Buscador by a neck under Flavien Prat in the $3 million event, the four-year-old climbs to #9 (from #47, +204pt) on Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s exclusive Global Rankings, where Japanese superstar Equinox leads the way for the 45th week.
(He, and others such as Cody’s Wish and Elite Power, will soon become ineligible for the charts under the automatic cutoff period of 118 days since his most recent outing.)
How good was Equinox? Assessing the world champion alongside Frankel, Flightline and Winx
As for National Treasure, having lost his way last summer after a Classic success in the Preakness Stakes, the son of Quality Road was touched off by Cody’s Wish in a memorable Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile justifying favouritism at Gulfstream on his first start of 2024.
What is more, this was a notable effort, as this natural front-runner did not have things his own way for much of the race as Hoist The Gold denied him the lead. National Treasure looked sure to give way in the stretch after the pace duel but instead held on gamely, even if this was a below-average field by Pegasus standards.
“I’ve always thought he was that good a horse,” said Baffert, who has also won the Pegasus with Arrogate (2017) and Mucho Gusto (2020).
“He was just very immature and he’s getting better and better,” the trainer added. “We were thinking, ‘Where do we run? Do we go to Saudi? Do we go here? We thought, let’s keep him here and be a good horse in America.’
“I knew they were flying but when is saw :23 and change I said, ‘well that’s manageable.’ Good horses, they keep running.”
Although National Treasure holds the Dubai World Cup entry, his likely next outing is yet to be determined.
On the other hand, we know where globe-trotting Pegasus Turf winner Warm Heart(#30 from #52, +86pt) is going – to the paddocks, where she will be covered by Justify.
The four-year-old, twice a G1 winner in Europe last term, broke the track record with a time of 1m44.51s for 1m1f on the Gulfstream lawn, where she benefited from a daring ride from world #1 Ryan Moore who sent her through a narrow gap on the rail at the furlong marker.
Hong Kong Sprint winner Lucky Sweynesse (#13 from #11, -16pt) pays the price for a clunker in the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday [Jan 28].
Shuffled back to the rear under Zac Purton – who had a six-timer on the card – Lucky Sweynesse could finish only sixth behind Victor The Winner, who enters at #80 after making all for a shock 38-1 victory.
Jebel Hatta winner Measured Time (#43 from #234, +268pt) was the main mover at last week’s Group-laden Dubai World Cup Carnival card at Meydan.
A decisive scorer from stablemate Ottoman Fleet in the G1 contest, the Frankel colt was one of four winners for Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby (+56pt, stays at #2). Jockey William Buick (+25pt, stays at #5) rode three of them.
However, the most notable winner on the Meydan card was Kabirkhan, who breaks into the charts at #144 after a smooth success in the $1m Al Maktoum Challenge on dirt. The Kazakh-owned colt now heads for the Dubai World Cup for trainer Doug Watson.
• Unlike traditional methods of racehorse rankings, TRC Global Rankings are a measure of an individual’s level of achievement over a rolling three-year period, providing a principled hierarchy of the leading horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and sires using statistical learning techniques. Racehorse rankings can be compared to similar exercises in other sports, like the golf’s world rankings or the ATP rankings in tennis.
They are formulated from the last three years of races we consider Group or Graded class all over the world and update automatically each week according to the quality of a horse’s performances and their recency, taking into account how races work out.
• View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires
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