By Alan Carasso
The 2020 campaign of Robert and Lawana Low's Colonel Liam (Liam's Map) picked up steam as it rolled along and the athletic gray colt picked up where he left off Saturday, as he found his way out of a jackpot and into the clear with time ticking away in Saturday's GI Pegasus World Cup Turf and outfinished stablemate Largent (Into Mischief) to win the $1-million event. Cross Border (English Channel) rounded out the trifecta, while the outposted Social Paranoia (Street Boss) completed a 1-2-4 finish for trainer Todd Pletcher.
Off as the 5-2 chalk while making his 4-year-old debut, the $50,000 Keeneland September yearling turned $1.2-million OBS April breezer (:20 4/5) took up a ground-saving position from midfield, three back on the fence, as Eclipse Award-winning juvenile Storm the Court (Court Vision) set a moderate pace in advance of Southern California raider Anothertwistafate (Scat Daddy). Largent was able to secure the box seat from his low draw and Colonel Liam raced on that stablemate's back turning into the backstretch before settling into the two path for the run past the half-mile pole. Still traveling well approaching the stretch as he raced in the slipstream of 52-1 Pixelate (City Zip), he was boldly swung out by Irad Ortiz, Jr. five deep and around Social Paranoia in upper stretch, looked to perhaps brush with that rival nearing the eighth pole and outfought Largent to the wire.
Colonel Liam was something other than an abject failure on the dirt, finishing second and third, respectively, in his first two career starts over this main track, but looked a different proposition altogether when racing away to a 2 3/4-length allowance win trying the grass for the first time at Saratoga July 22. Fourth, beaten 3/4 of a length to the far more experienced Domestic Spending (GB) (Kingman {GB}) and Gufo (Declaration of War) in the Saratoga Derby Invitational at the Spa in mid-August, Colonel Liam resumed from a four-month freshening to dominate this track's Tropical Park Derby Dec. 26.
“We really were [confident],” Pletcher commented. “He showed us a lot of ability in his couple of starts on the grass. We felt like he was getting better and better. We loved the way he handled the turf in the Tropical Derby and he had trained great. We were very optimistic, He's a little less experienced than some of the other horses, but I think this proves his quality.”
Pedigree Notes:
Colonel Liam is the fourth graded winner and third Grade I winner for Liam's Map and is bred on the same cross as 'TDN Rising Star' Wicked Whisper. He is the 11th Grade I winner out of a daughter of top broodmare sire Bernardini. Colonel Liam is one of two winners from four to the races for his dam, an unraced daughter of the Phillipses MGISW turf distaffer Wonder Again, whose full-brother Grass Wonder was the champion 2-year-old of his generation in Japan and later won the Takarazuka Kinen over 2200 meters (11 furlongs) and the 2500-meter (12.5-furlong) Arima Kinen on two occasions before embarking on a stud career. This is also the same female family responsible for GSW Hopeful Growth (Tapiture). Amazement is the dam of Colonel Liam's 3-year-old half-sister Lovely Dee (Shackleford), a juvenile colt by Tapiture and a yearling colt by the late Arrogate, like Liam's Map a son of Unbridled's Song. She most recently visited Copper Bullet (More Than Ready).
Saturday, Gulfstream Park
PEGASUS WORLD CUP TURF INVITATIONAL S.-GI, $981,700, Gulfstream, 1-23, 4yo/up, 1 3/16mT, 1:53.09, fm.
1–COLONEL LIAM, 123, c, 4, by Liam's Map
1st Dam: Amazement, by Bernardini
2nd Dam: Wonder Again, by Silver Hawk
3rd Dam: Ameriflora, by Danzig
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE I WIN. ($50,000 Ylg '18
KEESEP; $1,200,000 2yo '19 OBSAPR). O-Lawana L. & Robert E.
Low; B-Phillips Racing Partnership (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher;
J-Irad Ortiz, Jr. $549,000. Lifetime Record: 6-4-0-1, $690,965.
Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Largent, 123, g, 5, Into Mischief–Life in Seattle, by Unbridled.
($460,000 Ylg '17 KEESEP). O-Twin Creeks Racing Stables, LLC
& Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners; B-Lazy Lane Farms, LLC.
(VA); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $183,000.
3–Cross Border, 123, r, 7, English Channel–Empress Josephine,
by Empire Maker. ($180,000 Ylg '15 KEESEP; $10,000 2yo '16
OBSOPN; $100,000 4yo '18 FTKHRA). O-Three Diamonds Farm;
B-Berkshire Stud & B. D. Gibbs (NY); T-Michael J. Maker.
$91,500.
Margins: NK, 2, HF. Odds: 2.50, 4.20, 14.00.
Also Ran: Social Paranoia, Pixelate, Next Shares, Storm the Court, Aquaphobia, Breaking the Rules, North Dakota, Say the Word, Anothertwistafate.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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