Taking Flight: Three Angles in the Pegasus

Saturday's inaugural running of the $12-million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park is undoubtedly one of the most novel concepts introduced in the racing industry in recent memory. 12 initial stakeholders who invested $1 million each to secure a spot in the starting gate–as well as rights to the a share of the event's revenue–were given the option to sell or lease their spot in the months leading up to the race. Confronted by the challenge of competing against headliners California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) and Arrogate (Unbridled's Song), some original shareholders entered a horse of their own, while others hunted for an appealing deal. The TDN spoke with Jack Wolf of Starlight Racing, Jim McIngvale and Dean Reeves, who each employed a distinctive approach in their quest for success in the world's richest race.

Jack Wolf: Neolithic

Starlight Racing's Jack Wolf brings a unique perspective to the Pegasus as both the event's CEO and a stakeholder. The “Starlight Pegasus Partners” will fill their starting gate spot with Neolithic (Harlan's Holiday), one of six entrants competing solely under the ownership of the original shareholder. Wolf described an evolving decision process that involved weighing the prospects of runners in his own stable against available outsiders such as Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) and Noble Bird (Birdstone).

“When we were putting this thing together last winter, we had two horses that we thought would [eventually] be older handicap horses, and both of them have gone by the wayside, so we were really fortunate to have Neolithic come along when he did,” Wolf said. “The fact that we do have a horse in there really does make things easier. But having said that, I originally reached out to the connections of Noble Bird after the Clark, and at the time, I thought he'd be the third best horse out there.”

Wolf explained that Noble Bird's owner John Oxley did not have the Pegasus on his radar at the time, and a subsequent attempt to strike a deal with Ron Winchell on Gun Runner fell through after the talented colt became stranded due to the equine herpes outbreak at the Fair Grounds. By the time Noble Bird's plans had changed, Starlight had already decided to stick with Neolithic, who won authoritatively by nine lengths in a Dec. 14 Gulfstream allowance race for trainer Todd Pletcher.

“It was pretty slim pickings when it came to a horse that had run at Gulfstream,” Wolf noted. “Gulfstream can have certain biases that some horses just don't take to.”

Wolf's path to the starting gate Saturday was anything but straightforward, but the ultimate emergence of Neolithic gives the Starlight partners an in-house entrant for the inaugural running of the Pegasus. Although his inquiries to share a horse fell through, Wolf observed that the synergistic concept of the Pegasus–in which shareholders are fully invested in the success of the race from a commercial standpoint–has the potential to positively impact the industry for years to come.

“I think so,” Wolf responded when asked if forming new partnerships is good for the game. “A point Frank [Stronach] brought up at dinner [Monday] night–and may have been talked about by Mike Rogers over the last few months–is that this truly is going to be a partnership going forward between The Stronach Group and the 12 slot-holders. There are some things that can be tweaked to make the concept better and give the slot-holders a better shot at making some money. [Stronach] brought up the possibility that, at some point in the future, hopefully the revenues from the handle, the sponsorships and the TV will be significant enough to give the slot-holders a free entry into the race. Going forward, it sounds pretty exciting.”

Jim McIngvale: Eragon

When Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale acquired a slot in the Pegasus World Cup in May 2016, he expressed a clear intention to run his champion Runhappy (Super Saver) in the race. But when Runhappy was retired in November to begin his stallion career at Claiborne Farm, McIngvale was forced to look elsewhere in the absence of another viable candidate in his stable. The catch is, McIngvale is a firm believer in medication-free racing–a conviction that steered him away from the possibility of leasing an American racehorse and toward the purchase of Argentine-bred Eragon (Arg) (Offlee Wild).

“We were going to run Runhappy in there, and then he was retired,” McIngvale recalled. “We stand for drug-free, Lasix-free horse racing, and we couldn't find a good horse that was Lasix-free in the United States, so we found Eragon in Argentina.”

McIngvale said his sister-in-law and trainer Laura Wohlers and her team traveled to South America to inspect Pegasus prospects, and Eragon appeared to fit the bill.

“They went down to Argentina to look at a few horses,” the owner of Houston-based Gallery Furniture said. “They really liked his conformation…They liked his attitude.”

While obtaining a horse for the race was of paramount importance, McIngvale said he can also appreciate the event in the context of its broader influence on the Thoroughbred industry.

“I think it's great,” he asserted. “It's innovative…The Stronach Group did a great job of publicizing the event with [UFC champion Conor McGregor], so kudos to them. January is kind of a dead month for horse racing, so it certainly revitalizes that month. It has a lot of interest. We're in the world's richest horse race, and there's a lot of buzz about it, so we're thrilled to be there.”

Dean Reeves: Breaking Lucky

Dean Reeves of Reeves Thoroughbred Racing knew from the moment he bought a slot in the Pegasus starting gate that he would have to share or lease their position for the race, but the Georgian said it has been a pleasant surprise to find himself owning a share of Breaking Lucky (Lookin At Lucky) as part of a promising new partnership. In many ways, Reeves' story is a perfect embodiment of what the Pegasus is designed to encourage: innovative new ideas and collaboration between owners who would otherwise go their separate ways.

Reeves, who is best known for campaigning 2013 GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner Mucho Macho Man (Macho Uno) with his wife Patti, engaged in a prolonged search for a competitive Pegasus entrant over the span of eight months. That search culminated earlier this month when Reeves and Tom Keithley of Gunpowder Farms reached an agreement to share Breaking Lucky.

“I was having conversations with a lot of different owners, and when you work your way down the list, some decided not to run, others made a deal with somebody else, or my offer wasn't as good as somebody else's offer–so it was an assortment of things,” Reeves said. “I was down to a couple of horses, and you're always wanting to get a horse that has a shot. And I think Tom Keithley and Gunpowder stayed consistent on what they wanted in the deal. I got down to Breaking Lucky and one other, and thought I would make the deal on Breaking Lucky. I called [trainer] Reade Baker and said, 'You've got a deal. You better win the race.'”

Although Reeves is optimistic about Breaking Lucky's chances Saturday, he acknowledged that his primary interest was in finding a horse that would finish high enough to make the investment worthwhile. The third-place finisher in the Pegasus receives $1 million–the cost of entry–but stakeholders are also entitled to a share of the race's net revenue.

“It boils down to the numbers,” he continued. “I thought to myself, if I don't have enough confidence in the horse that he can at least finish in the top five, then at the end of the day, you can run anybody, in terms of the financial side of it. And I felt like this horse was able to do that.”

But the deal-making did not end with merely obtaining the rights to run Breaking Lucky in their starting gate slot. The following day, Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds called Reeves with some “very interesting” news.

“Terry Finley called me [one day later] and said that he had bought into the horse a week earlier,” Reeves remembered. “He wanted to let me know and ask me if it was okay if they ran in West Point Thoroughbred silks rather than Gunpowder silks, and I said it was okay by me…I said, 'Well look, if you were able to buy part of the horse, can I buy part of the horse?' And he said he'd run it by Tom. Tom called me later in the day and said he'd be delighted to sell me a piece. That kind of got the ball moving and I bought a piece, Randy Hill bought a piece, and Eric Young bought a piece. So now all of us ended up where we own the horse.”

Reeves praised Keithley for accommodating each request and allowing everyone to be invested in Breaking Lucky beyond the Pegasus. In the spirit of cooperation, the newly formed partnership may be active again in the future.

“It turned out to be a great deal, no matter what happens Saturday,” Reeves concluded. “I think, at the end of the day, it was kind of interesting that a partnership came together. It started out as a lease and ended up as a partnership. So now I'm doing business with two really good people in the business, and we may end up doing a lot of things beyond this with other horses. We probably never would have gotten together if it hadn't been for the Pegasus.”