The $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) is Saturday, Jan. 25, at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida. The race is for 4-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles. usracing.com is publishing profiles of the horses entered.
2025 Pegasus World Cup Contenders: LOCKED
Right before he was about to kick off his 3-year-old campaign in the Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2), Locked was diagnosed with an injury to a ligament behind his knee that kept him out of the Triple Crown. One of the rising stars in Hall of Fame Todd Pletcher’s barn, the injury was a blow to both the trainer and his connections, which had paid $425,000 for the Gun Runner colt at the Keeneland September Yearling Sales.
“He came into the year with high hopes, and unfortunately we got sidelined for a little while,” Pletcher said in his typical understated fashion.
Allen Wellmann of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners was a tad more forthcoming.
“I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t a punch to the gut,” Wellman told americasbestracing.net. “We all know how hard talent is to come by to begin with.
[But] as disappointing and frustrating as it was to have to take Locked off the classic trail, we knew we had to do right by him.”
Locked had won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity (G1) in just his third start, then finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) before the injury was discovered.
Wellman and Pletcher’s patience were on display when Locked returned to action at Aqueduct on Oct. 19, running off to a 7 ½-length victory in a 7-furlong allowance and then surged past Mulliken in the stretch to capture the Cigar Mile (G2), earning a 113 Equibase speed figure in the process.
“He has a 7-furlong race, a mile race, and now he’s going to get a mile and an eighth,” said Wellman of Locked, the 5-2 morning-line favorite. “With those two races under his belt, this should be prime-time Locked territory.”
After the Cigar Mile, Locked was taken to Pletcher’s barn at Palm Beach Downs, where he’s had four published works since Dec. 27. Most recently, he breezed a half-mile in 49.33 in company with stablemate Crupi, who is also bound for the Pegasus, albeit at odds of 15-1.
“[Locked] is a horse that we always felt would be better going longer, so we’re looking forward to getting him out to a mile and an eighth for the first time,’’ said Pletcher, who will give a leg up to Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez on Saturday.
2025 Pegasus World Cup Contender Odds and Post Positions
Betting advice: OK, he’s no lock, but that shouldn’t stop you from loading up on him.
Post position: 11
Odds: 5-2
Jockey: John Velazquez
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Owners: Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm
Age: 4
Career record: 6-4-0-2
Career earnings: $935,650
Last race: Cigar Mile (G2), Aqueduct, Dec. 7, 1st
Top Equibase speed figure: 113
Pedigree: Gun Runner-Luna Rosa, by Malibu Moon
Color: Chestnut
Running style: Closer
Notes: Pletcher is a six-time winner of Saturday’s race, including in its former iteration as the Donn Handicap. Most recently he won with Life Is Good in 2022; prior victories (when it was called the Donn Handicap) include Mshawish (2016), Constitution (2015), Graydar (2013), Quality Road (2010), and Harlan’s Holiday (2003) … Velazquez rode Mshawish, Quality Road, and Harlan’s Holiday, with his other win coming in 2012 aboard Hymn Book in 2012 for Shug McGaughey … Velazquez, who turned 53 years old two weeks before the Cigar Mile, has been aboard Locked for both his starts in 2024 … Said Wellman: “He seems to get better with age. He’s not just an all-world jockey. He’s an all-world person.”