Curtain Falls on Knicks Go's Racing Career in Pegasus

Life was considerably different for Brad Cox in 2005.

It was his first full year as a trainer and he worked through long and exhausting hours with a small string of horses in the Midwest. From 2005 through 2008, all of that hard work was rewarded with just 51 wins in four racing seasons and only one year with earnings of more than $290,000.

He toiled for nine years before he won his first grade 3 stakes in 2014.

Then his ascent started. 

In 2015, he captured his initial grade 2 stakes, and the big breakthrough came in 2018 when Monomoy Girl  provided him with his first grade 1 win.

After that, Cox sprinted up the ladder of success. He now operates one of the sport's most successful stables and has become a fixture at the sport's top events. He was honored with the Eclipse Award as the outstanding trainer in 2020 and is favored to make it two in a row next month when the sport's Eclipse champions are crowned.

He's won a Triple Crown race and eight Breeders' Cup stakes—four of them in 2020. His earnings in 2021 alone were $31,832,345. He has a horse who is a 2021 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) winner and a cinch to be named the Horse of the Year for 2021, and the 41-year-old Louisville native has trained a total of four champions.

Through it all, there has also been a far different process. One that encompasses the short circle of racetrack life for the best horses. After developing those horses into champions or grade 1 winners, usually in a matter of a quick year or two later, Cox and his team has to endure the emotional pain of saying goodbye to them as they head off to a new life as a breeding prospect.

Now that's happening all over again as Knicks Go   will run for the final time Jan. 29 as he attempts to win the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes Presented by 1/ST BET (G1) at Gulfstream Park for a second straight time before shipping to Taylor Made Stallions next week to begin his life as a sire.

"It's bittersweet. He's been a tremendous horse to watch with his Pegasus victory and two Breeders' Cup wins. He's given my team and my family a tremendous amount of enjoyment. He's been a fun horse, a cool horse to have around the barn. He's a class act who loves his job," Cox said. "It's tough because you wonder where is the next one like him. You look down the shed row and you see some prospects that can maybe fill the void, but that will not happen every year. We're looking for someone to step up and there is definitely going to be an empty spot in the barn for a while. He's going to be hard to replace."

The final chapter in the racing career of the Korea Racing Authority's Knicks Go promises to be another gem in a storybook life at the racetrack. In facing eight rivals Saturday, Knicks Go, the 6-5 favorite, figures to be challenged from the start by 7-5 second choice Life Is Good  in a mesmerizing and extremely entertaining 1 1/8-mile duel around Gulfstream Park with $3 million on the line.

"This race is going to be great for the sport and that's the bottom line," Cox said. "I mean five minutes after the Breeders' Cup Classic I was hearing about Life Is Good against Knicks Go in the Pegasus and I started thinking about it. It was like 'Wow, what a great matchup! What a great race for racing!' Everything we've done since then has been to prepare for the Pegasus and we'll need a big effort to come out on top. It's going to be a very good field and Life Is Good is a brilliant horse who will be in the mix with us early." 

As his career comes to an end, Knicks Go rates as one of those precious horses who traveled an unconventional path to glory.

The 6-year-old grey son of Paynter   was bred in Maryland by Angie Moore and was acquired by the Korea Racing Authority for $87,000 from the Woods Edge Farm consignment at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

He thrived at 2 with trainer Ben Colebrook, winning the 2018 Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1) at 70-1 odds and then finishing second to 2-year-old champion Game Winner   in the Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1).

But at 3, he was winless in eight starts and the KRA opted to switch things up and move him to Cox for his 4-year-old season.

"We were very happy with Ben Colebrook. He kept the horse sound and he's the one who recognized his talent as a 2-year-old and made him a grade 1 winner," said Jun Park, racing manager for the KRA. "But the horse needed some time off and then we discussed that we needed to refresh everything and put the horse in a different environment with a different type of training. We wanted to give him another chance and gave him to Brad."

Once Knicks Go settled in with Cox in 2020, he reached new heights of success. After two lopsided wins in allowance optional claiming races, he notched the Breeders' Cup win that eluded him two years earlier when he sprinted to a 3 1/2-length win in the Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1). That led to a front-running 2 3/4-length score in the Pegasus World Cup, which served notice that the son of the Outflanker  mare Kosmo's Buddy was going to be a major player in the year's premier races.

Subsequent victories in the Whitney Stakes (G1) and Classic not only confirmed that and elevated his earnings to a ritzy $8,673,315, but gave him the credentials to become the Longines World's Best Racehorse and a cinch to earn two trophies next month as Horse of the Year and the champion older dirt male.

"Brad has done a tremendous job with Knicks Go and Knicks Go has done so much more than we expected in his career," Park said about a 6-year-old with a record of 10 wins in 24 starts. "We'd like to have another horse like him, but we know that will be hard to do. We know this weekend marks the end of a wonderful journey and this has meant so much to us. But at the same time, we are looking forward to his next chapter as a stallion."

Breeding was the reason behind the KRA's purchase of Knicks Go as it searched for American horses with the capability of improving bloodstock in Korea.

The Kentucky-bred Menifee had been one of Korea's top stallions until he passed away in 2019 and as he grew older, the KRA began devoting more of their attention and financial resources toward buying young American horses.

About seven years ago, it started by buying 15 horses at various U.S. sales. Included in that first group was Mr. Crow , who was bought for $150,000 at the 2016 Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. He earned $348,963 and was grade 1-placed before the 2020 beginning of his stud career in Korea.

Knicks Go was among the third group of horses purchased, and now the KRA is looking forward to purchasing his sons and daughters at U.S. sales and bringing them back to Korea at some point.

"The KRA is not focused just on racing. It also wants to improve the bloodlines in Korea," Park said. "They like to support Korean breeders as much as they can, so they came up with their genomic system to select horses in the United States who they hope can become stallions after a successful racing career. It has been successful for us and now the KRA is going to continue to buy yearlings from Knicks Go when they are offered for sale. Some Korean owners and breeders are also considering sending mares to him."

Cox also said he plans to support Knicks Go's progeny when the opportunity presents itself.

"I'm looking forward to seeing him become a stallion. I know that's a long drawn-out process but the Korea Racing Authority is going to give him a chance here in America and I hope it goes extremely well for him. I'm going to be his number one fan and will try to support him any way I can, from buying his weanlings and yearlings and give them an opportunity to become good racehorses," Cox said. "I think he has everything people in the breeding industry want from a racehorse. He was a grade 1 winner at 2. Ben Colebrook did a fantastic job with him. He has speed and can carry it around two turns. He was able to win going short to start his career. So from a racehorse standpoint he has checked all the boxes, and it will be up to the breeders to give him an opportunity and hopefully it works."

Of course, all of that will come after Knicks Go receives one last chance to dazzle fans on the racetrack. Breaking from the rail under Joel Rosario in Saturday's test, the most likely scenario is that Knicks Go will be pushed to grab the lead and, if the formula from the Classic and last year's Pegasus is repeated, he might wave bye-bye and not look back until he's at Taylor Made in Kentucky.

"I have to thank the Korea Racing Authority for giving him one more run," Cox said. "They love this horse. He has a big following in Korea and it's special for them to see him in a race like this. I know he has a big fan base in America, so I know that besides us a lot of people are going to miss seeing him run."