Pappacap Readies for Return

Rustlewood Farm's grade 2-winning homebred colt Pappacap , unraced since late July, continues to work for his return and a possible start in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park.

A 3-year-old son of Gun Runner  , Pappacap has had three timed breezes since mid-November, the most recent a five-furlong move in 1:00.65 Dec. 10 at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County.

"He’s been training great. It's great to have him back," trainer Mark Casse's assistant, Nick Tomlinson, said. "He looks like he's matured now, and he looks fantastic out there."

Pappacap is among 29 nominees to the $100,000 Tropical Park Derby for 3-year-olds scheduled to go 1 1/16 miles on Gulfstream's new turf course Dec. 26. He has never raced on grass.

"There's the Tropical Park Derby… that's not necessarily where we want to run, but he's a two-other-than, so if we don't run him before January he has to run against older horses," Tomlinson said. "We're not really sure if we want to do that, either, so we're just kind of weighing our options.

"He’s going to need to run in a race before we even think about the Pegasus," he added.

Winless in six tries this year, Pappacap placed in the Woody Stephens Stakes Presented by Mohegan Sun (G1), Pat Day Mile Stakes Presented by LG&E and KU (G2), and Lecomte Stakes (G3).