Sacred Wish Brings Winning Form Into Pegasus F&M Turf

As much as it is still a grade 2 test, the Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational Stakes (G2T) surely has a grade 1 feel.

With a $500,000 purse, it's a lucrative enough stakes to keep top level female turfers in training during January.

Or, in the case of Sacred Wish , to mine stellar form one more time before taking a short break.

The versatile 5-year-old Not This Time   mare posted a breakthrough win for trainer George Weaver last time out when, after placing in six graded stakes on dirt and turf, she notched that initial graded win at a highly opportune time, taking the $303,000 Matriarch Stakes (G1T) Dec. 1 at Del Mar, one of the year's premier stakes for turf females.

"It was a really nice win in the Matriarch and we are looking forward to the Pegasus," Weaver said. "She's doing really well and we expect her to run well. She's pretty consistent. She's always right there."

No worse than fourth in her last 10 starts, Sacred Wish will try to extend that streak Jan. 25 when she breaks from post 10 in an original field of 14 (with two also-eligible entrants) for the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Gulfstream Park.

Bred by John Penn in Kentucky out of the Indian Charlie mare Indian Wish, Sacred Wish is that rare runner who is a grade 1 winner on turf and also grade 1-placed on dirt, as she finished second in the 2023 Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) at the same nine-furlong distance as the Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

After finishing seventh in the 2023 Alabama Stakes (G1), Weaver shifted her to turf and she began her streak of consistency with a win in the grassy 2023 Winter Memories Stakes. Nearly a millionaire with earnings of $985,138, she has earned $766,038 of that total from her 10 turf starts for the ownership group of Black Type Thoroughbreds, Swinbank Stables, Steve Adkisson, Christopher Dunn, and Anthony Spinazzola.

Though she has only raced as far on turf as a mile and an eighth once—finishing second to grade 1 winner Beaute Cachee  in the Matchmaker Stakes (G3T)—Weaver believes the distance of Saturday's race will not pose a problem for her.

"I don't think the distance will be an issue. A mile and a sixteenth probably is right in her wheelhouse and she was second on dirt in a grade 1 at a mile and an eighth," Weaver said about the mare who was bought for $50,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale from the Cary Frommer consignment. "Turf racing is about the trip, so, like everybody else, we're hoping for a smooth trip."

One race that did not go as anticipated for Sacred Wish was the Goldikova Stakes (G3T), her start before the Matriarch. She was third after being boxed in and caught behind a slow pace as fellow Filly and Mare Turf starter Raqiya  cruised along on the front end. Raqiya, owned by Shadwell Stable and trained by Todd Pletcher, slowed the pace down to 1:13.41 for six furlongs and won by a length and a half, completing the mile race in 1:36.09.

The homebred daughter of Blue Point  has not raced since the Nov. 2 Goldikova at Del Mar, which was the 4-year-old's first American start.  She will break from the rail in Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf.

Saturday's race will also mark the North American debut of the Chilean star Dona Clota . Owned by Resolute Racing and now trained by Ignacio Correas IV, the 4-year-old daughter of Ivan Denisovich  won her last three starts in her native Chile, including grade 1 turf stakes in her last two tries.

Head of Plains Partners' Fluffy Socks  will scratch due to a left hind leg injury and will be retired, according to Daily Racing Form. The 7-year-old homebred Slumber   mare had been slated to make her 24th appearance in a graded stakes in the Pegasus for trainer Chad Brown.