Gunnevera to Skip Harlan's Holiday, Train Up to Pegasus

Margoth's multiple graded stakes winner Gunnevera, who was expected to make his final 3-year-old start in the $100,000 Harlan's Holiday (G3) Dec. 16, will instead train up to the $16 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) Jan. 27 at Gulfstream Park.

Trainer Antonio Sano said Dec. 9 that the connections reached an agreement with one of the 12 stakeholders in the Pegasus, each of whom will put up $1 million, to run Gunnevera in the race. 

"He's going to go directly into the Pegasus Cup," trainer Antonio Sano said. "I found a sponsor for the race, with the condition that he not run in the Harlan's Holiday and go directly to the Pegasus Cup."

Gunnevera breezed six furlongs in 1:15 Saturday morning at Gulfstream Park West. It was the third work for the Dialed In  colt since he dead-heated for fifth with Arrogate  in the Nov. 4 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Del Mar.

"He went very easy today with (jockey) Edgard Zayas," Sano said. "He is doing very, very good."

This year Gunnevera won the Xpressbet Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) and Tangelo Stakes and ran second in the Travers Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1). He has five wins from 14 career starts with $1,627,200 in earnings.

The second running of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational is slated to be the final start for multiple grade 1 winner Gun Runner —the heavy favorite to be named Horse of the Year—before he is retired to stud at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky.

Among those also being considering for the race are Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) winner Forever Unbridled and Clark Handicap Presented by Norton Healthcare (G1) winner Seeking the Soul, both trained by Dallas Stewart for owner Charles Fipke; grade 1 winner Sharp Azteca and grade 2 winner War Story, both from the barn of trainer Jorge Navarro; Travers and Pennsylvania Derby (G1) winner West Coast; $1 million TVG Pacific Classic Stakes (G1) winner Collected; and 2014 Breeders' Cup Classic runner-up Toast of New York.