Welcome back my friends,
To the show that never ends,
We’re so glad you could attend,
Come inside, come inside.
As we made our way through the crowd entering Gulfstream Park on Saturday, the lyrics from Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s karn evil 9: 1st impression, part 2 kept going through my head.
The best way to describe the atmosphere of the Pegasus Invitational Day was “thoroughbred racing meets South Beach”. While I have nothing in common with Snoop Dog, Mark Ronson, Dennis Rodman or Evander Holyfield, we were all there.
Gulfstream Park and owner Frank Stronach did a nice job putting together a day of racing that included seven stakes races but unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate. Rain throughout the day made the turf course “yielding” by race time for the Pegasus Turf Invitational, the race Catapult competed in.
While the condition of the turf course wasn’t ideal, Catapult’s jockey (Joel Rosario) was the bigger problem. Despite instructions from trainer John Sadler to put Catapult behind horses early and let him make one big run, Rosario rode the race as if he received different instructions.
Catapult broke well and was initially behind horses. Down the backstretch Rosario took Catapult four wide and forged to the lead. As everyone watching the race anticipated, Rosario moved prematurely and Catapult was unable to sustain his run. While finishing fourth was disappointing, Catapult showed his grit and came out of the race in good order.
We are excited about the prospect of Catapult winning a Grade 1 race in 2019, it just won’t be the richest turf race in North America.