Art Collector wins Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup

THE William Mott-trained Art Collector, a six-year-old entire by Bernadini and owned and bred by Bruce Lunsford, streaked home to win the seventh running of the Pegasus World Cup by 4.5l.

The $3 million race, worth $1.4 million to the winner, drew a field of 12 over Gulfstream Park’s 9f. Art Collector, under a positive ride from Junior Alvarado, was always prominent on the outside and took up the running inside the final furlong to win going away from Defunded (Dialed In) with the front-running Stilleto Boy (Shackelford) in third.

Art Collector was winning his 12th race in the process from 19 starts. Twice a winner at two, he was unbeaten in his first four three-year-old starts picking up Keeneland’s Grade 2 Bluegrass Stakes but it wasn’t until as a four-year-old that he made the Grade 1 breakthrough when successful in the 9f Woodward Stakes at Belmont Park. He has now won $3,186,850 in prize-money.

Art Collector is out of the Distorted Humor mare Distorted Legacy, twice a winner from 12 starts and who is dam of two minor winners.

The first running of the Pegasus World Cup in 2017 had a purse of $12 million, surpassing the Dubai World Cup as the world’s richest race and that figure rose to £16 million in 2018. Since 2020, the race has been run as a $3 million dollar event a prize still worth winning nevertheless.