Disco Time the betting favorite at Pegasus World Cup
The only horse to hang a loss on Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty in 2025 will be running in Florida’s richest race Saturday at Gulfstream Park — the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational.
Trained by Brad Cox, Tappan Street is returning to the scene of his greatest triumph -- last year’s Florida Derby – where he held on to defeat Sovereignty.
But of the two horses Cox is sending out in Saturday’s Pegasus, Tappan Street is not the one garnering the most hype going into the 1 1/8-mile stakes, which carries one of the largest purses in the country.
It’s Disco Time that has bettors buzzing.
The 4-year-old colt is unbeaten in five races and looms as the 8-5 program favorite to keep his perfect record intact when he faces 11 rivals in the 10th running of Gulfstream’s premier race for older horses.
And Cox, who won the Pegasus with Knicks Go in 2021, is cautiously optimistic Disco Time could give him his second win in the race.
“We’ll know more Saturday,” Cox said, “but he’s been very good.”
Disco Time, owned by Juddmonte Farms, has won his five races by the combined margin of more than 22 lengths, including an eye-popping 9 ¾-length victory in his most recent start, Aqueduct’s Dwyer Stakes in November.
“We think he has a really big future,” Cox said.
It wasn’t even a year ago that Cox felt the same way about Tappan Street. While Disco Time was idled due to an undisclosed physical issue — “a little bump in the road,” as Cox put it — the trainer’s Tappan Street was making noise heading into the Triple Crown series. The colt won the Florida Derby and headed off to Louisville as one of the likely favorites — if not the favorite — for the Kentucky Derby.
But just one week out from the race, the colt sustained a right front leg fracture while training and never made it to the Derby starting gate. Sovereignty, the horse Tappan Street had defeated, won the Kentucky Derby, never lost again, and became North America’s presumptive “Horse of the Year” candidate, which was to be announced Thursday night.
Now, both Disco Time and Tappan Street (8-1) are healthy at the same time and poised to do battle in the Pegasus, with jockey Flavien Prat set to handle the reins on Disco Time and Luis Saez assigned riding duties on Tappan Street.
Foremost among their Pegasus rivals is veteran 7-year-old White Abarrio, winner of the 2022 Florida Derby and 2025 Pegasus, earner of more than $7 million, and a listed gray horse whose coat – befitting his name -- has turned nearly all white with age. He is listed in the program as the second choice at 4-1 and will receive the services of jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., for trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr.
Other prominent contenders include Mika (10-1) trained by Michael Maker, Madaket Road (10-), trained by Bob Baffert, and Argentine-bred Full Serrano (12-1), trained by John Sadler.
Completing the field: Skippylongstocking (15-1), Captain Cook (15-1), British Isles (20-1), Banishing (20-1), Poster (20-1) and Brotha Keny (30-1).
The Pegasus World Cup Invitational headlines a 13-race card that also features seven other stakes, including the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf and $500,000 Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf.
Post time for Saturday’s first race is 11 a.m., with the Pegasus World Cup set to run at 5:39 p.m.