Knightsbridge drives away in the stretch, Coglianese photo
Gulfstream Park Press
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Godolphin’s Knights Bridge pulled away for a resounding victory in the $225,000 Fred W. Hooper Stakes (G3), presented by Visit Lauderdale, after dueling with Life and Times for the first half of the race.
Ridden by Junior Alvarado for trainer Bill Mott, the 5-year-old Knightsbridge needed only a mild push as he recorded a 4 ¾ length victory over Backupof Life and times fade to third place.
Knightsbridge, the betting favorite at 4-5, improved his lifetime record to five wins in seven starts, and the victory was his second consecutive match in a Grade III event. The horse had won the Mr. Won Prospector Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream before making easy work of it in the one-mile Fred Hooper on Saturday.
Knightsbridge was steered into a slim lead by Alvarado and was pressured early by Life and Times in splits of 23.64 and 45.25 before putting his challenger away at quarter pole and driving under the wire in the final time of 1:35.12.
The 41st running of the Hooper for 4-year-olds and up, featuring a one-turn mile on the main circuit, was the fifth of ten stakes, seven valued, worth $5.675 million in purses on a blockbuster Pegasus World Cup Day program anchored by the 10th anniversary of the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1).
The Fred Hooper is named for the pioneering owner and breeder who won the 1945 Kentucky Derby with Hoop Jr., bred 115 stakes winners and formed the national Thoroughbred Owners’ and Breeders’ Association and the Florida Thoroughbred Owners’ and Breeders’ Association.
$225,000 Fred W. Hooper presented by Visit Lauderdale (G3) Quotes
Winning trainer Bill Mott (Knightsbridge): “I thought: this is a pretty good horse race. We’ll find out what the other one is made of. Our horse has more experience and more taste than [Life and Times]but that horse is clearly very talented and they wouldn’t have taken him if they didn’t think he was talented. Our horse was at his competition today. He has completed his third race of this cycle and can finally show what we thought he could do. He’s shown signs of that before. Some of his races have been very easy wins, but today was against the better field and he pulled away quite handily. There’s another race here [Gulfstream Park Mile (G3) Feb. 28] and we’ll see if that’s on the cards for him. If you look further, there are plenty of options. We’ll just see what happens.”
Winning Jockey Junior Alvarado (Knightsbridge): “We’ve always had a high opinion of him. He ran every five, six, seven, eight months. Now it’s becoming more and more common for him to run. He showed up today. He ran a really good race today.”
“My horse was riding beautifully and I could see that the horse on my inside was struggling. I was always very happy with what I had under me and when I asked him: [I thought] he should be able to lock him up, and he did that today.
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