Expert Pick of the Week: Pegasus Stakes

Aug 13, 2020 John Mucciolo/TwinSpires.com

A field of eight sophomores will travel 1 1/16 miles on the Monmouth Park main surface in Saturday’s $150,000 Pegasus S. The final race on the 2020 Road to the Kentucky Derby series will reward the top four finishers with qualifying points for the Run for the Roses on a 20-8-4-2 basis.

The Steve Asmussen-trained Pneumatic has run well in each of his four starts to date ahead of his Monmouth debut, and the Winchell homebred looks like the class of the Pegasus field. He is the Expert Pick of the Week.

Pneumatic debuted at Oaklawn Park in February and came out victorious in a deep maiden special weight event going 6 furlongs. The dark bay son of Uncle Mo made it 2-for-2 with an allowance tally at the same venue while stretching out to a mile.

The Kentucky-bred then finished a strong third in the Matt Winn S. (G3), which preceded a good fourth-place result in the Belmont S. (G1) behind the untouchable Tiz the Law. He has trained well in the interim and seems poised for a big run on Saturday under top local pilot Joe Bravo.

I think a pair of contenders will challenge the top pick to complete the exotics.

Big City Bob, third in the 2019 Champagne S. (G1) at Belmont, didn’t fire in his seasonal debut at Laurel Park, but he returns to the venue where he picked up both of his career scores. The dark bay son of Shanghai Bobby broke his maiden at Monmouth as a juvenile prior to upsetting the Sapling S. on the course. The colt has proven to be versatile from on or off the pace, and I expect him to show vast improvement in his second try off the bench.

Haskell S. (G1) fourth-place finisher Jesus’ Team has shown big improvement since joining the barn of Jose D’angelo three starts back. The son of Tapiture proved that he is capable on the local oval, and he also shows a bullet move here two works back. The bay draws outside in the field but possesses the positional speed to stay in range throughout beneath Paco Lopez.

Exacta with #5 Pneumatic over #2 Big City Bob and #8 Jesus’ Team is the Best Bet of the Week.