Magic Wand Offers Great Value to Win Inaugural Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational

On Tuesday, they drew for the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational. The race goes off this Saturday, January 26. Not surprisingly, there's some international flare in the $7 million event. Ireland's Magic Wand and Japanese runner Aerolithe both made the trip.

Those two show up in my Top 3 along with a couple of other horses offering decent odds. Keep reading because if you're looking for a few horses to use to beat the chalk, I've got four right here.

Magic Wand Keys All My Plays

1. Magic Wand 9/2

In sprint races, post-positoin 1 can be a detriment. Sprinters who break on the rail must hustle early to get position. But in route races, and especially in 2-turn turf races, post-position 1 can be a gift. Magic Wand breaks from post 1 in Saturday's Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational.

Jockey Wayne Lourdan can put her near the lead if he wishes. Or, she can track from right off. Distance won't be a problem because she finished fourth in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf behind Sistercharlie, Wild Illusion, and A Raving Beauty. She'll get a great trip in this. Her second place finish to Kitesurf in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille is a better race than many of her competition's victories.

Trainer Aidan O'Brien should score with the 4-year-old Galileo filly.

2. Aerolithe 8/1

The Japanese bred daughter of Kurofune has already beaten males. She'll head into the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational off a horrendous 12th place finish in the Mile Championship, but she might have tried to kick it into gear way too soon in that one. Not only that, her jockey eased up on her once he knew he couldn't get into the top 4.

On Saturday, she's likely to get the lead if jockey Florent Geroux wants it. She almost beat Mozul Ascot in the Group 1 Yusada Kinen. There's a big chance she runs similar to that race on Saturday than the way she ran in her last.

3. Next Shares 15/1

Last seen winning the San Gabriel, Next Shares is a SoCal horse who might prefer to run out of town. His best race was the Shadwell Turf mile over Keeneland's grass. Trainer Richard Baltas has a lot of confidence in the son of Archarcharch.

He's got a devastating closing kick. Plus, he should improve off the San Gabriel win since it was his first since fading to 13th in the Breeders' Cup Mile. He won the Shadwell at 23/1. If the pace sets up for his closing kick, he could get into the top 3 at around those odds.

4. Bricks and Mortar 5/1

The Chad Brown trainee looked great in his first race since October 2017, an allowance win at Gulfstream Park. He tracked a soft pace before easily taking over. He looked like he could have won by as many lengths as he pleased. That race was at a mile. Brown can do some amazing things with horses. So, don't expect this guy to bounce. In fact, he should be much tighter in the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational than he was in the allowance win.

I must mention both Catapult and Yoshida, the two morning line chalks. Either could win this. I'm leaving both off my exacta tickets, but will use both in the tri and super. The reason I don't like Yoshida to win is because he might actually be better on dirt. The reason I'm against Catapult is because I'm not sure he wants to run 1 3/16 miles.

Good luck!