Breeders’ Cup Basic (G1) winner Knicks Go arrived Nov. 11 at Taylor Made Farm outside Lexington for a brief layover before returning to trainer Brad Cox’s barn to prepare for the final race of his career.
Fresh off his dazzling Nov. 6 triumph at the World Championships, the striking gray son of Paynter will be on display for breeders for about a week. His curtain call is expected to come with a title defense in the Jan. 29 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) at Gulfstream Park.
“We have been watching Knicks Go for fairly a while,” stated Ben Taylor, vp of Taylor Made Stallions. “After he simply saved successful races and succeeding, our curiosity grew and grew, and we really feel very lucky to have him.”
Knicks Go on show at Taylor Made
Knicks Go, who will stand the 2022 season at Taylor Made for an marketed charge of $30,000 stands and nurses, is joined as a brand new recruit on the Taylor Made roster by incoming a number of grade 2 winner Tacitus , who retires with earnings of more than $3.7 million. With top wins in the 2020 Suburban Stakes (G2) and the 2019 Wood Memorial Presented by NYRA Bets (G2) and Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby (G2) for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, the Juddmonte homebred, a son of Tapit out of champion Close Hatches , will stand for $10,000 stands and nurses.
“They’re two high quality horses, I feel, which can be priced proper,” Taylor stated. “Tacitus was a horse that was an excellent racehorse. He is from an unbelievable pedigree and (with) just some lengths distinction right here and there in his race report, you would be a horse that may be standing for $50,000, not $10,000. I feel breeders see that worth and so they appear to be very occupied with breeding to him, so I feel he will be accepted.”
Knicks Go, bred in Maryland by Angie Moore out of the gritty stakes-winning Outflanker mare Kosmo’s Buddy , won the 2018 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (G1) at 2 and the Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) at 4 and Pegasus World Cup earlier this year at 5. This year he also took the Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap (G3) at Prairie Meadows, the Whitney Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, the Lukas Basic Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs, and the Breeders’ Cup Basic over Kentucky Derby Offered by Woodford Reserve (G1) winner Medina Spirit at Del Mar. He was additionally runner-up to champion Game Winner in the 2018 Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) at Churchill.
“He’s phenomenal. Very rarely do you see a horse like him,” Taylor said.
