The $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) Jan. 27 at Gulfstream Park is a possible target for BBN Racing’s Trademark , trainer Vicki Oliver told Churchill Downs publicity.
The Brereton C. Jones-bred Trademark upset First Mission by a nose in the Nov. 24 Clark Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs. The 4-year-old Upstart gelding earned a 108 Equibase Speed Figure for covering 1 1/8 miles in the Clark over a fast track in 1:49.95 under jockey Fernando De La Cruz.
“I’ve always wanted to win the Clark, but we always had fillies in our barn,” Oliver said to Churchill publicity. “Now, we have a lot of colts, and it’s really fun to win a race like this.”
The 4th foot stomp made all the difference at the wire! Congrats to @vickioliver72 and Fernando De La Cruz with Trademark winning the G2 Clark @ChurchillDowns pic.twitter.com/YoU5Qc8Bup
— BBNRacingTeam (@BBNRacingTeam) November 25, 2023
Only two Clark winners have immediately returned in the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus since it replaced the Donn Handicap (G1) in 2017: Proxy and Seeking the Soul , who each finished fifth in the Pegasus in their first starts since respective Clark victories in 2022 and 2017. (Seeking the Soul would run in other renewals of the Pegasus, finishing second in 2019 and seventh in 2020.)
Other recent Clark winners, such as Maxfield (2021), Bodexpress (2020), and Leofric (2018), were retired after the Clark and did not race in the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus.
Gun Runner , the 2016 Clark winner, skipped the inaugural Pegasus in 2017 but went on to a Horse of the Year campaign that year. He closed out his career by taking the 2018 Pegasus before heading to stud.
Some losing participants from the Clark, a grade 1 from 2010-22, have also contested the Pegasus.
Trademark has earnings of $1,055,865 and a 6-3-1 record in 22 starts. He is 2-2-1 in nine starts in 2023, making $592,176. In addition to the Clark, he won the July 8 Michael G. Schaefer Memorial Stakes at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
His achievements have led to a career-best year for the partnership BBN Racing in 2023, with its horses recording 13 victories from 79 starts and making $1,778,325. Since 2018, the syndicate has 36 wins from 268 starts and $4,093,455 in earnings, not counting earnings in partnership with Ashbrook Farm.
BBN Racing co-owned millionaire Concrete Rose with Ashbrook Farm. The Rusty Arnold-trained Concrete Rose won the 2019 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T), among other races.
BBN Racing “is a group of friends and family that we put together because there are so many people that we knew that wanted to get into racing, but they really didn’t want to get in on one horse all by themselves,” said Braxton Lynch, one of the founders of BBN Racing and its racing manager. “So we put together this syndicate. We’ve been doing it for six years now. Trademark is part of our third group.
“It’s been a lot of fun. Everybody goes to the races and goes to the barn and has fun, and we’ve been lucky to have to have a lot of results, too.”
