Grade I winner Champ Pegasus has been retired from racing. The 7-year-old son of Fusaichi Pegasus —Salt Champ, by Salt Lake, will stand the 2014 breeding season at Legacy Ranch near Clements, Calif.
Trained by Richard Mandella, Champ Pegasus was bred and raced by Gerald Ford's Diamond A Racing Corp. and Arturo Vargas. The stamina-laden horse won five of 14 starts and placed six times. He earned $1,052,520 in three seasons of racing.
His top campaign came in 2010. In a span of three races he won the 1 3/8-mile Del Mar Handicap (gr. IIT), the 1 1/4-mile Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship Stakes (gr. IT) at Oak Tree at Betfair Hollywood Park, then ran second to Dangerous Midge in the $2 million Emirates Airline Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. IT).
The following year he won Santa Anita's San Luis Obisbo Stakes (gr. IIT) at about 12 furlongs and ran second in the 10-furlong San Marcos Stakes (gr. IIT). He finished his racing career with a runner-up effort to that year's champion older male Acclamation in the Hirsch Turf Championship.
Champ Pegasus is the first foal out of Salt Champ, champion 3-year-old filly in Argentina in 2004. In the U.S. she won the Santa Monica Handicap (gr. I) while under Mandella's care. Fusaichi Pegasus (by Mr. Prospector) won the 2000 Kentucky Derby (gr. I) and was a $4 million Keeneland July sale yearling. Standing at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky., and at Coolmore Australia, Fusaichi Pegasus has sired 70 stakes winners.
