THE five-year-old Knicks Go is the favourite for the $3 million Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes in a field of 12 at Gulfstream tonight. However, the longer distance is the main worry for the Paynter horse.

A highly promising Grade 1-winning two-year-old in 2018, Knicks Go’s disappointing three-year-old campaign featured no wins in eight starts. Moved to trainer Brad Cox’s barn for 2020, Knicks Go is three from three and by a combined margin of slightly more than 21 lengths. Two allowance wins in February and October came before a decisive three-and-a-half-length victory in track-record time in the Grade 1 Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in Keeneland last Novemer. It makes him the horse to beat over a furlong farther in what seems a lower-quality race than recent years.