HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. (AP) – The idea was most unusual: Put together the richest horse race in the world, and do so by getting 12 stakeholders to invest $1 million apiece just to have a spot in the starting gate.
Farfetched as that sounded in the beginning, it’s now reality.
The biggest purse offered in thoroughbred racing – $12 million – is up for grabs Saturday at Gulfstream Park, where California Chrome and Arrogate headline the field of the inaugural Pegasus World Cup. The winner’s connections will walk away with more than $7 million between purse money and a share of what could be a massive amount of wagering on the race.
“You see owners putting their money where their mouth is,” said Eddie Olczyk, the former hockey player and coach who is now an analyst for NBC’s covering of racing and the NHL. “That’s what makes this so intriguing. You have people taking a shot and that’s what horse racing is all about. You have an opportunity, you have a starting gate … and you just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
That’s precisely what Frank Stronach envisioned when he and his group came up with this plan.