First Mission Gives Florent Geroux Third Win On The Card With G2 Alysheba

Originally posted on Paulick Report | Last updated 5/3/24

First Mission may have disappointed earlier this year in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup but on May 3, he validated his connections' faith that that earlier race was just a fluke. The Brad Cox trainee, piloted by Florent Geroux, had to wait out a quick early pace set by Japanese runner T O Saint Denis, who opened up five lengths early and set fractions of :22.96, 46.77, and 1:10.45 on a sealed, sloppy track.

Geroux took aim at T O Saint Denis, coming out from the inside rail as the field turned for home and began closing strongly at the eighth pole. By the sixteenth pole, First Mission had taken over the lead and prevailed at the wire.

T O Saint Denis held off a fast-closing Il Miracolo to keep second. The final time was 1:42.03.

The win was the second on the day for Cox, who also won the G1 La Troienne with Idiomatic, and the third for Geroux.

Cox admitted to reporters afterwards that he was a little nervous in the moment that Geroux was making his move too early, but was relieved it all worked out. The sloppy track clearly didn't bother First Mission, which means his wins have now come on both wet and dry surfaces.

"He seems like he’ll handle whatever you throw at him," Cox said afterwards. "He’s a pretty honest horse. He didn’t care for Gulfstream, but we’ll cross that one off and move on.”

First Mission came to the Alysheba the winner of the G3 Essex at Oaklawn Park, and before his ninth-place issue in the Pegasus, he was the winner of the G3 Lexington and just missed the G2 Clark.

First Mission is a homebred for Godolphin, and is the son of Street Sense and Medaglia d'Oro mare Elude.

The full chart can be found here.

This article first appeared on Paulick Report and was syndicated with permission.

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