After a career year in 2025 that included his first Grade 1 win and more than $1 million in purse earnings, Amerman Racing’s Kentucky homebred Test Score got 2026 off to a fabulous start by winning the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) at Gulfstream Park.
Test Score and two-time South African Group 1 winner One Stripe completed a winning exacta for trainer Graham Motion. Test Score’s winning time over a firm turf course was 1:47.04.
“I felt really good about running these horses, but I felt really good about running my horses all day and none of them had won,” Motion said. “This was the icing on the cake today. What a great day.”
Test Score was facing older horses for the first time in the Pegasus Turf after notching three wins, one second, three thirds and more than $1.3 million in purse earnings from eight starts at 3 dating back to last February including victories in the Belmont Derby Invitational (G1), Twilight Derby (G2) and Transylvania (G3).
Test Score earns a break
“I’m going to give [Test Score] a bit of a break. He’s had a long year. I wanted to point for this race. We’ll freshen him up for the spring,” Motion said. “One Stripe, I think the future is unlimited for him. The distance really helped him today.”
Jockey Manny Franco set Test Score down for a drive inside the eighth pole and the 4-year-old son of champion Lookin At Lucky began to edge clear but One Stripe, who was unhurried off the pace in the early going, came with a dramatic late run on the far outside and came up just short under his regular South African rider, Gavin Lerena.
“I wanted to come out of there running because there was a lot of speed in the race and I didn’t want to be too far behind. I didn’t want to lose position going into the first turn,” Franco said. “We held our position the whole time until we got to the backside. After that I was happy with where I was and how my horse was traveling.
“At the three-eighths pole, the horse on the lead got away a little bit and I was able to go outside him,” he added. “When [Test Score] made the front early he kind of waited a little bit, but when he felt the competition again, he gave me another gear.”