Photo:

Lauren King / Gulfstream Park

Siege of Boston will be scratched from the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational because “he doesn’t handle soft ground well,” trainer Jimmy Toner said Wednesday.

The 6-year-old son of War Front, who hasn’t won since June 2023, is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Ft. Lauderdale (G2) at Gulfstream Park on Dec. 21.

“It was just rainy for three days, and there’s no point in trying to run against those kind of horses unless everything goes 100%,” Toner told Horse Racing Nation. “So we didn’t feel like it’d be this best interest to run when he’s not going to be able to run his best.”

The scratch initially was reported by David Grening of Daily Racing Form in an X post.

Toner said Siege of Boston will be pointed now to the Mac Diarmida (G2) going 1 3/8 miles at Gulfstream on March 1. That would be the longest distance Siege of Boston has tried.

“I’ve been meaning to want to stretch him out,” Toner said. “Naturally, if you get invited to the Pegasus, you’re going to make a run at it, you’ve got to try. But it just didn’t work out for us this time. So we’re going to point for the Mac Diarmida and then go from there.”