Awesome Slew on rise just in time for Haskell

Last year, trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. ran Pegasus Stakes winner Mr. Jordan against Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park. A 26-1 longshot, Mr. Jordan finished last of seven.

Plesa will have another Haskell longshot next Sunday in Awesome Slew, but that’s where the comparison of the two horses ends. Plesa thinks very highly of Awesome Slew, a late-developing son of Awesome Again, and believes he is ready to run the best race of his career in the Haskell.

“Mr. Jordan and he are two different type of horses,” Plesa said. “Mr. Jordan had credentials, but he was life and death to win the Pegasus. This horse is just coming into his own. We’re going to swing for the fences.”

As of Friday morning, the Haskell probables included Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, Louisiana Derby winner and Derby third-place finisher Gun Runner, Blue Grass winner Brody’s Cause, and the improving Iowa Derby winner American Freedom.

Awesome Slew, bred and owned by the Live Oak Plantation of Charlotte Weber, started twice last year at 2 and will be making the third start of his 3-year-old season in the $1 million Haskell. A debut winner at Monmouth last summer, he finished fourth, beaten two lengths, in the Grade 3 Sanford at Saratoga last year.

“He’s been shortchanged because of different things,”Plesa said. “At Saratoga last summer, he had a slight chip in a hind ankle. Then he got sick on us this winter.”

Plesa said Awesome Slew came down with “something like colitis” and became “very, very ill.” Plesa credits his veterinarian and barn crew for helping Awesome Slew pull through.

In his first start this year, Awesome Slew won a first-level optional-claiming sprint at Monmouth by three lengths while returning from a 10-month layoff. Plesa brought him back in the 1 1/16-mile Pegasus four weeks later.

Awesome Slew readily advanced on the far turn of the Pegasus under jockey Paco Lopez, took the lead entering the stretch, but flattened out in the final furlong and finished third, beaten 1 1/2 lengths.

“Before the Pegasus, I told Mrs. Weber that his next start will be his best race,” Plesa said. “In the Pegasus, we were going from a sprint to two turns and only had one race off a layoff. He was not 100 percent tight for it. He is now.”

Since the Pegasus, Awesome Slew has worked twice at a mile. He was timed in 1:43.60 on July 11 and in 1:41.60 last Monday.

“On Monday, he worked from the finish line to the finish line,” Plesa said. “I timed him from the three-quarter pole to the three-quarter pole and got him in 1:41 and change, including his gallop-out. It was very good.”

Plesa is going to add blinkers to Awesome Slew’s equipment for the Haskell.

“I’ve been training him in them, and they’ve got him focused,” Plesa said.

Plesa always has one of the better stables at Monmouth Park and has finished in the top five in the trainers’ standings in four of the last five years. So far this season, he is fourth with 14 wins. Don’t be surprised when Awesome Slew outruns his odds in the Haskell.

“Some horses come around early, others come around later,” Plesa said. “It’s okay as long as they come around. This horse couldn’t be doing any better.”