Gulfstream Park: Itsmyluckyday back in training

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr., a Calder regular for three decades, is stabled for the first time this winter at Palm Meadows, where he has more than 60 horses bedded down. They include Speak Logistics and Preakness and Florida Derby runner-up Itsmyluckyday, who is back in training after recuperating from surgery to repair a fractured ilium – part of the pelvis – suffered during the running of the Pegasus Stakes on June 16.

“He’s been back on the racetrack for five days after walking and shed-rowing the previous month,” Plesa said Friday. “He’s been a great patient, feels great, and looks like he did before he went on the Derby trail.”

Plesa said he has no timetable set for Itsmyluckyday’s return.

Plesa also had high praise for the training facility at Palm Meadows as well as for its owner, Frank Stronach.

“It’s beautiful up here,” Plesa said. “It’s just too bad it’s not a little closer to Gulfstream and too bad there’s no racing here. The only thing that’s missing is the clubhouse and the grandstand.“And I can’t say enough about what Frank Stronach has done for racing in Florida. Whether those of us in the trenches realize it or not, nobody spends money on horse racing like he does, money for the horses, money for the facilities, and money for the people who work there.”