Moreno headed to Jockey Club Gold Cup, but not Itsmyluckyday
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - If there is to be a Round 3 between Itsmyluckyday and Moreno, it is unlikely to occur in the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Sept. 27.
Itsmyluckyday beat Moreno in Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Woodward at Saratoga by one half-length, reversing a 1 1/4-length loss to Moreno in the Grade 1 $1.25 million Whitney here four weeks earlier.
While Moreno is headed to the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Itsmyluckyday will likely skip that race while his connections plot out a fall campaign. Eddie Plesa, who trains Itsmyluckyday for his wife Laurie and the Trilogy Stable of David Melin and Marion Montanari said Sunday the Gold Cup is not on his radar for Itsmyluckyday.
“I don’t think I want to throw him in three tough races,” Plesa said before he drove back to Monmouth Park, where Itsmyluckyday was shipped Saturday night. “We’ve been very, very careful in how we’ve spaced his races.”
Itsmyluckyday, who returned to peak form this year after suffering a fractured pelvis in June 2013, has won 4 of 6 starts this year. Since April, he won a listed stakes at Gulfstream, and two stakes at Monmouth before coming for the Whitney, where he veered in twice during the stretch run .
Plesa equipped Itsmyluckyday with blinkers for the Woodward, where he was rewarded with a more professional performance, resulting in the colt’s first career Grade 1 victory and Plesa’s second. Itsmyluckyday was assigned a career-best 108 Beyer Speed Figure for the performance.
“It’s the most gratifying race I’ve been involved in,” Plesa said. “Just when you plot out something and you can overcome an injury like he had and you feel right about what kind of horse he is and he proves it. Sometimes as trainers you feel like a horse is a lot better than they are and you’re disappointed. This wasn’t the case. He’s an outstanding racehorse no question about it. There’s on quit in him.”
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Itsmyluckyday is not Breeders’ Cup nominated and it would cost his connections $200,000 to be supplemented to the $5 million Classic. Itsmyluckyday has been sold to the Spendthrift Farm of B. Wayne Hughes as a stallion so there is the possibility Spendthrift would contribute to the supplemental fee.
“I’d say the Breeders’ Cup is a distinct possibility,” Plesa said. “Maybe there’ll be a race in between. I want to feel as confident about him going into his next race as I did before yesterday’s race and the previous race.”
Meanwhile, trainer Eric Guillot said Moreno came out of the Woodward in good shape and will remain in Saratoga and point to the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Moreno has posted two of his three career victories at Belmont and ran a bang-up second to Zivo in the Suburban on July 5. While Moreno earned a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Classic by virtue of his Whitney victory, Guillot is more focused on the Jockey Club than the Classic.
“The Breeders’ Cup, there’s going to be a 14-horse field with a lot of speed. It’s going to be a pipe dream,” Guillot said. “To pass up a $1 million race on a track he likes, and a distance he likes doesn’t make sense. If he comes back good from that, then we’ll go to California and have some fun.”