Plensa closes from back to win Tapit Stakes
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The 4-year-old gelding Plensa, off since November, finished fourth June 4 at Churchill Downs in a second-level allowance race and fifth July 11 at Saratoga while starting at the same class level. His trainer, Rusty Arnold, was happy as a clam. Arnold had neither of those outings as a target for Plensa. His aim was Kentucky Downs, where Plensa last summer had won the Gun Runner Stakes, and on Sunday, Plensa hit dead center of the target, capturing the $492,500 Tapit Stakes by a half-length.
Plensa raced second-last among 11 runners for much of the 1 1/16-mile Tapit, ahead of only Vote No, who would follow the trail Plensa blazed to finish a good second. Clever Mischief tracked the average pace set by Smokey Mandate and held third, though 1 3/4 lengths behind Vote No.
Plensa, (who paid $65.60 per $5 wager, the base win bet at Kentucky Downs) hit the jackpot late last summer landing the $1.9 million Gun Runner, didn’t thrive physically during the early part of this year, Arnold said last week, but the gelding came right in time to get onto the racing pattern his trainer hoped to establish. Plensa came to Kentucky Downs last summer after a solid but unspectacular Saratoga showing, and the same pattern worked like magic again this year.
Jockey Axel Concepcion waited patiently on Plensa as Smokey Mandate, tracked by several horses through what seemed like a sensible pace, led into and around the long, sweeping far turn at Kentucky Downs. Concepcion swung into action with about three furlongs remaining, Plensa accelerating strongly on the far outside to the extent that he’d moved all the way to the lead not far past the quarter pole. Vote No shadowed Plensa’s move and with a half-furlong remaining looked like he’d sweep past, but Plensa turned him back.
Plensa clocked 1:41.71 over a firm course, defeating 10 foes after his stablemate Native Runner, pace player Mercante, and Abrumar were scratched. Arnold trains Plensa for Mill Ridge Farm and Frank Garrison, the latter his co-breeder. Plensa is by Caravaggio out of Proximity Bias, by Flatter.
When a horse shows an affinity for Kentucky Downs one year, the prudent thing to do is point him to Kentucky Downs the next year. Two local starts, two lucrative Kentucky Downs wins for Plensa.
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