Plensa falls into richer payday with upset in Gun Runner

FRANKLIN, Ky. – Had things gone as planned, the 3-year-old colt Plensa would have run in a first-level allowance race last week at Kentucky Downs. Plensa failed to get into that overfilled race – and that could not have worked out better for his connections.

Instead of running for a couple-hundred grand, Plensa started here Saturday in the $1,897,778 million Gun Runner Stakes. He won by a length.

“I had a lot of confidence in him in the allowance race,” trainer Rusty Arnold said. “We wanted to run him down here. We had no place else to go. We’d been sitting on him for six weeks.”

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Arnold, who is having his typically excellent Kentucky Downs stand, had Plensa trained to the minute. Plensa paid $47.20 to win as the Gun Runner’s ninth choice, but jockey Florent Geroux, who already Saturday had won the $2 million Ladies Marathon aboard Stellify, wasn’t surprised at the showing.

“I always loved him. I rode him the first time, and Rusty always believed in him,” Geroux said.

Plensa won by one length over Giocoso, who was coming off a victory in the Secretariat Stakes at Colonial Downs and at the eighth pole looked like he’d win the one-mile Gun Runner. After delaying the start, balking at being loaded, Giocoso broke alertly and worked into a perfect pocket trip under Ben Curtis. He appeared to move effortlessly to the lead in upper stretch, but Curtis felt the pre-race antics hurt his mount’s cause.

“And he really wasn’t handling the track. He was struggling over it,” Curtis said.

Namaron, making his first start since being privately purchased by Hronis Racing and turned over to California-based trainer John Sadler, finished third of 14 as the second choice. The 5-2 favorite New Century backed out of contention in upper stretch and checked in 10th. Racing a course officially called “good” but seemingly firm, Plensa clocked 1:33.51 while winning for the second time in six starts.

Plensa sharply won a Churchill maiden route in June and was coming off a somewhat troubled third-place finish in an age-restricted first-level allowance at Saratoga on July 19. Clearly, the colt had a good six weeks.

Geroux said he’d hope to position Plensa closer to the lead, but the front-runners had too much pace. Rolando, tracked by Anegada, went 22.72 seconds for the opening quarter and 44.71 to the half, as Geroux settled Plensa in eighth and ninth during the early and middle stages. Geroux worked off the inside on the second part of the far turn, came off cover into the homestretch, and let Plensa see daylight down the long straightaway.

“I tipped him out, and when I got a clear shot, I got after him and I could tell right away I was going to get there. He had the horse on the lead on his radar and was just going after him,” Geroux said.

Plensa campaigns for Mill Ridge Farm and Frank Garrison, who was his co-breeder. Plensa is by Caravaggio out of Proximity Bias, by Flatter. After earning more than $1 million Saturday, Plensa remains eligible for a second-level allowance. Arnold figures to aim higher than that next time.

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