Plesa high on Absolute Grit ahead of Kodiak Island Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Eddie Plesa Jr. has been training horses a long time, and he plans to go on training horses for a long time – under one condition: as long as he has 2-year-olds in the barn.

“Having new 2-year-olds each season gives me hope, gives me something to look forward to every day. Take that away from me, and it’s a different ballgame,” said Plesa. “I trained for [Fred Hooper] , and he lived to be 102, and I firmly believe part of his longevity was due to the fact he always had a new crop of 2-year-olds to look forward to each year.”

Not only does Plesa have more than a dozen 2-year-olds in his barn this summer, he already has one, Absolute Grit, who has shown he could have a very bright future. Absolute Grit will try to build toward that future Sunday at Gulfstream Park when he goes postward among the favorites in the $75,000 Kodiak Island Stakes. The 5 1/2-furlong dash serves as a prep for the $100,000 Dr. Fager Stakes, the opening leg of the Florida Sire Series, on Aug. 3.

Absolute Grit, a son of Kantharos, brought $300,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. March auction and returned quick dividends, winning his debut by a half-length as the 3-2 favorite on April 26. He completed 4 1/2 furlongs in a swift 51.69 seconds under jockey Paco Lopez and received an 86 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest for a 2-year-old during the spring meeting.

“He ran the way we expected and hoped he would the first time,” said Plesa. “Paco gunned him and he blew the turn a little bit and still won, and you’d always rather have a 2-year-old who overcame some problems and won from off the pace the first time rather than just winning on an easy lead.”

Plesa said several factors led him to pick out Absolute Grit at the sale.

“I look for a certain type of horse when I go to the sales, and he fit the bill,” said Plesa. “I’m partial to Kantharos as a sire, so I always look at all of them, and Ocala Stud does a great job with their horses. He worked fast, but it wasn’t how fast he worked. It was the way he did it, the way he galloped out, the way he looked on the track that I really liked.”

As with the other members of the Kodiak Island field eligible for the Sire Series, Absolute Grit is using the race as a stepping-stone to the Dr. Fager and beyond, Plesa hopes.

“I had almost as much confidence in him in his first start as I did in Mr. Jordan when he first began,” said Plesa. “He won big going short in his debut and went on to become a distance horse. If this guy can come close to following in those footsteps, I’d be real happy.”

Absolute Grit’s performance pretty much mirrored the effort turned in by his Sunday rival Positively Awesome two weeks earlier. Positively Awesome covered the same distance in 51.70 while rallying to a half-length decision as the even-money favorite April 12 for trainer Ralph Nicks. Positively Awesome is a homebred son of Awesome of Course owned by Jacks or Better Farm and is a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Jackson Bend, who swept the Florida Sire Series at Calder Race Course in 2009.

Positively Awesome received a Beyer of 81 for his lone start.

Man With a Plan won his only start by one length at 4 1/2 furlongs on May 26. The remainder of the field consists of the maiden-race winners Yes for Less and Doubleturbo, along with the unraced Tons of Gold.