Plutarch makes statement with powerful Bourbon Flight victory
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On Feb. 7, making his 3-year-old debut, Plutarch won the Robert Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita, the first step toward a Triple Crown that Plutarch wound up sitting out. The colt didn’t post a timed workout after the Lewis until June, and he didn’t race again until Saturday at Churchill Downs, where Plutarch won the Bourbon Flight Stakes impressively enough to make his connections wonder what might have been.
Sitting a handy fifth down the backstretch and for most of the far turn in the 1 1/16-mile Bourbon Flight, Plutarch jumped into action when jockey Francisco Arrieta woke him up past the three-eighths pole, knifing between horses, pouncing on Stimulate at the three-sixteenths pole, and drawing strongly away to a blowout victory. He ran 1 1/16 miles over a fast track in a lively 1:41.49, winning by 6 1/2 lengths over second-place Local Knowledge, who’d earned Beyer Speed Figures of 95 and 103 in his last two starts, albeit sprinting.
Who knows how high Plutarch might have risen in the 3-year-old ranks had he not gotten hurt over the winter.
“We always knew he was something special, but he just had little setbacks,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “We knew he had it in him; we were just waiting on it.”
Plutarch rallied into a moderate tempo in the $300,000 Bourbon Flight, Infiltrate leading Stimulate through a quarter in 23.83 seconds and a half in 48. Plutarch went without hesitation into a gap between Local Knowledge and a tiring Infiltrate at the five-sixteenths marker, and the heretofore promising Stimulate had absolutely no counter to his move, holding third, 1 1/4 lengths behind Local Knowledge. Local Knowledge, a distant third last out in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens, stayed on decently while making his two-turn debut. Plutarch wound up the favorite, paying $5.38 to win.
Baffert trains Plutarch, a son of Into Mischief and the Curlin mare Stellar Wind, for Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith. The colt ran three times on turf and twice on dirt before capturing the Lewis, and has the turn of foot one might associate with a grass horse. Baffert entered Plutarch in the Ellis Park Derby on Aug. 9 but said the colt scraped a leg while being transported by van from Churchill to Ellis and had to be scratched. That delayed the comeback run seven weeks: Plutarch was more than ready.
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