Rejuvenated Trainer Plesa Saddles Full Salute for Hutcheson

Eddie Plesa Jr. will saddle Full Salute for Saturday’s $100,000 Hutcheson (G3) at Gulfstream Park with a renewed sense of optimism for the New Year.

The son of Speightstown certainly looked like a colt with a bright future while capturing the Buffalo Man Stakes at Gulfstream Park West Nov. 28, but his trainer’s positive outlook isn’t based on his hopes for Morris Bailey’s colt in the six-furlong stakes for newly turned 3-year-olds.

“I was at the Cleveland Clinic about 10 days ago, and they said I was cancer-free,” Plesa said. “That took a load off all of our shoulders.”

The 66-year-old trainer is feeling “better than ever” after battling health issues during the summer and early fall.

“They took my kidney out. When they did a biopsy on it, it was Stage 3, so I was very lucky they took the whole kidney out,” said the longtime South Florida trainer, whose stable was based at Monmouth Park and Saratoga during the summer. “The set of circumstances that led to them finding it is too long to get into here, but it was a series of making a right or a left and I kept making a right turn, and they found it.”

Receiving a clean bill of health has given the fit-and-trim trainer a special appreciation for his good fortune.

“I should have been standing here 20 pounds heavier, feeling great, I would imagine, and having cancer in my body and not knowing about it. That’s what should have happened, but it didn’t,” Plesa said. “There was an angel on my shoulder, directing me to do this and do that, and I did it. I’m very lucky.”

Full Salute will have the opportunity to get Plesa’s stable off to a good start for the New Year when he faces six rivals in the Hutcheson, which will highlight a five-stakes program, along with the $100,000 Mucho Macho Man, a mile test for 3-year-olds; the $100,000 Old Hat (G3) a six-furlong stakes for 3-year-old fillies; the $100,000 Dania Beach (G3), a 7 ½-furlong turf race for 3-year-olds; and the $100,000 Ginger Brew, a 7 ½-furlong turf race for fillies and mares.

The son of Speightstown was first or second in his first five career starts, capped by a victory in the $150,000 Hall of Fame Stakes at Parx Sept. 26 that earned him a trip to Belmont Park for a start in the Futurity (G2) Oct. 17. The Kentucky-bred colt chased the pace before fading to fifth in the six-furlong sprint. He rebounded with an off-the-pace score in the Buffalo Man, in which Edgard Zayas was aboard for the first time.

“I told him, ‘Last time he was rushed off his feet and he didn’t respond well to that, I thought.’ I said, ‘Just gather him up and then make a run at them.’ That’s what he did. He dropped back a little farther than I thought he would, to be honest with you,” Plesa said. “He ran a bang up race for two reasons. A) He won it; B) he was on that surface. I was very aware of that surface and where we were coming from. I thought he had an opportunity to tire and he handled it well.”

Plesa, who saddled Grade 1 stakes winner Itsmyluckyday for a victory in the Mucho Macho Man in 2013 when the race was known as the Gulfstream Park Derby, is viewing the Hutcheson as a test of Full Salute’s quality level.

“We’re going to find out. That’s why we’re putting him in the race – to see how good he is. He’s done everything we’ve asked him. He’s run seven times and except for that one race in New York, in which we think he could have done better, he’s been first or second in all of his starts,” said Plesa, who awarded the return mount to Zayas. “He’s going to be a nice horse. Now, whether he’s a nice horse in the top tier or the second tier remains to be seen.”

Sheikh of Sheikhs and Noholdingback Bear, the first and second-place finishers, respectively, in the Juvenile Dirt Sprint at Keeneland on the Breeders’ Cup Day undercard Oct. 21, were entered in the Hutcheson. Abdullah Saeed Almaddah’s Sheikh of Sheikhs finished a half-length ahead of Bear Stables’ Noholdingback Bear in the six-furlong sprint.

Sheikh of Sheikhs, a son of Discretely Mine, previously broke his maiden at Saratoga in his debut and finished a late-fading sixth in the Breeders’ Futurity (G1) over a sloppy Keeneland surface.

Noholdingback Bear, who broke his maiden at first asking by 5 ¾ lengths over Woodbine’s Polytrack surface, closed well along the inside to finish second in his stakes debut over Keeneland’s dirt track.

“He ran a real good race on the synthetic at Woodbine. We ran him at Keeneland on the undercard on Breeders’ Cup Day and he ran a decent race that day. He might have been a little green. That was his first race on dirt,” trainer Michael De Paulo said. “He’s trained really well here. He’s had three real good works.”

Jacks or Better Farm’s Awesome Banner is scheduled to make a giant leap from the maiden ranks to graded-stakes company off a seven-month layoff. The Stanley Gold-trained colt had an auspicious debut at Gulfstream June 5, coasting to a 9 ¾-length triumph while setting a track record for 4 ½ furlongs (51.07 seconds). The son of Awesome of Course

“He’s ready. He’s going to run in the Hutcheson. It’s really Plan B, because Plan A would have been an a-other-than and then the Hutcheson. It is what it is. The timing didn’t work out. You can’t always do what you want to do,” Gold said. “The allowance race was just too close to the Hutcheson and he wasn’t ready.”

PTK LLC’s While Ye May was also entered to make the leap to graded-stakes off a debut The  Dane Kobiskie-trained colt closed from off the pace to win by 1 ½ lengths at Gulfstream Park West Nov. 28. The son of Pioneerofthe Nile ran five furlongs in 57.19 seconds.

Danbury and Union Grace round out the field.

Source: Gulfstream Park