Itsmyluckyday to try turf for the second time in the Dania Beach Stakes
The 2-year-old colt, Itsmyluckyday, will have to show how versatile he is going into the Grade 3, $100,000 Dania Beach Stakes which will be run over a distance of 1 mile over Gulfstream Park’s turf course, and will be the first 2-year-old stakes race of the 2012-2013 meeting.
However, trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. will be looking how he tackles the turf, because the trainer knows that his colt has the quality to win stakes races over dirt, as he has previously shown, but his real test will be the Dania Beach Stakes, which has reeled in 10 juvenile colts.
The 1 mile test on turf will be run on 15 December, 2012. The son of Lawyer Ron, out of Viva La Slew by Doneraile Court, Itsmyluckyday has 3 wins to his name out of six starts. The colt broke his maiden at second asking at Monmouth Park.
Over a distance of 5 furlongs, Itsmyluckyday registered his first victory and tried turf on his third career start, but he didn’t like the run as he finished third in the Tyro Stakes also at Monmouth Park.
Itsmyluckyday rediscovered himself at Calder’s dirt track, where he won the Fasig Tipton Turf Dash on 25 August, and then stretched out in distance to 1 mile and 70 yards in the Foolish Pleasure Stakes, Itsmyluckyday responded in style and won the in 1 minute and 45.45 seconds.
“He handled the turf well the only time he tried it,” said Plesa, who trains Itsmyluckyday for his wife, Laurie, and the Triology Stable. “He was coming on strong at the end, and had the race been a little longer he’d have won it. I’m just tossing out the Delta race. It’s a weird racetrack to begin with, he got bumped around and shuffled back on the first turn, made a wide move to get into contention, then flattened out.”
“I just wanted to find out right now if he was stakes quality on grass,” said Plesa. “If I wasn’t confident he could handle the turf, I would have tried this experiment at a later date.”
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