“Of all the races that we have been involved in and won, I consider this particular race to be the most impressive because of what happened in the race,” says Team Valor principal Barry Irwin
As part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series, the Bet365 Summer Stakes at Woodbine on Saturday [Sept 16] is a ‘Win and You’re In’ qualifier for the Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita on November 3. Also part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge are the Ricoh Woodbine Mile (a qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Mile) and the Johnnie Walker Natalma Stakes (Juvenile Fillies Turf).
The greatest moment in the career of the late Garrett Gomez came when the brilliant but troubled jockey engineered Blame’s notorious defeat of Zenyatta in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic,
Yet earlier on the very same November day at Churchill Downs, Gomez had already pulled off one astonishing Breeders’ Cup victory – in the fourth running of the Juvenile Turf on Todd Pletcher-trained Pluck in the colours of the Team Valor syndicate.
On his previous outing, Gomez had partnered the son of More Than Ready to win the Summer Stakes at Woodbine. Then a G3 event, the one-mile contest is now one of three G1 events this weekend at the Toronto venue to be part of a Breeders’ Cup ‘Win and You’re In’ Challenge.
The Breeders’ Cup was a different deal from a G3 at Woodbine, however, and what unfolded was an extraordinary race, deserving of its own place in any Breeders’ Cup hall of fame.
Overcoming improbable odds
Indeed, it was so extraordinary that Team Valor principal Barry Irwin feared the mission was doomed, such was the casual way with which Gomez went about overcoming improbable odds after a calamitous start to the Juvenile Turf.
Pluck was drawn widest of all in a 12-runner field – and he was seriously impeded when longshot Rough Sailing fell soon after the off.
“Of all the races that we have been involved in and won, I consider this particular race to be the most impressive because of what happened in the race,” recalls Irwin.
“Pluck went down at the start, he had to avoid a fallen horse on the first turn. At the half-mile pole we couldn’t tell if the jock had pulled him up and quit, or if he was still even in the race.
“Then when he made his move, he came from last, he went by everybody and the guy actually took a hold of him before he hit the wire.”
Since it was established in 1987, Team Valor International has championed partner ownership; Animal Kingdom, the Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner, is the best-known horse to carry their familiar green-and-red silks.
In the same year that Animal Kingdom made his two-year-old debut, however, it was Pluck who put Team Valor in the headlines. Both were products of Irwin’s breeding program, Pluck the result of a match between South African mare Secret Heart and stallion More Than Ready.
Nice foal
“Pluck was a nice foal,” recalls Irwin. “We tried to sell him as a yearling at Saratoga. We didn’t get what we wanted so I put him in training with Todd Pletcher.”
Pluck finished third on his debut on dirt and, switched to turf, won his next start at Belmont, then dead-heated for second in a Listed race at Monmouth Park, only to be demoted to fourth by the stewards due to interference.
He was sent north to Toronto for the Summer Stakes over a mile at Woodbine, now an established stop on the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series, and a race Pletcher had already won twice. “Pluck looked like he should have been able to sprint but he couldn’t,” says Irwin.
“When we stretched him out he showed promise and when we set him up for the Summer Stakes we felt pretty good about him and we were not surprised when he won that impressively.
“I asked Pletcher after if we were going to run again as it was several weeks to the Breeders’ Cup. He said, ‘No, absolutely not. This race and trip will take something away from him. We need to have him build back up for the Breeders’ Cup.’”
Outworked by filly
Pluck was sent off a 6.4-1 chance on the pari-mutuel for the 2010 Juvenile Turf. “I thought he had a chance before the race but I wouldn’t consider him a betting opportunity,” recalls Irwin.
“He got outworked by a filly who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf [More Than Real] on the same program. I said to the trainer, ‘We got no chance, we can’t even train with this filly!’
“He told me, ‘Don’t read anything into that, that filly is a superior workhorse and your horse is fine.”
John Gosden, who had won the previous two editions, was bidding for a hat-trick with his latest contender Utley and the Euros also had the favourite in the Aidan O’Brien-trained Master Of Hounds, Neither hit the board as the home team swept the first five placings but that was a sidebar.
‘Jumped in at quarter pole’
Racecaller Trevor Denman said Pluck looked “as though he has jumped in at the quarter pole” as he came from last to first.
Equibase Footnotes provide the detail, recording: “Pluck bobbled at the start, was unhurried into stride, steadied and swerved to avoid the downed jockey, entering the first turn, lagged well back through the back stretch, took closer order through the final turn, came four wide and split horses inside the three-sixteenths pole, quickened once clear and kicked away late under a stern hand ride.”
The winning margin was a length in front of an incredulous Irwin and his partners. “I watched the race with my wife on ground level,” says Irwin.
“Then the thing happened on the first turn. It was bad enough having that bad break, but when he had to go round that horse, I remember throwing my arms up in a gesture that said. ‘What else can happen?!
“I really did think Gomez was going to pull him up. He was a real thinking man’s rider and an incredible athlete. It was a remarkable performance.
“Going into the race I thought he might hit the board, I didn’t expect him to win. I had thought that if we couldn’t beat that filly in the morning, how are we going to beat the colts in the afternoon. Pletcher had the right idea and he was 100% correct.”
… and after the Breeders’ Cup
The Breeders’ Cup was the high-water mark of Pluck’s racing career and he ran only twice more without adding to his win record.
“We sold half of him to Vinery in Australia,” explains Irwin. “We toyed with the idea of running him in the 2,000 Guineas in Ireland.
“At the same time we had Animal Kingdom who wound up winning the Kentucky Derby. We had both horses stabled at Palm Meadows in Florida – Animal Kingdom with another trainer – and the two of them worked together.
“We liked Animal Kingdom but Pluck had trouble keeping up with him. We put him in a small race at Tampa Bay Downs and he disappointed. He never really trained on; he was a beautiful horse, a hell of a two-year-old but he just flat out did not train on.
“He got colic just before we were going to run him in a race at Churchill Downs and we had to retire him after that.”
Pluck took up a stallion position in Australia but was only a modest success. “Pluck has done just fair in Australia,” says Irwin. “You would never see a prettier horse than him but he was not a good sire. It happens.
“Anybody can win a good race, very few people can come up with a good stallion. It is much more difficult to do that than win a famous race.”
• Visit the Breeders’ Cup website and the Breeders’ Cup Challenge web page
• Visit the Team Valor website and the Woodbine website
‘Just to be there with a Breeders’ Cup runner was special enough’– Joseph O’Brien on Iridessa
Breeders’ Cup Challenge focus: ‘One in a million’ – Kieren Fallon on superstar filly Islington
Heightened international interest offers cause for optimism ahead of Ireland’s major yearling sales
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires