Eddie Plesa

Eddie Plesa, Jr. secured his 2,500th career training victory with the 3-year-old gelding Raging Fury at Gulfstream Park Apr. 13. TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack caught up with the highly respected 74-year-old conditioner for a wide-ranging interview to discuss the milestone victory, his trip to the 2-year-old sales in Ocala this spring, the future of the sport and much more. TDN: Let's start things off with your milestone victory. What does it mean to you to reach 2,500 wins? EP: When you hit a number like that, you take...

Miles Ahead (g, 5, Competitive Edge--Jennie R., by Awesome Again), winner of last term's GIII Smile Sprint Invitational S. and the Claiming Crown Rapid Transit, has been named the 2021 Claiming Crown Horse of the Year. The honor is voted on by the National HBPA's Industry Awards Committee, chaired by Todd Mostoller from the Pennsylvania HBPA. Miles Ahead will be recognized at the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) annual awards dinner on Sept. 10. The Claiming Crown--designed to give the blue-collar workhorses their own championship day--is sponsored by the...

6th-Gulfstream, $53,000, (S), Msw, 2-11, 3yo, 6f, 1:10.09, ft, 13 lengths. KLUGMAN (c, 3, Practical Joke--Polyester, by Tiz Wonderful) debuted with a sound runner-up effort Jan. 7 and was 3-5 to go one better in this spot. Soon in front beneath Rafael Hernandez, the $140,000 OBS October yearling was held together on the turn, was given his cue off the home 'coroner' and dominated from there, running up the score to the tune of a baker's dozen on the wire before galloping out with good energy. The winner is a...

From a racing standpoint, there could not have been a more appropriate way for Calder to go out. There when the track ran its first ever race in 1971, trainer Eddie Plesa, Jr. won the last race run at the track that had been rebranded as Gulfstream Park West. Plesa won for the 1,326th time at Calder/GPW Saturday when Diligent (Temple City) won the final race that will ever be run at the South Florida racetrack. "I didn't ask anybody to put me in the last race. It just happened....