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Plesa saddles 2,000th winner
Plesa, a Plantation, Florida, resident, has saddled the winners of more than $43 million. The 62-year-old native of Seattle, Washington, won the training title at Gulfstream Park in 1997 and has captured numerous titles at Calder Race Course. His father, Eddie Sr., was a leading rider in the Midwest before turning to training and relocating to Florida in 1971. Plesa worked for his father, who trained privately for Fred Hooper, and also learned under Stanley Hough before going out on his own in 1986. "It's not something you go in and say, 'I'm going to go out and win a thousand races, two thousand races,'" said Plesa, whose was joined in the winner's circle by his wife, Laurie, who owns Salt Water Cowboy in a partnership with Trilogy Stables. "It's just an accumulation of a lot of hard work and a lot of luck." Plesa has trained many stakes winners, including Three Ring, who captured a pair of Grade 2s in the Davona Dale and Bonnie Miss at Gulfstream and the Grade 1 Acorn at Belmont before running in the 1999 Kentucky Derby, in which she finished off the board. Three Ring had previously finished third in the 1998 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. The Plesa-trained Gottcha Gold finished second in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile before going on the win the 2008 Grade 3 Skip Away at Gulfstream. Other Gulfstream Park stakes winners trained by Plesa include Best of the Rest (2003 Skip Away), J J'sdream (1996 Old Hat) and Tekken (1997 Super Bowl). Plesa saddled multiple stakes winner B.B. Best for a third-place finish in the 2005 Grade 1 Florida Derby.
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