Itsmyluckyday to add blinkers for Woodward

New Jersey-based trainer Eddie Plesa said his multiple graded stakes-winning

four-year-old Itsmyluckyday will van up from Monmouth Park to

Saratoga on Friday

and is set to run the following afternoon in the Grade 1, $600,000 Woodward, a 1

1/8-mile dirt fixture for three-year-olds and up.

Itsmyluckyday, a son of Lawyer Ron, was a top three-year-old last year,

winning the Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park before finishing second to Orb in the

Florida Derby and to Oxbow in the Preakness. This year, he has come back strong,

with three stakes victories. In his most recent start, he finished second to

Moreno in the Whitney on August 2 at the Spa.

In that race, he was the only runner to make a significant challenge to the

front-running winner, finishing ahead of 2013 champion three-year-old colt Will

Take Charge and favored Palace Malice, among others.

Plesa has worked Itsmyluckyday two easy half-miles since then, and added

blinkers, which the colt will wear for the Woodward.

"We're going to have a change of equipment," Plesa said by phone. "We worked

him both times in the blinkers, and I like the way he went. I think maybe we can

fine-tune him a little bit, maybe focus him down the lane; just do something a

little different. Sometimes horses need a little something to shake them up."

Itsmyluckyday has made 18 starts in his career, finishing first eight times

with earnings of $1,302,600. Plesa said the objective is simple with his barn

favorite.

"The script is to win a Grade 1 race," he said. "This is the focus. My whole

focus has been to win a Grade 1 race. The race we ran in (the Whitney) and this

one coming up have been our target races.

"We're either going to get to the top of the ladder or not. This is what

racing is all about, what everybody works for. He's just a neat horse, not

because of the races he's running in or because he has brought us so much

pleasure the past few years. It's because he's a neat horse to be around. Even

if he was just a $15,000 claimer, I like being around him. Like people, they're

not just all lawyers or doctors. He's fun to be around, and I look forward to

seeing him every morning."

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