Mo Plex guts out another stakes victory in Saturday’s Bay Shore at Aqueduct. Coglianese Photo//Susie Raisher.
R and H Stable’s Mo Plex returned to the winner’s circle – back against open company for the first time since last fall – in Saturday’s $145,500 Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct.
The 3-year-old graded stakes-winning son of Complexity dueled for the lead early outside of Faster Gator early and shrugged off that foe in the stretch for his second open stakes victory. The win was Mo Plex’s first in four starts since taking the Funny Cide Stakes in late August at Saratoga Race Course.
“That was great,” winning trainer Jeremiah Englehart said. “The whole team did a great job. He looked great in the paddock. His groom, and Harlem [Johnson] and Dana [Saul, assistants] did really well with him. It was nice to get him back in winning fashion. The 3 horse [Faster Gator] ran a hell of a race and so did the West Point colt [No. 1, Pascaline]. They both look like horses with bright futures so hopefully he moves onward and upward from here.”
Faster Gator, who entered a 2-for-2 record at Laurel Park, made the lead from post 3 under Arnaldo Bocachica but it was 6-5 favorite Mo Plex and jockey Manny Franco who pressured from the outside and put a head in front through an opening quarter-mile in :23.09 over the fast main track.
Pascaline attempted an inside move approaching the turn with New York-bred maiden winner Share the Ludt and McKellen trying wide bids as Faster Gator battled back to gain a half-length advantage after a half in :45.55.
Mo Plex put his head back in front at the stretch call, but a stubborn Faster Gator continued to find more as the field straightened away. Mo Plex, game and determined, would not be denied the narrow win by head in a final time of 1:21.96. Pascaline completed the trifecta with Share the Ludt and McKellen rounded out the order of finish.
“He was [game]. You’ve got give credit to the horse from Anthony [Farrior, trainer of Faster Gator] – he was tough to go by, but at the same time, I feel my horse was running for me, so I was happy,” Franco said. “I was happy with where I was. [Faster Gator] broke on top, I let him take it and just sit right next to him and put the pressure. I knew that I got Javier [Castellano, aboard McKellen] outside, so he wanted to get close to me and I let my horse go a little bit. I had a lot of horse under me the whole way.
“He’s getting more mature, more intelligent. He liked to get out before, but now it seems like he’s straightening out a lot better this year.”
Bred by Avi and Rhoda Freedberg’s Everything’s Cricket Racing and foaled at Stonegate Stables in Fort Edward, Mo Plex is the first foal for the Uncle Mo mare Mo Joy. He was offered but listed as an RNA for $27,000 at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale.
Englehart and Legion Bloodstock purchased Mo Plex for R and H Stable for $45,000 out of last year’s OBS April 2-year-olds in training sale.
A finalist for New York-bred champion 2-year-old male honors, Mo Plex won his debut against state-breds by 10 lengths last June at Aqueduct before a victory in the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes on opening weekend of the Saratoga Race Course meeting. Mo Plex ran his record to 3-for-3 with a victory in the $200,000 Funny Cide presented by Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital on Saratoga Showcase Day. He finished the season with a third in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes and a runner-up finish in the Sleepy Hollow Stakes on Empire Showcase Day, both at Aqueduct.
Mo Plex improved to 4-for-7 with Bay Shore victory and boosted his earnings to $445,000.
“Any time that you get a horse who looks very precocious as a 2-year-old, and goes on and wins his first three races, obviously he’s going to be running against tougher competition,” Englehart said. “He got beat a couple of times, but if you look at who beat him, they are no slouches. His last race was his first race off a layoff going a flat mile. You want them to back up what you think of them, and I’m glad to get another ‘W,’ and kind of re-affirm what we have thought all along about him.”
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