Mo Plex storms to victory in the Ohio Derby at Thistledown. JJ Zamaiko Photography
By Alec DiConza
Trainer Jeremiah Englehart will fondly remember the seven-hour road trip he took from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., to Thistledown Race Track in North Randall, Ohio this weekend. He spent time with his family and members of his team while improving his record at Thistledown to 1-for-1 when 3-year-old colt Mo Plex won the Grade 3 $500,000 Ohio Derby Saturday.
“I brought my son Eli,” Englehart said Saturday evening. “He didn’t have any baseball or lacrosse this weekend, so we started the drive yesterday, stayed at my parents’ house in Finger Lakes and then finished the drive this morning. Now, we’re headed back to my parents’ house tonight.”
When Mo Plex broke far behind the field in the Ohio Derby, Englehart felt like his race was already finished. The son of Complexity had primarily run on or near the lead in his seven prior starts, and the slow beginning meant Mo Plex would have to make up ground in a race where he already faced the task of running around two turns for the first time. However, none of these challenges stopped Mo Plex and jockey Joe Ramos from coming home a 2-length winner in the 9-furlong contest for 3-year-olds.
“I was definitely thinking that his race might have been lost right there,” Englehart said about the break. “I thought in the Champagne, we kind of rated him a little bit more than I would’ve wanted and it was more so just tactics than anything. I kind of learned from that race. I’d rather just see him take a nice long hold and let him do his thing, and that’s what Joe did today. It worked out well, but it definitely was not a good start and I was thinking ‘Well, this is going to blow up in my face now,’ because if he can’t handle the distance, he’s really going to get short because he just had to make up 5 or 6 lengths from the start to the first turn.”
Mo Plex quickly passed horses to race second heading into the first turn and sat just outside stakes winner Clever Again through fractions of :23.42 and :47.75. Ramos started asking Mo Plex for a kick rounding the far turn, and the colt responded by taking the lead entering the stretch. Kentucky Derby runner Chunk Of Gold tried to rally, but Mo Plex had too much left. He finished 2 lengths ahead of Chunk Of Gold in 1:50.72 for owner R and H Stable, run by Rick Higgins and Howard Read. The victory marked the fourth stakes win and the second graded stakes win in Mo Plex’s career.
Englehart planned to run Mo Plex in the Mike Lee at Saratoga Race Course June 4, but was forced to scratch when a case of strangles, a contagious respiratory infection, broke out in Englehart’s barn just before the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival and forced a 14-day quarantine. That challenged Englehart to look for a different race, and he thought outside the box. He shipped Mo Plex to Thistledown Thursday, trained him Friday and then sent him out to a victory Saturday.
“From a timing standpoint, it (the Ohio Derby) was probably my best dated race where if he didn’t handle the distance, I could do some other things. If he did handle the distance and ran well, we could do other things in his next start. It worked out really well,” Englehart said. “Joe gave him a phenomenal ride. He shipped great. Bill Mott won the race last year (with Batten Down) and I was asking him up in Saratoga how he shipped his horse out and what he did. I did the exact same thing. When he speaks, you listen. So, we did the exact same thing that he did and it worked out great.”
The jump to 9 furlongs going two turns presented a concern for Englehart, but he felt confident that Mo Plex would run his race. Before Saturday, the longest race Mo Plex had competed in was a one-turn mile.
“We always thought he could do the distance, but you never know until you try,” Englehart said. “He ran like I thought he could at the distance and I’m just glad that it worked out the way it did.”
After the change of plans, the longer distance and the poor start, Mo Plex delivered a performance to be proud of.
“I’ve been proud of this horse since day one,” Englehart said. “He’s a pleasure to be around. Rick and Howard, they’re amazing people that have given me the opportunity to train for them. We’ve actually made a pretty good team, Howard, Rick and myself in mapping these races out. This was the one monkey wrench that was kind of thrown into it. They had the confidence to believe in me that this might be the right spot, and I’m glad they did. Mo made us all look good, really.”
While Englehart started driving home quickly after the Ohio Derby, he said he got the opportunity to hug Mo Plex’s groom as well as his exercise rider, who made the trip to Thistledown. He also said he’d be making many calls to family and his assistant when he got back to his parents’ house.
“We’re going to watch the race over and over again,” he laughed.
Mo Plex won his first three starts as a 2-year-old – a New York-bred maiden at Aqueduct in June, the Grade 2 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga in July and the Funny Cide Stakes for New York-breds) at Saratoga in August – before a third in the Grade 1 Champagne and a second in the state-bred Sleepy Hollow. The bay colt opened 2025 with a third in the Gander in March before winning the Bay Shore in April and the Ohio Derby. He has won five of eight lifetime starts with a bankroll of $745,000, second to Grade 1 winner Ria Antonia on Englehart’s list of earners.
Bred by Everything’s Cricket Racing, Mo Plex did not meet his reserve at Fasig-Tipton’s New York-bred yearling sale in 2023, but joined R and H on a $45,000 bid by Legion Bloodstock for Englehart’s JCE Racing at the OBS April sale as a 2-year-old. His dam, the unraced New York-bred Mo Joy produced a Maximus Mischief colt in 2023 and an Independence Hall colt this year.
NOTES: New York-breds Mi Bago and Out On Bail might finally get a chance to compete in Friday’s Grade 3 Penn Mile Stakes at Penn National Race Course. The $400,000 stakes originally scheduled for May 30 wound up rescheduled until June 20 because of wet weather then rescheduled again because of more forecasted rainfall. The Penn Mile goes as the sixth race Friday with post time set for 7:45 p.m. ET. . . . Another New York-bred competing out of state, Tonka Warrior, also saw a potential stakes start shifted because of weather after Canterbury Park scrapped its Saturday card due to high temperatures. Tonka Warrior takes on five opponents in the $50,000 Brooks Fields Mile, the fourth race on the Canterbury Derby Day card at 7:40 p.m. ET. . . Lone Star Park hosts its Summer Turf Festival Saturday and a pair of New York-breds are entered – Banterra, a 5-year-old son of Practical Joke bred by Rhapsody Farm who runs in the $125,000 Chicken Fried Stakes at Lone Star Park, and Eye Witness, a 5-year-old son of City of Light bred by Anlyn Farms who runs in the $125,000 Grand Prairie Turf Sprint.
Team Mo Plex celebrates in the winner’s circle. JJ Zamaiko Photography
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