BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE (EDITED)
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Leon Ellman, Glassman Racing and Laurie Plesa’s Florida-bred Epona’s Hope, riding a two-race win streak, looks to make it three in a row with a second consecutive stakes triumph in Saturday’s $115,000 Captiva Island at Gulfstream Park.
The Captiva Island, a five-furlong dash for fillies and mares, 4-years-old and older scheduled for the grass, co-headlines a 12-race program with the $115,000 Hutcheson for 3-year-olds sprinting six furlongs on the main track. The purse includes a $15,000 Florida-bred bonus presented by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.
Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. is eager to see the 4-year-old Epona’s Hope return to a Gulfstream turf course where she owns three wins and a third in four starts. She also has a win and a second in three tries on the all-weather Tapeta surface after starting her career on the dirt.
This year, Epona’s Hope won a second condition, $62,500 optional claiming going five furlongs on the turf on Jan. 12 and came back Feb. 8 with her first career stakes score in the $135,000 Ladies’ Turf Sprint, also at five-eighths on the grass, each in front-running fashion.
“My confidence level is high. She’s coming into this race every bit as good as she did going into the last race,” Plesa said. “Horses aren’t machines. They have different levels of how they’re feeling going from race to race and hers is every bit as good as it was last time, maybe better.”
The connections purchased Epona’s Hope out of the 2023 Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale of 2-year-olds for $295,000 where she was consigned by Ocala Stud. That June she captured her unveiling, a four-and-a-half-furlong maiden special weight, at Gulfstream and then ran third in the $90,000 Sharp Susan won by Florida-bred Let Them Watch and Desert Vixen division of the Florida Sire Stakes and fifth in the Juvenile Filly Sprint to cap her rookie season.
(Epona’s Hope’s Under Tack Video)
“I’ve always had high hopes for her,” Plesa Jr. said. “We bought her in the sale and gave a lot of money for her and she showed little flashes earlier in her career. Now she’s proving us right. She’s come around and is doing things the right way. Just happy to have her in the barn.
Plesa Jr. moved Epona’s Hope to the synthetic last winter to start her 3-year-old campaign against fellow Florida-breds and she was beaten a neck by Karaya in a first level, $50,000 optional claiming going five-and-a-half furlongs. She returned on Feb. 4 to win under the same conditions at five furlongs—a distance she has run ever since.
From there it was on to the grass, where she has run in four of her last five starts. The lone exception came last September when she was fourth to winner Queen Olly in an open $62,500 optional claiming run the all-weather course after being taken off the turf.
“She does like the Tapeta [and] she does like the turf. She’s matured in the right way,” Plesa Jr. said. “A lot of horses that look like they’re gangbusters as 2-year-olds, by the time they turn three and a little bit older, that was as good as they were ever going to be. It’s not because of physical reasons; it’s just because of maturity, I think. As far as she’s concerned, she’s matured in the right way, is going the right way and is the kind of horse you like having.”
Epona’s Hope has worked twice since the Ladies’ Turf Sprint, most recently going four furlongs in :48.78 on March 8.
Epona’s Hope is by Ocala Stud stallion Adios Charlie out of Alotofappeal, by Trippi and was bred in Florida by Ocala Stud. She has won five of 11 career starts with a second and three thirds with earnings of $294,738.
Rated second choice on the morning line at 5-2, she drew post five in a field of seven with Hall of Famer Joel Rosario up for the third straight race.
“She’s training excellent [and] coming into the race excellent,” Plesa Jr. said. “Looking forward to next week.”
While Epona’s Hope is proven on the grass, Averill Racing and Two Eight Racing’s R Harper Rose will be trying turf for the first time.
The 4-year-old filly has raced exclusively on dirt, winning $200,000 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes Susan’s Girl as a 2-year-old and the Forward Gal (G3) at age three—both going seven furlongs at Gulfstream.
“She’s kind of lost her form and sometimes with horses you have to try different things to try and rekindle it. Hopefully it works,” Championship Meet leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “There’s not a ton of turf pedigree on the dam’s side but Khozan does get turf runners. It’s going to be trial and error, basically.”
R Harper Rose also cuts back to the shortest distance of her career, exiting a seventh-place finish in the six-furlong Minaret Feb. 8 in her lone start this year. The winner, Nic’s Style, came back to win her fourth straight race in the March 8 Hurricane Bertie (G3) at Gulfstream.
R Harper Rose is by Ocala Stud resident Khozan out of True Bliss, by Yes It’s True and was bred in Florida by the late Sally J. Andersen. She has earned $380,980 from four wins and two seconds in 10 starts.
Edgard Zayas gets the riding assignment from post one and they are 15-1 in the program.
“We’re kind of searching for something to find form,” Joseph said. “We’ve never worked her on it. We’re just going in there and she’s either going to like it or not. She’s very fast and she’ll love the distance, for sure. Whether or not she handles grass, we’ll find out.”
R Harper Rose is currently cataloged as Hip 7 in the Fasig-Tipton March Digital Sale which opened bidding today.
Victoriam Farm’s Just a Care (Ire) came within a head of Epona’s Hope in the Ladies’ Turf Sprint, going off as the favorite after registering a length-and-a-half upset of the $105,000 Abundantia Dec. 28 going five furlongs on the Gulfstream turf.
The 5-year-old bay mare, trained by Brian Lynch, has three wins and two seconds in five tries over the local course and is the 8-5 program favorite.
Junior Alvarado will ride from post six.
Bandonarun, a five-furlong optional claiming winner Feb. 8 on the Gulfstream synthetic; two-time turf stakes-winner Dancing Duchess, unraced since late September; French Group 3-winner Tiger Belle, winless in four North American starts, the most recent in July 2024; and Weekend Rag, fourth in the Ladies’ Turf Sprint, complete the field.
Return to the March 13 issue of Wire to Wire
