BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL—As long as he’s been training horses, Eddie Plesa Jr. knows that sometimes change is good. With that in mind, the 75-year-old South Florida mainstay will give Rodney Lundock’s homebred mare Maryquitecontrary—a Grade 2 winner on dirt—her first start over an all-weather surface in Sunday’s $75,000 Daring Kathy overnight handicap at Gulfstream Park.
The one-mile-and-70-yard Daring Kathy, for fillies and mares, 3-years-old and older over the synthetic course, headlines an 11-race program that begins at 12:20 p.m. EST. Bred in Florida by John Eaton and Steve Laymon, Daring Kathy won eight races between 2014-16, six of them stakes, including the 2014 My Charmer Handicap (Grade 3) at Gulfstream Park West.
Maryquitecontrary won six of 11 starts, topped by 2023 Inside Information (G2), and had run second to Goodnight Olive in the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland and second to Three Witches in the Grade 3 Princess Rooney by the time Plesa took over her training that fall. Their first race together was a repeat victory in the one-mile Rampart last December at Gulfstream.
After winning the $150,000 Rampart going a mile in December 2023 in her first start for Plesa, the 5-year-old mare has gone winless in six races this year, running third in the Inside Information won by Olivia Darling in January and third again in Honor D Lady’s Royal Delta (G3). She was also second to Florida-bred Beth’s Dream in the $99,000 Sheer Drama on Aug. 17. Most recently, she was fifth behind subsequent PNC Bank Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1)-winner Soul of an Angel in the Sept. 21 Princess Rooney.
When she returned to the work tab on Oct. 11 following the Princess Rooney, Maryquitecontrary breezed a half-mile in :47.28 over the Gulfstream all-weather course, fastest of seven horses.
“I worked her on [the synthetic] and she had a black-letter work, did it very easily, and it indicated to me that she liked the surface,” Plesa said. “Sometimes you find things out late, but you don’t find out until you try them. The indication with her work on the Tapeta showed me that she certainly didn’t mind it. It looks like a good spot for her and I’m looking forward to running her. She’s really doing good right now.”
Maryquitecontrary has been third or better in 14 of 18 lifetime starts with seven wins and $691,492 in purse earnings. She is by Double Diamond Farm stallion First Dude out of Mary Kate ‘n Kelly, by Mecke.
She is rated at 6-1 on the morning line and will break from post three under jockey Edgard Zayas, aboard for the fourth straight race.
“She’s coming to a point where a decision is going to be made what to do with her, [such as] breed her, which could be a possibility,” Plesa said. “Again, we just have to check all the boxes and the first box I checked when I tried her on the Tapeta, she got a positive check there. Stranger things have happened.”
The 9-5 program favorite for the Daring Kathy is James Karp’s Sand and Sea, who owns three wins and a third in four tries over Gulfstream’s all-weather track, including the Orange Blossom and Key West overnight handicaps 28 days apart last December.
Sand and Sea also broke her maiden on the synthetic course in her March 2022 season opener for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. Since last year she has been trained by Mott’s son, Riley, who captured last weekend’s Awesome Banner overnight handicap at Gulfstream with Mr Skylight.
“That’s certainly the idea of having sent her down there early by our standards. She’s won three races on the synthetic there and enjoys the climate and enjoys Gulfstream Park,” Mott said. “It looks like a good spot. She just got beat in an open stake last time so if she runs back to that, I’d say she looks pretty competitive.”
Sand and Sea has won races on dirt, turf and synthetic surfaces over her career, and exits the $80,000 HBPA on Oct. 7 over Presque Isle Downs’ all-weather track where she raced near the back before her late rally came up a head short.
“Something we kind of found out this fall is that we could rate her, as opposed to her being one dimensional and sending her to the lead,” Mott said. “She’s had some success rating and obviously that gives you plenty of options as far as race scenario goes. If we’re on the lead, great. If not, it’s not the end of the world.”
Trainer David Fawkes will send out Royalight Racing’s Charlie’s Wish, who ran third, less than a length behind Maryquitecontrary, in the Sheer Drama. Last time out, the 4-year-old Florida-bred filly powered to a last-to-first, two-and-a-half-length victory in the Sept. 21 Ginger Punch, rained off the grass to a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the Gulfstream synthetic course.
Charlie’s Wish is also a daughter of First Dude but out of Superior Sarah, by Werblin. She was bred by Three Gin Guys Stable.
Owned by Royalight Racing LLC, Charlie’s Wish will be ridden from post nine by Miguel Vasquez.
Uruguayan Group 1-winner Pacholli (Ura); Infinite Diamond, winner of the 2023 Cash Run on Gulfstream’s main track; Florida-bred Chick’s Shadow, winner of the mile-and-70-yard Frolic’s Revenge overnight handicap Aug. 17 at Gulfstream; Sun Bee, twice stakes-placed on turf; She Prospers and No Valla complete the field.
