Vinery Stud has announced brilliant Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Pluck will shuttle to its Australian base in 2012.

Pluck (More Than Ready – Secret Heart by Fort Wood) is a magnificently bred son of the all conquering More Than Ready.  He was blessed with an extraordinary turn of foot and produced the most breathtaking finish in Breeders Cup Juvenile history to win the 2010 Juvenile on the Turf in devastating style.

Prepared by More Than Ready’s trainer Todd Pletcher, Pluck instantly took a liking to the turf surface, winning his maiden impressively at Belmont Park over 1200m.  He faced Group company for the first time in the G3 Summer Stakes on the Woodbine 1600m turf course, driving to a one length victory and booking his ticket to the Breeders’ Cup.

In the $900,000 Breeders Cup Juvenile run at Churchill Downs, again over the 1600m turf course, Pluck displayed all his talent and in spectacular style.  Jumping from the widest barrier, he stumbled at the break finding himself at the back of the pack, jockey Garrett Gomez angling him over closer to the fence to save ground.

He averted a potential disaster when Rough Sailing fell and ended up sprawled across the track.  Pluck had to veer sharply, narrowly missing the fallen jockey and as a result leaving him 10 lengths off the leaders.

As they straightened in BC Juvenile at Churchill Downs, Pluck began to weaved his way through the field, surging to the lead to win the going away.  His turn of foot in the final stages prompted the race caller to declare “Here comes Pluck out of the clouds looking like he had just jumped in at the quarter pole…and Pluck from last to first winning it in a canter!”.

Pletcher praised his black colt post race;  “He was doing a lot of things on natural talent before this but today he really polished off the race at the end. W e knew he had an explosive turn of foot.”
 
Bred in Kentucky, Pluck is out of stakes winner and multiple Group 1 placed Secret Heart, a daughter of successful Sadler’s Wells stallion Fort Wood.  Pluck’s first three dams are all stakes winners and have produced a total of 23 horses to race for 21 winners, including 11 stakes winners and 3 Group 1 winners.  Two time Horse Of The Year London News is among them.

“Pluck is a very exciting prospect,” Vinery’s Peter Orton said.  “He is a magnificent looking horse with such great depth of pedigree and possessed an extraordinary turn of foot, the most important elements we look for in any potential stallion.

“He sustained an injury in his three year old year preventing him from racing on which was a great disappointment, especially with the plans the stable had to take him to Europe for the classics.”

Pluck (USA) will stand his first season at Vinery in 2012 at a fee of $11,000.