Todd Pletcher will send out a record 17 horses in seven of Saturday’s eight Breeders’ Cup races at Churchill Downs. That’s more than many of his fellow trainers have in their entire stables.
Quantity and quality are the hallmarks of Pletcher’s operation, and not necessarily in that order. The 39-year-old trainer has about 200 horses in his conglomerate-style stable, which has branches in New York, Kentucky, California, New Jersey and Delaware. They have won an unprecedented 93 stakes races this year and have earned more than $24 million, another record. Of these victories, 53 have come in graded stakes, tying the single-season record D. Wayne Lukas, his former boss, set in 1987.
But Pletcher is far from catching up to the most successful trainer in racing history in the Breeders’ Cup and Triple Crown races.
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Lukas has won the Kentucky Derby four times, the Preakness five times and the Belmont four times. Since 1985, the second year of racing’s multimillion-dollar day, he has sent out 18 Breeders’ Cup winners.
Pletcher hasn’t won a Triple Crown race and is 2 of 24 in the Breeders’. The wins came in 2004 with Speightstown in the Sprint and Ashado in the Distaff. He has started 14 in the Kentucky Derby and has two seconds, Invisible Ink in 2001 and Bluegrass Cat this year.
He sees scant similarity in attempting to win America’s most prestigious race in the spring and trying to win Breeders’ Cup races in the fall.
“It’s dramatically different than the Derby because the Derby is only one race,” Pletcher said Friday. “In the Breeders’ Cup they’re running in different races, and some of them are going to be in big races down the road. It’s not now or never. It’s not the once-in-a-lifetime shot the Derby is.
“There’s more pressure when you have 17 running (for 13 different owners) in that there’s a lot more to do. In some ways, though, there’s less pressure with each horse involved leading into the race.
“I’m prepared for any result. . . . If we win one, that’s great. If you win a Breeders’ Cup race, you have to call it a success.”
Pletcher has two morning-line favorites: Fleet Indian at 8-5 in the $2.26 million Distaff and Circular Quay at 5-2 in the $2 million Juvenile.
Several others are high in the projected line. Scat Daddy is the 4-1 second choice in the Juvenile, English Channel is the 7-2 second choice in the $3 million Turf and Wait a While at 3-1 and Honey Ryder at 4-1 are the second and third choices in the $2.2 million Filly and Mare Turf.
In the richest and seemingly most talent-laden race on the $20 million card, the $5 million Classic, he is sending out two long shots–last year’s runner-up Flower Alley, who is projected at 30-1, and 20-1 long shot Lawyer Ron, an accomplished 3-year-old who came to his stable this fall.
Pletcher wouldn’t say which of his 17 horses he thinks is the one most likely to take him to the winner’s circle.
“[But] we’re going with a pretty strong arsenal, so expectations are high,” he said.
When asked in which races he thought he had his best shots, he hedged a bit and replied: “We have a good chance in the Juvenile [with] Circular Quay and Scat Daddy [and with] Wait A While and Honey Ryder in the Filly and Mare Turf because both seem set to run big races.
“The toughest for me is the [$2.13 million Sprint]. We are asking [30-1 long shot] Friendly Island for a career best. . . . But everything has to go just right and then some.”
In contrast to the protege who spent seven years as his assistant before going on his own in December 1995, Lukas has only one horse in the Breeders’ Cup for the second straight year. Last year Lukas won the Juvenile Fillies with 2-1 favorite Folklore, but this year his hopes reside with only 15-1 long shot Pegasus Wind in the Juvenile.
Lukas still can relate.
“There’s a certain amount of credibility he has to establish because when you run that many, you’d better win a few,” the Hall of Fame trainer said. “But I’m not worried about Todd. I think he will be fine.”
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