Record-setting trainer Todd Pletcher remains a little cautious when discussing the 17 horses he has entered in the Breeders' Cup card.
"Hey, we could run tremendous and not win."
Pletcher, despite surpassing his own record with US$23 million (NZ$34 million) in winnings this year, has a history of
coming up short on Breeders' Cup day.
He is winless in 14 tries at the Kentucky Derby and is just two-for-24 at the Breeders' Cup, having scored his only two triumphs at the 2004 event at Lone Star Park in Texas.
But the Dallas-born, 39-year-old trainer is hoping to cap his remarkable season in a big way today during the world thoroughbred championships at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.
His 53 graded stakes wins this year have tied the mark set in 1987 by his mentor and former employer, D Wayne Lukas, and a stellar day at the Breeders' Cup could enhance his already lofty status.
"You really don't have time right now to reflect on those records," Pletcher told reporters. "And in this business, you can't predict what you are going to do."
When Pletcher left his job as an assistant to Lukas in 1995 after seven years shadowing the Hall of Fame trainer, he had six mediocre horses. Today, he has several hundred in an operation that stretches from New York to California.
He has two horses in the US$5 million Breeders' Cup Classic, Flower Alley and Lawyer Ron. The only race in which he does not have runners is the Mile.
Pletcher has a quality shot at the Filly & Mare Turf, with Honey Rider, winner of four of her last five, and Wait a While, who has won her last four.
"In 2004, we went out there pretty confident that we would get two winners and we were fortunate that is what happened," he said. "We have a lot of confidence in the horses we're bringing to Churchill Downs this year."
But with 17 horses and a variety of owners, Pletcher knows the math well. His horses could win all seven races and not please everyone.
"It's the biggest day of racing and we have a lot of clients that obviously would love to have their horses there," he said. "We've entered horses that we think will have a shot.
"Ideally, we could win all seven of our races but we'd still have 10 losers. But we have worked really hard to have our horses ready."
- HERALD ON SUNDAY
