Even though trainer Todd Pletcher has saddled just one winner, Super Saver in 2010, from his 31 starters in the Kentucky Derby (with a pair of seconds and a third), it seems he begins every year with as many top Derby prospects as the rest of the trainers combined.
This year, that is only a slight exaggeration, as Pletcher trains seven of the 23 horses listed in Pool 1 of Churchill Downs’ Kentucky Derby Future Wager, with the 139th Run for the Roses 12 weeks away on May 4.
Betting on Pool 1, which also includes exactas, opens today and runs through 6 p.m. Sunday. The “all others” mutuel field entry — that is, every 3-year-old except the 23 on the list — has been the Pool 1 favorite in every Derby Future Wager since it was introduced in 1999, and Churchill oddsmaker Mike Battaglia has made “all others” the morning-line favorite again at 9-5.
Among Pletcher’s Derby hopefuls in Pool 1 are 2-year-old champion Shanghai Bobby and unbeaten Violence, co-favorites at 12-1 among the 23 horses. The others are Belmont Futurity and Remsen winner Overanalyze (15-1), Withers winner Revolutionary (20-1), Capo Bastone (30-1), third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile for then-trainer John Sadler; Delhomme (30-1), third in the Remsen; and Verrazano (15-1), who has yet to make his stakes debut after winning his first two starts this year at Gulfstream Park by 7 3/4 and 16 1/4 lengths.
Even though Verrazano did not make his first start until Jan. 1, and no horse that did not race as a 2-year-old has won the Derby since Apollo in 1882, hehandsome (fourth in the 2000 Derby) is ranked atop the Post’s “Derby Dozen.”
Last year, $1,470,019 was bet into the three Future Wager pools. I’ll Have Another, who paid $32.60 for $2 on Derby Day, returned $60.20 in Pool 1, $46.20 in Pool 2 and $45.60 in Pool 3.
Pool 2 of the Future Wager will be held March 1-3; Pool 3, March 22-24. If you place a future bet on a horse that does not make it to the Derby, there are no refunds; you lose.