Sports

Pletcher high on Gemologist in Kentucky Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The hottest trainer in the country, Todd Pletcher, who scorched the winter at Gulfstream Park, pulled into Churchill Downs yesterday with two horses ready to take dead aim at Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

As always, he is loaded. His top number is Gemologist, a speedy colt who has never been beaten in five starts and looms one of the betting favorites. His backup is El Padrino, less distinguished and something of a laggard, but a live 25-1 shot.

Another Derby triumph — he won in 2010 with Super Saver — would propel Pletcher to the stratosphere. Last year, he won $17.1 million in purses, the highest in the country for the sixth time, lassoed his 3000th winner in February, and capped it with a Florida season most trainers only dream about.

He saddled 177 horses at Gulfstream and won with 71 for an astounding 40 percent win average. He’s still flying high this year, topping the earnings list with $6.5 million, $1.5 million ahead of Bob Baffert. The man’s on fire.

In his office yesterday, a few hours before his horses arrived from Florida, Pletcher didn’t try to contain his enthusiasm for Gemologist.

“For me, what’s important about him is not just that he is undefeated, but he is undefeated at Churchill Downs,” he said. “He has won twice here and both times around two turns. That is significant.

“Churchill has a quirky running surface. I’ve had quite a few horses that did not like it. The only time Stay Thirsty ever ran poorly was over this surface.”

Twenty-two horses have gone into the Derby undefeated, but just seven have won. The last was Big Brown in 2008, and Barbaro before him in 2006.

In the run-up, Gemologist, whose speed figures have been rising with every start, has gotten lost in the shuffle, though he won New York’s major Derby prep, the Wood Memorial. Horses such as Bodemeister, Union Rags, Hansen and others have stolen the headlines.

“He was a little late getting started,” Pletcher said, by way of explanation. “He didn’t have his first race till mid-March, so he missed all the January-February buzz.”

Then, with a twinkle, he said jokingly, “The other reason is a reflection of the weakness of the New York press.”

Ho, ho, ho.

Like nearly every other trainer in the Derby, Pletcher said the entry of the speed-crazy sprinter Trinniberg would affect the race.

“It’s going to ensure a fast pace and change the dynamics of the race quite a bit,” he said. “I don’t think it will affect Gemologist, because he is tractable and a stalker, but it could benefit El Padrino, who has been running in races that didn’t have the pace he is likely to get in the Derby.”

Pletcher has trained Gemologist with a regimen almost identical to Super Saver’s winning effort. Both horses won the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill as 2-year-olds, both wintered in Florida, both had two races as 3-year-olds and both stayed in Florida almost right up to the Derby.

If Gemologist has remained below the radar, El Padrino has faded from view. He ran a close third in the Remsen last year, then launched his 3-year-old campaign with a runaway victory in a high optional claimer at Gulfstream, capping it with a nice win in the Risen Star at the Fair Grounds as the 4-5 favorite.

He then went into the Florida Derby as the 5-2 second choice behind the 2-5 Union Rags — and ran a clunker. He ended up fourth, beaten three lengths. No one has liked him since. In his last workout for the Derby over a muddy strip at Palm Meadows, he ran four furlongs in 53.1 seconds. Your grandmother can run faster than that.

“It was a little slow,” Pletcher said, in an understatement. “I would have preferred him to go a couple of seconds faster. But remember, this year he has run two races at a mile and a sixteenth and one race at a mile and an eighth, so he has three two-turn races under his belt, in addition to some strong works.”

All in all, Pletcher is nicely situated, but for all his strength going in, he is looking over his shoulder at the one horse who scares him.

“Union Rags,” he said without thinking twice. “He’s legit, very impressive, he’s run well over the track. I like him.”