Todd Pletcher

Horseracing personalities infobox
name = Todd Pletcher


caption =
occupation = Thoroughbred Horse Trainer
birth place = Dallas, Texas
birth date = June 26, 1967
death date =
career wins =
race =
awards = NATIONAL/ECLIPSE CHAMPIONS:
*Ashado - Top Older Female (2005); Top 3-Year-Old Filly (2004)
*English Channel (horse) - Top Turf Male (2007)
*Fleet Indian - Top Older Female (2006)
*Lawyer Ron - Top Older Male (2007)
*Left Bank - Top Older Male (2002)
*Rags to Riches - Top 3-year-old filly (2007)
*Speightstown - Top Sprinter (2004)
*Wait a While - Top 3-Year-Old Filly (2006)

NEW YORK TRAINING TITLES:
* 2006 Saratoga, 24 victories
* 2006 Belmont Fall, 15
* 2005 Saratoga, 22
* 2005 Belmont Fall, 23
* 2005 Aqueduct Fall, 16
* 2004 New York, 129
* 2004 Saratoga, 35
* 2004 Belmont Spring, 33
* 2004 Belmont Fall, 23
* 2003 New York, 134
* 2003 Saratoga, 35
* 2003 Belmont Spring, 40
* 2003 Belmont Fall, 24
* 2003 Aqueduct Fall, 15 (Tie)
* 2002 Saratoga, 19
* 2002 Belmont Spring, 30
* 2002 Belmont Fall, 18 (Tie)
* 2001 Belmont Fall, 17
* 2001 Aqueduct Fall, 13
* 1999 Belmont Spring, 18
* 1998 Saratoga, 20
honours = * Received Eclipse Award as Top Trainer in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

* Presented with the Woody Stephens Award as Outstanding Trainer in 1998, 2002, 2005 and 2006 by the New York Turf Writers Association. He shared the award with Robert Frankel in 2002 and John Kimmel in 1998.

* Presented with the Fourstardave Award for Outstanding Achievement in Saratoga in 1998 and 2003 by the New York Turf Writers Association.
horses = Adieu, Any Given Saturday, Ashado, Balto Star, Bandini, Bishop Court Hill, Bluegrass Cat, Bohemian Lady, Boston Bull, Capeside Lady, Cinderella's Dream, Circle of Life, Chapel Royal, Chimichurri, Cotton Blossom, Cotton House Bay, Cowtown Cat, Distorted Reality, Early Warning, Electric Shock, English Channel (horse), Finality, Fisher Pond, Flamenco, Fleet Indian, Flower Alley, Forest Danger, Forestier, Freedom's Daughter, Friendly Island, Glacken’s Gal, Go Deputy, Gone Fishin, Graeme Hall, Harlan's Holiday, Harmony Lodge, Heckle, Honey Ryder, Host (CHI), I'm All Yours, Indian Vale, Irving's Baby, Jersey Girl, King of the Roxy, Lawyer Ron, Left Bank, Limehouse (horse), Lion Tamer, Lovely Amanda, Maddie May, Magna Graduate, Magnificent Song, Manchurian, Marc's Rainbow, Marlyebone, Marley Vale, Mellow Roll, Mini Sermon, More Than Ready, Navesink River, Nite Light, Ocean Drive, Octave, Oh Nellie, Panty Raid, Path of Thunder, Paula's Girl, Pool Land, Proper Gamble, Proud Accolade, Purge, Rags to Riches, Ready's Gal, Ready’s Image, Roman Dynasty, Safari Queen, Saratoga Blues, Scat Daddy, Smok'n Frolic, Spanky Fischbein, Speightstown, Spun Sugar, Strong Hope, Summer Raven, Sunriver, Texas Glitter, The Leopard, Trippi, Tugger, Tweedside, Unbridled Belle, Vicarage, Wait a While, West Virginia, Willard Straight
updated = 10 June 2008

Todd Pletcher (born June 26, 1967, Dallas, Texas) is a leading American thoroughbred horse trainer. He has won four consecutive Eclipse Awards as outstanding Trainer of the Year, while topping the leader board in purse earnings in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Career

Todd began working for his father, Jake Pletcher, as a hot walker at the age of seven. During his summers off from junior and senior high school he went to California where he worked as a hot walker for Henry Moreno at Hollywood Park and Del Mar Racetracks.

He graduated from high school in 1985 and began college at the University of Arizona in their Race Track Industry Program in the fall of that year. Between his sophomore and junior years he worked as a groom for D. Wayne Lukas at Arlington Park near Chicago. He spent the following summer with another legendary Hall of Fame trainer, Charlie Whittingham, working as a groom at Hollywood Park. While attending University of Arizona, Pletcher was an active member of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.

He graduated from college with a Bachelor of Animal Science in May 1989 and traveled to New York immediately following graduation to work for Lukas as a foreman in the active stable.

In 1991 he was promoted to assistant trainer for Lukas, splitting his time between New York and Florida. Pletcher was Lukas's East Coast Assistant until the end of 1995 where he was instrumental in the development of such great horses as Thunder Gulch, Harlan, Serena's Song, A Wild Ride, and Flanders. He took out his trainer's license in December 1995 and saddled his first winner, Majestic Number, in February 1996 at Gulfstream Park in Florida.

In 2004 he trained three-year-old filly Ashado to a win in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs in Louisville. Later that year Ashado won the Breeders' Cup Distaff. The filly went on to capture the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Three-Year-Old of the year in 2004 and as Best Older Female in 2005. Her stablemate, Speightstown, gave Pletcher a second Breeders’ Cup win in 2004 in the Sprint division as well as a second Eclipse award when he was named Outstanding Sprint Horse that same year.

In 2005, Pletcher set a single season earnings record with purse earnings totaling $20,867,842 with trips to the winner's circle in ten Grade 1 races, including the Travers Stakes at Saratoga with Flower Alley and the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland with Bandini.

Pletcher broke his own single-season earnings record on October 7, 2006, when Fleet Indian captured a win in the Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park. That win proved to be a first in a day of multiple winners for Pletcher as Honey Ryder won the Flower Bowl Invitational, English Channel won the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational Stakes, and India won the Fitz Dixon Cotillion Breeders' Cup Handicap at Philadelphia Park. His purse earnings total $27,670,243.

Later that year, He broke the 19-year-old North American record for most stakes wins in a year, on October 14, when the two-year-old colt Scat Daddy won the $400,000 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park, making it the 93rd stakes victory of the year for Pletcher. The record was set by his former boss and mentor D. Wayne Lukas in 1987. Pletcher's 93 stakes wins include 52 graded events and a career-best 17 Grade 1 wins.

Pletcher's season included a win with Bluegrass Cat in the $1,000,000 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park followed by the colt's second-place finishes in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

In the 2007 Belmont Stakes, Pletcher earned his first win in a Triple Crown race when Rags to Riches became the first filly to win since 1905.

Honours

Pletcher has amassed numerous training titles in New York, Kentucky and Florida, including five consecutive titles at the prestigious Saratoga Race Track summer meet. He has received several Fourstar Dave (for Special Achievement at Saratoga Race Course) and Woody Stevens (for outstanding trainer) Awards from the New York Turf Writers Association.

Drug suspension

One of Pletcher's horses was found to have an anesthetic, mepivicaine, on August 14, 2004. Mepivicaine can numb pain in horses. For the positive test, Pletcher was given a 45 day suspension from training at any thoroughbred track in the United States. Pletcher was also fined $3,000 and the purse money was redistributed. Pletcher appealed the suspension, but it was upheld. [ [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/horses/2006-12-07-pletcher-suspension_x.htm?csp=34] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.toddpletcherracing.com/ Official site]
* [http://www.ntra.com/stats_bios.aspx?id=2367 National Thoroughbred Racing Association biography]
* [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/tim_layden/04/24/pletcher0430/ Sports Illustrated profile, Apr. 24, 2007]