It was back in 1989, when 22-year-old Todd Pletcher was working as a barn foreman for trainer D. Wayne Lukas and his son, Jeff, that he first realized the importance of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for someone whose life revolved around horse racing.
"What I recognized early on in my career while working for Wayne was that Saratoga is a place where you need to do well," Pletcher said. "It's a very special place. It's where the owners want to be and where they want to be successful."
Pletcher surely learned that lesson well. In his 25-year training career, Saratoga Race Course has played a central role in the Texas native's fabulous career. He captured his 14th Spa training title last year and winning five crowns in a row there from 2002-06 provided a spark that lit a fuse and helped him reach towering heights such as seven Eclipse Awards as the outstanding trainer and status as North America's all-time leader in career earnings with over $405 million.
Fittingly, when Pletcher received his greatest award May 5, it also centered around the Spa as he was voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga in his first year of eligibility.
"It's a tremendous honor and something I never could have thought was possible when I first started on my own," said Pletcher, who started training in 1996 and has recorded 5,118 wins, putting him seventh on the all-time list among North American trainers. "I've been very fortunate and blessed to get some incredible opportunities along the way. I have a tremendous support staff. It's not so much an individual award. There's a lot of people who play a role in it. I couldn't be more humbled and honored."
As much as the 14 Saratoga training titles, 17 crowns at the Gulfstream Championship Meet, and 10 years as the national leader in earnings reflect the volume of his success, there has also been quality. Two Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) wins. Three Belmont Stakes (G1) victories, including his 2007 score with Rags to Riches, the first filly to win "The Test of the Champion" in 102 years. Four Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) wins after undefeated Malathaat's triumph last week. Eleven Breeders' Cup victories in nine different races. Working with a veteran staff that includes assistants Byron Hughes, Tristan Barry, Ginny DePasquale, and Anthony Sciametta, Pletcher has won a glittering total of 709 graded stakes, 166 of them in grade 1s, and produced a platoon of stallions.
"Why I think Todd is the best trainer of all-time is that in baseball you'd call him a five-tool player. He has grade 1 wins with sprinters and distance horses. Dirt and turf horses. Colts and fillies. Two-year-olds and older horses. He has something for every division," said Mike Repole, whose Repole Stable, with more than $42 million in earnings, has relied on Pletcher as its primary trainer for about 12 years. "He's the greatest and most balanced trainer in the history of racing."
Repole holds such respect for Pletcher and his accomplishments that he believes the 53-year-old trainer earned his spot in the Hall of Fame long before Pletcher met the Hall's criteria of working as a licensed trainer for 25 years.
"That it took Todd Pletcher 25 years to get into the Hall of Fame is one of the dumbest rules I've ever heard. Ten years into his career he qualified for the Hall of Fame and accomplished things that 99% of the trainers wish they could," said Repole, who has raced the champions and stallions Uncle Mo and Vino Rosso with Pletcher. "When all is said and done, I think he will shatter every record and be remembered as the greatest trainer in the history of the sport. He will set records that no one will touch. His consistency is amazing. His worst year is what virtually every trainer would want."
A trainer of 11 champions, including Hall of Famer Ashado, English Channel, and Speightstown, when Pletcher looks back on what propelled his career in the early years, he points to More Than Ready and Jersey Girl.
More Than Ready, who became a highly successful stallion, won his first five starts, two of them graded stakes, and finished fourth in the 2000 Kentucky Derby. He was one of four horses Pletcher started in that year's Run for the Roses and from that initial appearance at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May, Pletcher has amassed a record 59 runners in America's most famous race. Later as a 3-year-old, More Than Ready won the King's Bishop Stakes (G1).
Jersey Girl, a New Jersey-bred, accounted for Pletcher's first grade 1 win when she prevailed in the 1998 Acorn Stakes.
"More Than Ready was the first horse we had that grabbed headlines," said Pletcher, who spent six formative years working with Lukas, eventually becoming an assistant trainer. "He was a brilliant 2-year-old. I never dreamed at that time that he would go on to have the influence he has on worldwide racing. It's been such a tremendous stallion career, not just in the United States, but Australia as well. And Jersey Girl was the first grade 1 winner. Those two horses really got us going. Winning our first classic with Rags to Riches was a phenomenal experience, and Ashado was one of our first champions along with Left Bank. There's been a lot of great horses, but those two stand out early on. They showed we can compete at the highest levels, and they helped attract more and more good owners and horses."
Pletcher's family has played an important role in a career that saw him receive his first Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer in 2004. His father, Jake ("J.J."), who is married to Todd's stepmother, Joan, was a graded stakes-winning trainer who owns the Payton Training Center in Ocala, Fla. The New York-based trainer also has a close-knit family with his wife, Tracy, and their three children, Payton, Kyle, and Hannah, all of whom have been overly supportive of a trainer's demanding lifestyle that features long hours at the barn and traveling across the country.
"I get great support not only at the barn but at home as well. My dad and my mom were always supportive of me every step of the way. So has my wife Tracy and the kids," Pletcher said. "One of the great things about being a trainer is that your family can go to an event like the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks and take it all in. The kids can go to work with their dad. That has made it more enjoyable. I have three terrific kids. I always knew they were getting everything they needed from Tracy and that was very comforting when you don't have to worry about that."
Through it all, a hallmark of Pletcher's career has been handling both success and defeat with class. He's as even-keeled and level-headed as anyone you'll find in racing and operates his stable as efficiently as a Fortune 500 company.
"As great of a trainer as Todd is, he's a better person, and rarely do you find a person that great at his job who is an even better person. He's been hired and fired in his career, but I've never come across someone who doesn't like Todd. You might be envious or jealous of him, but you can't not like him. He makes time for everyone, the owners, the media, charities," Repole said. "He does things the right way. He has an incredible work ethic. He has systems and processes that are second to none. He can manage 160-180 horses better than some people train 16-18 horses. He knows everything about all of those horses. Todd would have been successful in whatever he did in life. He represents the sport at the highest level as well as anyone else you'll find."
Repole said he considers Pletcher and his family part of the Repole family, which has created a permanent bond between the two.
"Our relation has moved from trainer to friend to family and the only negative is that I can't fire him as my trainer because he's family. Now he doesn't have to be nice to me, which he isn't, or take my phone calls," Repole said with a laugh.
Though after Wednesday's Hall of Fame announcement there will be at least one change in their relationship.
"I've had a lot of fun busting Todd's chops by telling him he's not a Hall of Famer and that Bill Mott is a Hall of Famer and (Bob) Baffert is a Hall of Famer. (Steve) Asmussen is and he isn't. Now I can't rib him about that and it's depressing," Repole said. "I'll have to figure out something else. Maybe I'll have to remind him how I saved his career."
Whatever wisecrack Repole decides to toss at his unflappable buddy, there's one thing for certain. It's no joke when someone calls Todd Pletcher a Hall of Famer. It's as deserving as can be.
