Despite evidence to the contrary, Todd Pletcher has nothing against the Preakness.
“I don’t hate the Preakness,” Pletcher said. “I love the Belmont.”
Pletcher has started a record 65 horses in the Kentucky Derby and a modern-day record 37 horses in the Belmont Stakes. Saturday, when he sends out River Thames in the 150th Preakness Stakes, it will be just his 11th starter in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. Pletcher is 0 for 10 in eight runnings of the Preakness, with Impeachment’s third-place finish in 2000 – Pletcher’s first Preakness starter – his best result.
Since Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming finished eighth in the 2017 Preakness, Pletcher has started just one horse – Unbridled Honor in 2021 – in the second leg of Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown. Unbridled Honor finished sixth.
“We’ve run a lot of horses in the Derby,” said Pletcher, who had his 21-year Derby streak snapped this year when Grande was scratched. “I’m sure a lot of those horses would have better been suited to skip the Derby and wait for the Preakness. But, for whatever reason, I think most of our clients they want to take a shot at the Derby if they’ve earned their way in.”
In addition to Always Dreaming, Pletcher won the 2010 Derby with Super Saver, who finished eighth in the Preakness. Pletcher said Super Saver was not the type of horse who was going to thrive running back in two weeks.
:: Get ready for the Preakness with DRF past performances, picks, and betting strategies!
“Super Saver was a pretty generous horse to gallop and the few days we were at Pimlico leading up to it wasn’t where he was before the Derby,” Pletcher said. “Always Dreaming, I thought his energy level was pretty good, and I thought he had a chance there, but you could tell he was done early.”
Of Pletcher’s other Preakness starters, he felt Stradivari, coming off a 14-length allowance win at Keeneland, had the best chance. He finished fourth behind Exaggerator in 2016.
“I actually liked that horse, thought he was a little bit live,” Pletcher said.
Pletcher has enjoyed terrific success with horses who have run in the Kentucky Derby – or in the case of the filly Rags to Riches the Kentucky Oaks – skipped the Preakness, and run in the Belmont. In addition to Rags to Riches beating Preakness winner Curlin in the 2007 Belmont, Pletcher has won the Belmont Stakes with Derby also-rans Palace Malice (2013), Tapwrit (2017), and Mo Donegal (2022). Pletcher also has eight seconds in the Belmont, four with horses coming out of the Kentucky Derby. Nest, in 2022, was second in the Kentucky Oaks and ran second to Mo Donegal, while Forte was scratched by track veterinarians the morning of the 2023 Kentucky Derby and came back five weeks later to run second in the Belmont.
“I do like the Belmont. I like it when it’s here even more,” Pletcher said while in his Belmont Park barn. “For whatever reason, our program does well in those long-distance races.”
Pletcher said another reason he has an affinity for the Belmont Stakes is that it’s run in his backyard. He has been based at Belmont since going out on his own in 1996 and, until recently, called Long Island home.
“Home track, live here, kids went to school here,” Pletcher said. “It’s one race besides the Kentucky Derby that your neighbors care about.”
River Thames is one of those rare horses who could have run in the Kentucky Derby but whose connections opted to skip and point to the Preakness. River Thames had run four times from Jan. 11 through April 8, and the primary owners, WinStar Farm and China Horse Club, agreed that more time would be beneficial.
:: Get Preakness Betting Strategies for exclusive wagering insights, contender analysis, and more
At the time the decision was made, those owners had Florida Derby winner Tappan Street in the Derby before an injury forced him to miss the race. Pletcher was pointing Wood Memorial runner-up Grande to the Derby before a foot issue forced his withdrawal.
The Derby was won by Sovereignty, who beat River Thames by just a neck in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 1. While Sovereignty came back to run second in the Florida Derby, River Thames finished third, beaten just three-quarters of a length by Burnham Square, in the Grade 1 Blue Grass on April 8 at Keeneland.
“His form looks good having run against Sovereignty and just getting beat,” Pletcher said. “What he still has to prove is that he can handle the mile and three-sixteenths . . . He ran to the wire in the Blue Grass, he just couldn’t make that final impact, so we’ll see.”
Pletcher said a Preakness win would be meaningful.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I’d like to get one of those and a Dubai World Cup on the résumé.”
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.