Todd Pletcher

Some years, Maryland Jockey Club stakes coordinator Coley Blind has to turn horses away from the Preakness.  He and other members of the staff may look through the credentials of 20 horses, calculating their earnings -- the Preakness uses a fairly complicated three-tiered system -- to determine the 14-horse field. Not this year. As of Friday afternoon, connections for only seven horses had confirmed they planned to enter the race, and five others had been identified as strong possibilities.

Todd Pletcher is now 1-for-36 in the Kentucky Derby. The trainer with a vast empire of horses entered five in Saturday's 139th run for the roses and, as bettors expected, Revolutionary, the colt guided by Calvin Borel, moved well over the wet track - but not well enough to catch winner Orb. Borel had Revolutionary running at the end, but ultimately finished third. A three-time winner of the race - twice in mud - Borel had spurred bettors to make Revolutionary the favorite for much of the day. "The only thing I could have done on the far turn was creep up closer on him," Borel said.

You can make the argument Todd Pletcher is the best trainer in horse racing. He's certainly the hottest. Virtually all that he has touched this spring has turned to gold. The 42-year-old is headed to the 136th running of the Kentucky Derby on May 1 with one of the heaviest favorites in years in Eskendereya, and he conceivably could have a half dozen other entries in the 20-horse field. But you can also make the case that Pletcher won't solidify his status as one of the best until he wins a Derby.

Todd Pletcher 's 38-1 long shot Princess of Sylmar won the $1 million Kentucky Oaks on Friday, giving the trainer a chance to become the first since Ben Jones in 1952 to win the top race for 3-year-old fillies and the Kentucky Derby in the same year. Pletcher, who has five horses entered in the Derby, had four in the Oaks. Dreaming of Julia was the favorite but could not recover from a rowdy start to the race. "She got creamed coming out of [the gate] and it is hard to overcome that sort of thing," Pletcher said.

Last year's chase for the Triple Crown ended when trainer Doug O'Neill stepped to a microphone stand in a patch of fenced-in grass next to a barn near the Belmont Park track. Brushing back tears, he announced that a tendon injury would prevent I'll Have Another - the 12th horse to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown since Affirmed last completed the trifecta in 1978 - from going to post the next day. On Saturday, a full field of 20 is expected for the 139th running of the Kentucky Derby and to begin the quest anew.

Todd Pletcher knew there were rumors. When you're one of the winningest trainers in the game who just happens to condition a fifth of the Kentucky Derby field, there are going to be rumors about your horses. He hadn't heard specifics, like the one about Verrazano, the 4-1 second choice on the morning line, not eating this week. But he refuted it Thursday during a measured session with reporters outside of his barn. "All my horses are fine," he said. "People saw them train.

Todd Pletcher is now 1-for-36 in the Kentucky Derby. The trainer with a vast empire of horses entered five in Saturday's 139th run for the roses and, as bettors expected, Revolutionary, the colt guided by Calvin Borel, moved well over the wet track - but not well enough to catch winner Orb. Borel had Revolutionary running at the end, but ultimately finished third. A three-time winner of the race - twice in mud - Borel had spurred bettors to make Revolutionary the favorite for much of the day. "The only thing I could have done on the far turn was creep up closer on him," Borel said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Todd Pletcher knew there were rumors. He even figured some of them impugned his horses. When you're one of the winningest trainers in the game who just happens to condition a quarter of the Kentucky Derby field, that, he said, "is part of the deal. " Upon hearing the specific rumor concerning Verrazano, the 4-1 second choice on the morning line for Saturday's race, the man worrying about five Derby horses - plus four in the ultra-competitive Kentucky Oaks field Friday - found a reason to smile.

PP Horse.... Trainer.... Jockey.... Record*..... Earnings..... Last race... Comment.... Odds 1 Invisible Ink Todd Pletcher John Velazquez 8: 3-2-1 $385,560 2nd, Kentucky Derby His style, pedigree and efficient stride suit Belmont's distance, configuration... 8-1 2 Balto Star Todd Pletcher Chris McCarron 9: 4-0-1 $720,190 14th, Kentucky Derby McCarron, master of pace, is controller of pace aboard this sprinter's son 15-1 3 Dollar Bill Dallas Stewart Pat Day 10: 3-2-1 $503,696 4th, Preakness Stakes After four straight hard-luck races, ol' Bill deserves a clean, smooth trip 6-1 4 Thunder Blitz Joe Orseno Jerry Bailey 9: 2-2-2 $243,450 4th, Kentucky Derby Orseno says rested colt as ready as Red Bullet was before 2000 Preaknesss 10-1 5 Monarchos John Ward Jr. Jorge Chavez 8: 4-1-1 $1,605,630 6th, Preakness Despite his Kentucky Derby runaway, he may be overlooked in the betting 5-2 6 Buckle Down Ben D. Wayne Lukas Corey Nakatani 8: 3-1-2 $178,340 1st, allowance race,Churchill Downs Can Lukas pull off another Belmont upset with lightly regarded colt?

And then there were 12. The Preakness field jumped from nine to a dozen yesterday when three more starters confirmed their intentions to take on Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. Trainers for Icabad Crane, the winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico; Hey Byrn, winner of the Grade III Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park; and Riley Tucker, who has been in the money six times in seven lifetime starts, have declared plans to bring their horses to Baltimore.

Todd Pletcher knew there were rumors. When you're one of the winningest trainers in the game who just happens to condition a fifth of the Kentucky Derby field, there are going to be rumors about your horses. He hadn't heard specifics, like the one about Verrazano, the 4-1 second choice on the morning line, not eating this week. But he refuted it Thursday during a measured session with reporters outside of his barn. "All my horses are fine," he said. "People saw them train.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Todd Pletcher knew there were rumors. He even figured some of them impugned his horses. When you're one of the winningest trainers in the game who just happens to condition a quarter of the Kentucky Derby field, that, he said, "is part of the deal. " Upon hearing the specific rumor concerning Verrazano, the 4-1 second choice on the morning line for Saturday's race, the man worrying about five Derby horses - plus four in the ultra-competitive Kentucky Oaks field Friday - found a reason to smile.

Last year's chase for the Triple Crown ended when trainer Doug O'Neill stepped to a microphone stand in a patch of fenced-in grass next to a barn near the Belmont Park track. Brushing back tears, he announced that a tendon injury would prevent I'll Have Another - the 12th horse to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown since Affirmed last completed the trifecta in 1978 - from going to post the next day. On Saturday, a full field of 20 is expected for the 139th running of the Kentucky Derby and to begin the quest anew.

Jockey Rosie Napravnik (Hereford) closed out a career-best season Dec. 31, securing the highest spot ever for a female jockey on the North American leader board. Finishing the year with $12,451,713 in purse earnings and 193 wins with 191 seconds and 167 thirds in 1,200 starts, Napravnik finished eighth among the top jockeys in the nation in the year-end standings. Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone set the record in 1988 when she finished the year with a ninth-place finish. She finished ninth again in 1992, and the record stood for the past 20 years.

Trainer Dale Romans said Sunday morning there is a better than 50 percent chance Preakness winner Shackleford will run in the Belmont Stakes in three weeks. "If he trains like he did going into the Derby, I don't know why we would pass," Romans said. "I've always thought, just like Woody Stevens said along time ago, that the Belmont is really a speed horse's race. A mile and a half is such a grueling race, they'll all be tired when they get to the eighth pole. " Romans said he hopes Animal Kingdom will be there as well because a rivalry between the two would be good for horse racing.

In his first race on a dirt surface, Animal Kingdom roared from the pack to capture the 137th Kentucky Derby today at Churchill Downs. A 20-1 choice ridden by John Velazquez, who lost his ride on Uncle Mo Friday when the horse was scratched, Animal Kingdom chased down Shackleford, who led almost the entire race. Animal Kingdom is trained by Graham Motion, who is based in Fair Hill, Md. Nehro also made a run, but finished second. Mucho Macho Man was third. Shackleford faded to fourth.

Jockey Rosie Napravnik (Hereford) closed out a career-best season Dec. 31, securing the highest spot ever for a female jockey on the North American leader board. Finishing the year with $12,451,713 in purse earnings and 193 wins with 191 seconds and 167 thirds in 1,200 starts, Napravnik finished eighth among the top jockeys in the nation in the year-end standings. Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone set the record in 1988 when she finished the year with a ninth-place finish. She finished ninth again in 1992, and the record stood for the past 20 years.

LAUREL -- Fire In Ice's victory in the $54,325 Inner Harbor Stakes at Laurel Race Course yesterday served as another reminder of just how far-flung the stable of trainer D. Wayne Lukas has become.Lukas wasn't present to saddle Fire In Ice. Neither was his top New York assistant, Kiaran McLaughlin, who usually does the honors when Lukas has a horse in an East Coast stakes.Instead, it was 23-year-old Todd Pletcher -- the assistant to the assistant -- who traveled from New York to saddle the 2-year-old colt.

Mike Repole is the kind of guy who doesn't mind a little attention from the media, but he admitted Thursday he'd definitely prefer to be answering questions this week about how good it feels to have the Kentucky Derby favorite as opposed to questions about whether or not, his horse, Uncle Mo, will even run. Repole took questions from reporters for nearly 15 minutes outside trainer Todd Pletcher's barn Thursday morning, but we still don't know whether...

No one can say with any real certainty whether or not Uncle Mo will be in the starting gate on Saturday when the Kentucky Derby is run for the 137th time at Churchill Downs. He's still battling a gastrointestinal infection that could result in a scratch right up until post time. But even if he does run, there is a good chance he won't be the favorite. For now, that honor goes to Dialed In, the horse Churchill Downs handicapper Mike Battaglia picked as the 4-1 morning line favorite on Wednesday after the Nick Zito-trained colt drew the favorable eighth stall in the Derby post position draw.