6,000 wins: Trainer Todd Pletcher only the seventh to reach that mark
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Todd Pletcher reached another milestone in his Hall of Fame career on Saturday as he earned his 6,000th career victory when Versailles Road won the 14th race at Saratoga.
Pletcher, 59, becomes just the seventh trainer to reach 6,000 wins. Steve Asmussen leads all trainers with 11,296 wins - and counting. Others to have surpassed the 6,000-win mark are Dale Baird (9,445), Jerry Hollendorfer (7,777), Jack Van Berg (6,523), King Leatherbury (6,508) and Scott Lake (6,489).
“It’s a hard business to reflect in much, but it’s weird when you get to these big milestones that you kind of start thinking about all the individual ones,” Pletcher said. “They add up.”
Pletcher has been a model of consistency throughout his 31-year training career. However, he went through a bit of slump for two months, winning one race in June and seven in July. On Aug. 1, he won five races on the Saratoga card and two more to give him 5,999 heading into Saturday.
Pletcher started nine horses in seven races on Saturday’s card - losing a 2-year-old turf race with Bold Leadership by a nose. After Antiquarian finished third in the Grade 1 Whitney, it took the 3-year-old colt Versailles Road, under a perfect trip from Manny Franco, to win a 1 3/8-mile turf allowance race by 1 1/2 lengths.
“I felt like we had some live chances, but with a lot of babies and a very tough Whitney - hoping we could get one,” Pletcher said. “It took all day to do it, but thankfully it happened.”
Pletcher said he read a story about Robby Albarado, who died earlier this week, and what it meant to him when he was approaching 5,000 career wins.
“He was talking about how he was feeling when he was getting close to 5,000 and he got into a little bit of a slump and he started thinking about how important each win is to so many people,” Pletcher said. “I knew what he was talking about when I was reading that.”
While Pletcher ranks seventh all-time in wins, he is first all-time in purse money won with more than $526 million. He has won a record eight Eclipse Awards for champion trainer, is a two-time Kentucky Derby winner and four-time Belmont Stakes winner. Pletcher has won 16 Breeders’ Cup races.
He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2021.
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