Baffert, Pletcher no strangers to spotlight

ELMONT, N.Y. – For the better part of the last two decades, Bob Baffert and Todd Pletcher have been the dominant trainers in horse racing. Baffert, the best in the West, and Pletcher, the beast of the East, have participated in – and won – virtually all of the biggest races the sport has to offer.

Pletcher, 47, began his career in 1996 and has already vaulted to the top of the all-time list in purse money won by a North American trainer ($290,447,653 through Wednesday) and ranks 12th all time in wins with 3,765. Baffert, 62, switched over to Thoroughbreds from the Quarter Horse world in 1991 and ranks sixth in purse money won ($221,920,153) and 44th in races won with 2,562.

Starting in 1997, Baffert and Pletcher have combined to win 10 Eclipse Awards as North America’s champion trainer – seven for Pletcher, three for Baffert. Beginning that same year, they have combined to win 14 of the 53 Triple Crown races run; Baffert with 11 victories, and Pletcher, 3.

On Saturday, as the 2015 Triple Crown season comes to a close, it is Pletcher – on his home court at Belmont Park – who is perhaps the biggest obstacle standing in Baffert’s way of achieving racing immortality. In the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, Pletcher will send out the duo of Materiality, the Grade 1 Florida Derby winner, and Madefromlucky, the Grade 2 Peter Pan winner, against Baffert’s American Pharoah, who looks to become Thoroughbred racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner and first in 37 years.

“You have to beat Todd,” Baffert said Tuesday after he and American Pharoah arrived in New York. “He’s tough. He does really well here. He’s a great trainer; he’s got great horses. I have a lot of respect for him. He’s the one to beat. Everywhere he goes, he’s the one to beat.”

Baffert hasn’t had a problem beating Pletcher in the Kentucky Derby. In 16 Derbies, Baffert has won four from 23 starters, while Pletcher, in 15 Derbies, has won one – Super Saver in 2010 – from 43 starters.

“His Derby record is different because he runs four or five at a time,” Baffert said. “Sometimes we have to run these horses because [owners] want to be there. His record should be on how many Derbies he’s run in. His earnings record has blown everybody’s away. He’s not very old. I believe he’s going to win a lot of them. What he’s done so far ... to blow by [D. Wayne] Lukas. We’re all chasing Lukas. He’s the only one who’s caught him and passed him.”

Pletcher worked for Lukas before going out on his own. He said Lukas and Baffert are the gold standards when it comes to the Triple Crown.

“Bob and Wayne, you think of Triple Crown races when you think of them,” Pletcher said. “The fact there was 13 years in between [Baffert] winning Derbies tells you how hard it is, and he got awfully close a couple of other times. There’s no question those guys’ Triple Crown accomplishments stand out amongst their peers.”

Pletcher said he doesn’t ever envision matching the Triple Crown success of Lukas or Baffert but said, “Hopefully, by the time I’m 62, I have a few more.”

More often than not, Pletcher sits out the Preakness and gives horses five weeks from the Derby to the Belmont Stakes. In 2013, he won the Belmont with Palace Malice following a 12th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. He also won the 2007 Belmont with the filly Rags to Riches, who had five weeks and one day between her Kentucky Oaks win and her Belmont victory over Preakness winner Curlin.

“When you’re based here, this is your home track,” Pletcher said. “Belmont is the marquee race of your home track. I think it’s only natural to want to emphasize that.”

Baffert has won the Preakness six times but has only won the Belmont once – in 2001 with Point Given – from nine starters. In Baffert’s three previous attempts at winning the Triple Crown, Pletcher did not have a horse in the Belmont. In fact, before Saturday, there have only been three Belmonts where the two have both competed – 2001, 2006, and 2010.

Pletcher said he and Baffert speak occasionally, and he did seek out Baffert prior to the Preakness.

“I told him at the Preakness – and I’m sincere about it – he’s not getting as much credit as he deserves for the job he’s done with American Pharoah,” Pletcher said.

Pletcher referred to American Pharoah being scratched from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last November and being out of training until early January due to injury. Yet Baffert still was able to get American Pharoah to the Triple Crown series with enough foundation under him.

“He got him there on a tight schedule,” Pletcher said. “He pushed all the right buttons. He made the decision to run him in an aluminum pad, which I think would be a difficult decision for a lot of people. So, he’s confident in his horse and the decisions he’s made, and I think he deserves a lot of credit for the job he’s done with him.”

Baffert said he appreciated Pletcher telling him that and admires the manner in which Pletcher handles himself.

“I wish I could be more like him and keep my mouth shut, but I can’t help myself,” Baffert said. “He’s competitive, but in his own gentlemanly way.”

He may be gentlemanly, but Pletcher makes no bones about his desire to win Saturday.

“I would love to win the Belmont, regardless of what’s at stake,” Pletcher said. “I think the fact there’s a Triple Crown at stake ... all the trainers in the race want to be the one to prevent that from happening. I’m looking forward to it.”

In a previous version of this article the positions on the all-time wins list for Bob Baffert and Todd Pletcher were incorrect. Baffert is 44th, not 18th, and Pletcher is 12th, not ninth. Also the time between Rags to Riches's Kentucky Oaks and Belmont Stakes victories was misstated. It was five weeks and one day between the two races, not four weeks and six days.