Pletcher hopeful for strong finish to frustrating meet
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher entered the final five days of the Saratoga meet with 18 wins from 112 starters. For most trainers, that would be fantastic.
For Pletcher, it’s been below par. Pletcher, a 13-time Saratoga training champion, will finish second to Chad Brown in wins for the second time in three years. While that’s not overly surprising given the depth of Brown’s stable, the frustration for Pletcher comes from the lack of success with his 2-year-olds. When Opry won Wednesday’s Grade 3 With Anticipation Stakes, it marked the trainer’s sixth win from 40 starts with 2-year-olds. That’s the fewest 2-year-old winners at Saratoga for Pletcher since 2008, when he also won six juvenile races during a meet where he won 15 races overall.
“I didn’t have super high expectations coming in, but, like always, I felt like the success of our meet would largely depend on how our 2-year-olds ran,” Pletcher said Thursday morning. “They haven’t run as well as we hoped. We have a few nice ones to hopefully close out the meet with and see if it turns around. For the most part, I’d say it’s been frustrating.”
Monday, Pletcher will send out Sombeyay in the Grade 1, $350,000 Hopeful Stakes for 2-year-olds at seven furlongs. Sombeyay won the Grade 3 Sanford on the second day of this meet, his second win from three starts.
“I think his last couple of breezes have been pretty good,” Pletcher said. “He’s not a great work horse. He’s consistently run better than he’s trained. He’s trained better for this race than he has for any of his others. We’re hoping that translates to an improved performance.”
The Hopeful drew a field of eight led by Mucho, a 9 3/4-length maiden winner here on Aug. 4, and Nitrous, a 3 1/4-length maiden winner here on July 21. Completing the field are Dream Maker, a debut winner at Churchill on June 7; Mind Control, a maiden winner at Monmouth in his second start; Thatwouldbegrand, a maiden winner at Laurel in his second start; Backtohisroots; and Derby Date.
