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| photo by: Emily Shields |
By the time Zagora left Saratoga last season, her year was reaching a crescendo. She had already won four stakes on turf and finished third in the Grade 1 Diana Stakes to stake a rightful place among the nation’s top turf females.
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| photo by: Tom Keyser |
When he stepped onto the Gulfstream Park grass course in February to make his first start of 2012, Point of Entry had never even run in a turf stakes race, and when he stepped off after finishing fourth in a second-level allowance race, there was no obvious reason to believe Point of Entry was on a fast track to su
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| photo by: Barbara D. Livingston |
What do Eclipse Award voters do with a runner whose record is only a head away from being flawless, who traveled far and wide to win in Kentucky, New York, Canada, and California, whose people classed up the game and let their horse do the talking?
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| photo by: Justin N. Lane |
He won the Robert Lewis Stakes, but few believed. Even after he won the Santa Anita Derby, doubts remained, so much so that he was only the ninth choice among 20 in the Kentucky Derby. And even after winning that race, he will wasn’t favored in the Preakness.
Todd Pletcher’s position as an Eclipse Award finalist for North America’s outstanding trainer can be described in three words: familiar but fitting.
Although his presence among the final trio is certainly nothing new, it is deserving. Pletcher, a five-time Eclipse Award winner, leads North American trainers with his horses having earned more than $20 million and having won 42 graded stakes.
