Todd Pletcher

Reporting from Louisville, Ky. -- Todd Pletcher didn't want to watch the Kentucky Derby with friends. He didn't want to watch it with family. He didn't want to pick one of the four owners he was representing and sit with them. In fact, he didn't even want to watch it live from the stands. He wanted to watch it alone, on television, inside the Horseman's Lounge, halfway down the tunnel beneath the Churchill Downs grandstands. "Obviously, I needed to change something," said Pletcher, who entered Saturday's 136th Run for the Roses 0 for 24, the most attempts without a victory in the history of the race.

One year after breaking the North American record for money won by a trainer, Todd Pletcher has done it again. Thanks to a big Friday around the country, Pletcher eclipsed the mark of $26,820,243 his widespread stable had set in 2006. Nearly $555,000 short of his old record entering the day, Pletcher won five races in New York, Kentucky and California, with three of the wins coming in graded stakes. After upsets by Mini Sermon in the $150,000 Top Flight at Aqueduct and A.P.

One week after he picked up his first victory in a Triple Crown race when Rags To Riches won the Belmont Stakes, Todd Pletcher could have a big day at Churchill Downs. The country's leading trainer again in terms of purse earnings nearing the halfway point of 2006, Pletcher has representatives in three of the four major stakes today in Louisville, Ky. In the richest race, the $750,000 Stephen Foster Handicap, Pletcher is loaded.

Todd Pletcher joked that the worst-case scenario after Saturday was that he would be 0 for 19 in the Kentucky Derby. Now he is. "I couldn't make out any major excuses just watching it the first time," the trainer said. "It's hard right after a race. I'm disappointed the horses didn't run better, but like I said before, life goes on whether you win the Derby or not." Circular Quay, Pletcher's best finisher, was sixth. Any Given Saturday was eighth, Sam P.

The busiest person other than the mint-julep vendors Saturday at Churchill Downs will be trainer Todd Pletcher, who is poised to start a record-tying five horses in the Kentucky Derby as he tries to break his 0-14 skein and win the Derby for the first time. Pletcher, only 39 but the winner of the Eclipse Award as the nation's top trainer the last three years, will saddle a quarter of the 20-horse field but doesn't have either of the top two choices.

Another week, another milestone for Todd Pletcher. Seven days after setting a single-season earnings record, Pletcher, perennially the country's leading trainer, established another standard when 5-2 second choice Scat Daddy won the $400,000 Champagne at Belmont Park. The victory by the 2-year-old Johannesburg colt in the Grade I stakes race was the 93rd stakes win of the year for Pletcher, eclipsing the previous record of 92 set by Wayne Lukas, Pletcher's former boss, in 1987.

Todd Pletcher has won the Eclipse Award the last two years as the top trainer in the country. He led the nation in stable earnings in both years, won his first two Breeders' Cup races with Speightstown and Ashado in 2004 at Lone Star Park in Texas and has numerous victories in other significant races around the country. One thing missing from Pletcher's resume is a Kentucky Derby victory. He is 0 for 12 in the world's most famous race, his best finish a second by Invisible Ink in 2001.

The morning of the Woodward Stakes, a week ago at Belmont Park, Todd Pletcher called a rival trainer, Rick Dutrow. "Is your horse still alive?" Pletcher asked, referring to Dutrow's Saint Liam. "Yeah, he is," Dutrow said. "Well, we're scratching then," Pletcher said. Saint Liam easily won the Woodward, and Pletcher's Shaniko stayed in the barn.