2012 Kentucky Derby: Todd Pletcher Has a Handle on Derby Fever

Every spring, a term pops up that every racing fan knows. Kentucky Derby Fever not only affects fans choosing their favorite horses, but the owners and trainers with contenders. At times the fever gets so bad that almost everyone can think of a Derby entrant that would have been better served in another spot.

As Derby Fever creeps up on those in the industry, one of the biggest issues in horse racing for trainers is balancing owners’ requests in addition to what’s good for the horse.

As a trainer that has had many spring Derby favorites and has loaded multitudes of horses in the Derby gate, trainer Todd Pletcher is no stranger to dealing with Derby Fever.

“I think a lot of times [Derby Fever is] about managing expectations of the owners and everyone sort of has a different path that they would like to take or sees a path that they feel like might be best for their horse,” Pletcher said.

Pletcher won the 2010 Kentucky Derby with Super Saver, is known for having multiple horses every year and says that dealing with most owners is the same every year, even with new faces.

“It's just something you deal with because that's what you do and something you've done a number of times in the past.  In a lot of ways, it's kind of doing the same thing you did last year or the year before with different players,” Pletcher said. “I suppose it's a little bit like the basketball tournament. Sometimes you show up and you know what the goal is and you know what you need to do to get there, but you might have different players on the roster that you're trying to accomplish those goals with.”

But not all owners get Derby Fever and feel that getting to the Derby isn’t the end-all of racing.

The owners of Gemologist are one such team.  Pletcher is sending Gemologist to the weekend’s G1 Wood Memorial in the hope of getting the Tiznow colt a top placing in the race to get into the gate. Gemologist's only stakes run resulted in a G2 win in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes and is currently sitting at the No. 30 spot on the Kentucky Derby Graded Earnings list with $103,855 in earnings.

Gemologist could have had another chance to get the graded stakes earnings earlier in the year—he ran in an allowance race at Gulfstream instead of going into one of the earlier prep races. 

While Gemologist’s Derby hopes sit on only one more race, the colt’s connections are okay if he misses the Derby. Even though there are a few other Derby preps that Gemologist could enter if he doesn’t do well, his connections don’t look to throw another race into the colt to make the earnings list.

“One of the things that Elliott Walden and I talked about when we decided to run in the allowance race at Gulfstream instead of the Rebel at Oaklawn was if he didn't get enough earnings in his final prep to go on to the Kentucky Derby, that we were willing to live with that and the Preakness would be a next goal,” Pletcher said. “So I doubt that we would try to cram another race in just to make the Derby.”

Derby Fever is a major part of the three-year-old season but Todd Pletcher has a handle on how to keep both horse and owner happy.  From Gemologist to El Padrino, Pletcher has all sorts in his barn to take to the Derby and the other Triple Crown races.  

Pletcher’s hardest task as he gets closer to the Kentucky Derby may switch from keeping owners realistic to picking jockeys for the multiple mounts he has in the race.  But it’s a given that the trainer will know how to keep the “Fever” from getting too far into his barn, no matter how many horses he has to run.

Melissa Bauer-Herzog is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.