Kentucky Derby 2013: How Trainers Will Impact This Year's Race

Horse trainers don't often get the respect they deserve.

As one lucky three-year-old crosses the finish line first at Churchill Downs on Saturday, you're going to hear about the colt or about the jockey.

Attention on the trainer will be significantly more subdued.

Still, though, for as little air time as they get, trainers are incredibly crucial when it comes to success in The Run For The Roses, and that will hold even more true with a stacked field in 2013. 

Let's take a closer look at the men behind the horses.

Post	Horse	Trainer	Odds
1	Black Onyx	Kelly Breen	50-1
2	Oxbow	D. Wayne Lukas	30-1
3	Revolutionary	Todd Pletcher	10-1
4	Golden Soul	Dallas Stewart	50-1
5	Normandy Invasion	Chad Brown	12-1
6	Mylute	Tom Amoss	15-1
7	Giant Finish	Anthony W. Dutrow	50-1
8	Goldencents	Doug O'Neill	5-1
9	Overanalyze	Todd Pletcher	15-1
10	Palace Malice	Todd Pletcher	20-1
11	Lines of Battle	Aidan O'Brien	30-1
12	Itsmyluckyday	Eddie Plesa, Jr.	15-1
13	Falling Sky	John Terranova II	50-1
14	Verrazano	Todd Pletcher	4-1
15	Charming Kitten	Todd Pletcher	20-1
16	Orb	Claude R. McGaughey III	7-2
17	Will Take Charge	D. Wayne Lukas	20-1
18	Frac Daddy	Kenny McPeek	50-1
19	Java's War	Kenny McPeek	15-1
20	Vyjack	Rudy Rodriguez	15-1

Trainer With the Best Odds: Todd Pletcher

Pletcher's winning this battle with both quality and quantity. 

Not only does he have a popular favorite in Verrazano (4-1) and an undeniably attractive pick in Revolutionary (10-1), who will be ridden on the inside by rail legend Calvin Borel, but he also has a total of five horses.

Overanalyze (15-1) and Palace Malice (20-1), who come out of encouraging posts in the middle, and Charming Kitten (20-1), who has the best name in the field, round out Pletcher's stacked group of contenders. 

If the 45-year-old leaves Churchill with anything but his second Kentucky Derby title—his first came with Borel, aboard Super Saver in 2010—it will be a minor upset. 

Trainer With the Best History: D. Wayne Lukas

In the words of DJ Khaled (first DJ Khaled reference in a horse-racing article ever? Yeah?), all he does is win.

77-year-old D. Wayne Lukas has had arguably the most impressive training career in the history of the sport, winning the Kentucky Derby four times, the Preakness Stakes five times and the Belmont Stakes four times.

In 1995, Thunder Gulch won two-thirds of the Triple Crown, while Timber Country reigned victorious at the Preakness, making Lukas the first trainer to sweep the three races with two different horses. 

The 14-year Hall of Famer hasn't won a Triple Crown race since 2000, and a victory by Oxbow (30-1) or Will Take Charge (20-1) on Saturday will feel sort of like a lifetime achievement award for the living legend. 

Trainer We're All Rooting For: Claude R. McGaughey, III

Claude R. McGaughey, III, or "Shug" as he's better known, deserves a win. 

The Hall of Famer has won just about every major race possible in his illustrious career, but he has just one Triple Crown victory—a 1989 win at the Belmont Stakes—to show for it. 

Luckily, this year he's backing top favorite Orb, who has won four races in a row, including the Grade-1 Florida Derby, and got a solid No. 16 post position (via The Baltimore Sun's Chris Korman):

If you don't have a horse in this race, root for Shug. It's his time. 

Defending Champ: Doug O'Neill

Rounding out this year's impressive field of trainers, we have Doug O'Neill, who took little-known I'll Have Another to Derby and Preakness wins last year.

This year he enters a horse with a little more attention surrounding it in Goldencents, who is a solid favorite after winning the Grade-1 Santa Anita Derby in early April. 

O'Neill—much like Pletcher—is young (44), and a second Derby victory would instantly propel him into the next tier of great trainers—only 17 in history have multiple wins. 

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