Belmont Stakes Trainer Profile: Todd Pletcher

Key Takeaways:

• Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher has earned eight Eclipse Awards and secured more than 5,855 wins with his horses, earning over $504 million in purses.
• He has found success in major dirt races, winning four Kentucky Oaks titles and fifteen Breeders’ Cup races, including victories in both juvenile and sprint divisions.
• Although he has won the Belmont Stakes four times, he has yet to see a Preakness Stakes victory, despite entering 11 runners in the race.
• In the 2025 Belmont Stakes, Pletcher will send out Crudo and Uncaged, two longshots, with Crudo recently showing strong form and Uncaged being well-suited for the classic distance.

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher struck out on his own as a trainer in 1996, and in almost three decades since, he has built a standout career. He has earned eight Eclipse Awards for outstanding trainer, including four consecutive wins between 2004 and 2007. He has 5,855 wins leading into Belmont Stakes week, and his horses have earned more than $504 million in purses.

Most of the best-known horses from Pletcher’s barn over the years have made their names on the dirt, typically at a mile or more. His horses have won six Triple Crown races, four editions of the Kentucky Oaks, and 15 Breeders’ Cup races. That includes four editions of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, most recently with Fierceness in 2023. His Breeders’ Cup success also includes three editions of the Distaff, most recently with Malathaat in 2022.

However, he has been able to shine on the grass as well. His top-earning horse to date is 2007 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner English Channel, just one of his many examples of being a stallion-making trainer. He also trained Bulletin, the first-ever winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint in 2018. Don’t count him out short on the dirt, either—perhaps his biggest stallion-making success was his 2004 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Speightstown.

In short, when it comes to running horses at the top level of the horse racing game, Pletcher is one of the most experienced trainers in the world.

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Todd Pletcher in Triple Crown Races

Pletcher has been based in New York for most of his career, running both downstate and in Saratoga Springs, so it comes as no surprise that his best Triple Crown race has been the Belmont Stakes, a race he has won four times. He has also taken the blanket of roses twice in the Kentucky Derby. However, despite his illustrious career and the number of major dirt races he has won, no horse trained by Pletcher has won the Preakness Stakes yet.

Kentucky Derby

Over his career, Pletcher has run more horses in the Kentucky Derby than any other trainer: 65, as of 2025. He had a streak of at least one horse in the Kentucky Derby every year from 2004 through 2024, though that run was snapped when Grande was scratched from the 2025 edition.

Todd Pletcher has trained two Kentucky Derby winners. His first victory came in 2010 with Super Saver, and Pletcher earned his second win in 2017 with Always Dreaming. Six of his other runners have hit the board in the Derby, most recently Audible, who ran third in 2018.

Preakness Stakes

The Preakness Stakes fits into Pletcher’s Triple Crown plans far less often than the first or last jewels of the Triple Crown. He has only run 11 horses in the Preakness throughout his training career, and he still seeks his first Preakness winner. That most recent attempt in the Preakness came in 2025 with River Thames, who bypassed the Kentucky Derby to start in the Preakness. However, despite a good position midway through the race, he weakened to sixth behind Journalism. Pletcher’s best finish came with his first Preakness runner: Impeachment, who ran third in 2000.

Belmont Stakes

Pletcher has become almost synonymous with New York racing in recent decades, with good horses based on the New York Racing Association circuit all year long. That makes it no surprise that his best record in any Triple Crown race comes in the Belmont Stakes.

Across 40 starters in the Test of the Champion, Pletcher has won the race four times. His first winner was the great filly Rags to Riches, who beat Curlin by a head in 2007 and became only the third filly to win the Belmont Stakes. His other winners include Palace Malice in 2013, Tapwrit in 2017, and Mo Donegal in 2022. Pletcher ran three horses in the 2024 edition of the Belmont Stakes, with Mindframe—now one of the better older dirt horses in training—finishing second to Dornoch.

Todd Pletcher in the 2025 Belmont Stakes

Todd Pletcher entered a pair of horses in the 2025 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, both of whom will be among the longer shots on the board. Bobby Flay and James Ventura’s Crudo, a son of Triple Crown winner Justify, won a stakes on the Preakness undercard and challenges graded company for the first time. WinStar Farm and Repole Stable’s Uncaged, a son of Curlin, was well beaten in the Peter Pan (G3) but will try to improve with that experience underneath him.

Both of Pletcher’s runners fared well at the post position draw: Uncaged breaks from gate 4, while Crudo is right next door in gate 5.

Crudo

Crudo enters the Belmont Stakes light on experience, with just three starts, though high on potential. He stumbled at the start and finished only fourth at odds-on in his debut February 8 in a six-furlong maiden special weight on the Gulfstream dirt.

However, Crudo has piled up two consecutive wins since then. Stretched out to about seven furlongs at Keeneland for a maiden special on April 19, he hit the front early and stretched out down the lane to win by 7 ¼ lengths. That earned him a ticket to Pimlico for the Sir Barton Stakes on May 17, a race restricted to horses who have yet to win an open stakes. Once again, he made the lead—and once again, Crudo kept going. He turned back a bid from odds-on favorite Invictus and drew off to win by 7 ½ lengths.

His pedigree is full of class, though 1 ¼ miles may be a question. He is by Triple Crown winner Justify, which is a positive. Underneath, he is out of the Deputy Minister mare Blossomed. That means most of the class in his female family comes at one turn: his half-sister Sippican Harbor won the Spinaway (G1), and another half-sister, Bodacious Babe (by Mineshaft), hit the board in the Sugar Swirl. However, Bodacious Babe did produce the Violence daughter Royal Spa, who upset the 1 1/16-mile Shawnee (G3) on May 31.

Uncaged

For the Belmont Stakes, Uncaged returns to the site of his winning career debut last summer. He tracked the pace and drove clear in the final furlong, winning by 1 ¾ lengths. That debut would be his only start as a juvenile; he did not return until March 2, in a six-furlong allowance sprint at Gulfstream. Though Uncaged was sent off the odds-on chalk, he never got involved and finished a well-beaten fourth in a field of five. A trip to Aqueduct and a stretch out to a mile for a race on April 6 worked out better for him. Though at the rear of the field of six early, he sustained a rally and cleared off in the final sixteenth to win by 1 ¾ lengths.

That allowance win at Aqueduct earned Uncaged a ticket to stakes company for the Peter Pan, his first try at two turns. He got a place midfield in the group of nine, but was not able to muster a late run. He flattened to sixth, 10 ¼ lengths behind Hill Road, who he will face again in the Belmont Stakes.

Though Crudo may be the Pletcher horse coming in with the better form, Uncaged is the one with a somewhat more appealing Classic-distance pedigree. He is sired by Curlin, who narrowly missed (to Pletcher’s Rags to Riches!) in the Belmont and has produced multiple Triple Crown contenders since then including Belmont winner Palace Malice. Underneath, he is out of the Pioneerof the Nile mare Dark Nile, a Grade 3 winner at two turns, from a family with some two-turn turf class.

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