Todd Pletcher Sends Favorites Forte, Tapit Trice to Belmont Stakes

Todd Pletcher is one of the winningest and best-known trainers in the sport of horse racing. In a training career that dates back to 1996, his horses have won over 5,500 times with purse earnings of over $460 million. He has won eight Eclipse Awards for outstanding trainer and was inducted into the horse racing Hall of Fame in 2021.

Todd Pletcher is best known for his classy dirt horses, particularly dirt routers. That includes runners of all ages. He has won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile three times, including with one of his entrants in the Belmont this year, Forte. He has won the Kentucky Derby twice and the Kentucky Oaks four times. He can shine with older horses as well, as he won the Breeders’ Cup Classic with Vino Rosso in 2019 and has won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff twice as well.

However, Pletcher’s stars have not been all dirt routers. His highest earner to date has been the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner English Channel -- the only horse to earn over $5 million while racing for him. And while many of his highest-profile horses have gone long, he won the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Sprint with breed-shaping sire Speightstown.

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Todd Pletcher in Triple Crown Races

Pletcher has a long track record of success in Triple Crown races, specifically the first and third jewels of the Triple Crown.

Kentucky Derby

Pletcher has run 64 horses in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs during his training career -- by far the most of any trainer in history. Pletcher won the Run for the Roses twice. 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

Interestingly enough, 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 10 horses in the Preakness throughout his training career. His best finish came with his first Preakness runner, Impeachment, who finished third in 2000.

Pletcher's most recent Preakness starter was sixth-place Unbridled Honor in 2021. He did not run a horse against Early Voting last year or National Treasure this year, however.

Belmont Stakes

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a trainer whose home base is in New York for most of the year, Pletcher has seen even more success in the Belmont Stakes than he has in the other two legs of the Triple Crown. From 35 starters between 2000 and 2022, Pletcher won the Test of the Champion four times. In 2022, he actually had the top two finishers as Mo Donegal beat Nest.

2022 was not Pletcher’s first time doing well with a filly in the Belmont Stakes, as his first winner was Rags to Riches in 2007. His other Belmont winners include Palace Malice in 2013 and Tapwrit in 2017. Both of his 2023 Belmont Stakes starters are colts, though this is worth noting in the likely event that he has another excellent filly in the coming years.

Check out more Belmont Stakes coverage from The Duel:

Todd Pletcher in the 2023 Belmont Stakes

Pletcher has entered two horses in the final leg of the Triple Crown this year, which also happen to be the top two choices in the morning line odds. These are Forte and Tapit Trice.

Forte

Forte is a son of Violence out of the Blame mare Queen Caroline. Though Pletcher has so much success with three-year-olds and even older horses, he is also no stranger to a precocious juvenile, and Forte is one of the best Pletcher has ever had.

Forte graduated at Belmont Park in May of 2022, and though he lost the Sanford (G3) at Saratoga two months later, Forte has been unstoppable since. He has rattled off five graded stakes wins in a row, a streak that includes the Hopeful Stakes (G1), Breeders’ Futurity (G1), and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) last year as well as the Fountain of Youth (G2) and Florida Derby (G1) this spring.

Forte is not the usual live Todd Pletcher entrant into the Belmont in the sense that he did not contest another Triple Crown race. Most of Pletcher’s best Belmont horses in recent years include Kentucky Derby also-rans who spent the five weeks regrouping and coming to the Belmont Stakes ready to fire.

Of course, Forte was pointed toward the Kentucky Derby and was even named the morning line favorite. However, he was scratched on the morning of the race due to a foot bruise that was still healing. Forte has worked three times at Belmont Park since that scratch, and veterinarians have cleared him to race again.

That training pattern and Forte’s consistency, even when running fresh, build some confidence around Forte in the Belmont Stakes, though it is always worth taking a long look when a short-priced horse misses a start.

Tapit Trice

Tapit Trice is a son of Tapit, a sire whose four Belmont Stakes winners include fellow Pletcher trainee Tapwrit. Compared to Forte, Tapit Trice was a late bloomer. He did not make his debut until a maiden special weight in November of last year at Aqueduct, and he broke his maiden at second asking in December.

An eight-length victory in an allowance-level dirt mile cleared the way for him to move into stakes company, and wins in both the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) and the Blue Grass (G1) made him the second favorite in Kentucky Derby betting.

In several respects, Tapit Trice fits the profile of a Todd Pletcher Belmont Stakes horse. Three out of four of Pletcher’s Belmont winners last raced in the Kentucky Derby with the only exception being Rags to Riches, who came out of a Kentucky Oaks win. None of Pletcher’s Kentucky Derby runners who showed up in the Belmont were winners or even hit the board. In fact, Tapit Trice’s seventh-place finish fits right in with the fifth, sixth, and 12th-place Kentucky Derby finishes by Pletcher’s Belmont Stakes winners who ran in the Derby.

Tapit Trice’s wins in the Tampa Bay Derby and Blue Grass also raise echoes of Pletcher’s previous Belmont Stakes winners in recent times. They are preps that offer Kentucky Derby points but are not responsible for a lot of recent Derby winners. 2017 Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit won the Tampa Bay Derby and was fifth in the Blue Grass before his Kentucky Derby tilt, while 2022 winner Mo Donegal won the Wood Memorial (G1).

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