A Lukas-Alike Tries to Make Mark in First Derby

Most young trainers ease in to the Kentucky Derby, happy they’ve nurtured a single horse to run in the race. Even Wayne Lukas, who has started a record 35 horses in the Derby, only ran one when he modestly broke in here in 1981.

Todd Pletcher was a teenager then, seven years away from the summer-vacation job at Hollywood Park that would include rubbing horses for trainer Charlie Whittingham as well as working around Lukas’ barn. A year later, having graduated from the University of Arizona with a major in animal science, Pletcher went to work for Lukas full-time. He drove cross-country to New York and joined Lukas’ division of horses at Belmont Park.

The first day there, Pletcher spotted Jeff Lukas, the head trainer’s son and No. 1 assistant, outside the barn with Houston--an expensive horse who had just run eighth in the Derby and sixth in the Preakness.

“Here,” the younger Lukas said. “Take him, and make sure he doesn’t get loose.”

Pletcher gulped. This Saturday, Pletcher, at 32, will run four horses in the Derby--a number exceeded only by Wayne Lukas in the 125 runnings of the race--and by rights should have another gulp coming. But a visit at Churchill Downs to Pletcher’s finely tuned, well-manicured barn --a Lukas trademark--shows that this Derby rookie is not intimidated at all. Not only will Pletcher’s four Derby horses--one more than Lukas has entered--be ready to run Saturday, but he won’t be saying something stupid before the race either.

“We have four horses, with three groups of owners,” Pletcher said. “Wayne didn’t have to teach me this: If I’ve got an opinion about their [relative] chances, you won’t hear me saying it.”

Only one other Derby trainer, James Rowe Sr., started four horses in the race, when he ran sixth, seventh 15th and 20th in 1923. Lukas broke Rowe’s record in 1996 when he ran five horses, winning with Grindstone and finishing third, sixth, 10th and 18th with the others.

Although one of Pletcher’s horses, Trippi, is undefeated in four starts, the one with the best chance is thought to be More Than Ready, who has regained his early form as a 2-year-old with strong second-place finishes in the Louisiana Derby and the Blue Grass Stakes. In the Blue Grass, run at Keeneland on April 15, More Than Ready battled Lukas’ colt, High Yield, through the stretch, actually gaining the lead for a stride or two, before coming up a head short at the wire.

Coming as close as he’ll come to a prediction, Pletcher said: “More Than Ready’s got a win over the track [in a five-furlong stake for 2-year-olds on Derby day a year ago], and he’s moving forward. I especially like that he’s won here. Not all horses take to the surface at Churchill.”

Pletcher’s other two horses are considered longshots: Graeme Hall and Impeachment, who finished first and third, respectively, in the Arkansas Derby, one of the weakest Kentucky Derby prep races.

Graeme Hall’s win at Oaklawn Park; Trippi’s victory in the Flamingo Stakes at Hialeah; and More Than Ready’s dead heat for the win with Summer Note in the Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park in January are nice additions to the Pletcher resume, but the young trainer has been on a high-profile course ever since he left the Lukas organization to launch his own stable at the end of 1995. He was winning stakes in 1996, and in 1998 was the leading trainer at the tough Saratoga meet and by year’s end the overall stakes leader among New York trainers with 13 wins. His bellwether that year was Jersey Girl, whose six stakes wins included the Acorn and the Mother Goose (two legs of the New York triple for 3-year-old fillies). Last year, Pletcher’s horses won 110 races and earned $4.9 million in purses for a 10th-place national ranking.

Many of Lukas’ assistants have gone on to successful careers, and in the 1990s four of them--Mark Hennig, Randy Bradshaw, Dallas Stewart and Bobby Barnett--brought horses to the Derby. The best any of them did was Hennig’s third-place finish with Personal Hope in 1993.

“Jake Pletcher [Todd’s father] was a friend of mine for years,” Lukas said. “We raced quarter horses against one another in Ruidoso, New Mexico. We kept giving Todd more and more responsibility, and he handed everything we threw at him. Now he’s already got a great set of credentials. We knew he was looking to leave, and that never bothers me. If a guy isn’t good enough to do this on his own, then he really doesn’t belong in our program to begin with.”

The only Derby that Pletcher worked was in 1994, when Lukas ran Tabasco Cat. After running sixth in the Derby, Tabasco Cat won the other Triple Crown races, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.

Another Lukas horse that Pletcher is closely linked with is Thunder Gulch, who won the Derby in 1995.

“Make no mistake,” Pletcher said, “Wayne Lukas trained Thunder Gulch. I was in charge at Belmont when [Michael Tabor bought the colt in November of 1994], but after he won the Remsen, he went to Wayne in California [for a second-place finish in the Hollywood Futurity], and then after he turned three, Wayne trained him in those Florida races before he came to Kentucky.”

Pletcher was instrumental, however, in running Thunder Gulch in the Remsen, which was the colt’s first important win. Demi O’Byrne, Tabor’s chief advisor, wanted to skip the race--Thunder Gulch had run only 15 days before--but Pletcher reported to Lukas that the colt had had a strong workout in company with Harlan, who had just won the Vosburgh Stakes. Recognizing that Thunder Gulch was sharp and at the top of his game, Lukas approved running him in the Remsen.

Two of Pletcher’s Derby horses--Trippi, who’s named after Charlie Trippi, a star collegiate and pro running back in the 1940s and 1950s, and Impeachment--are managed by Cot Campbell, the president of the South Carolina-based Dogwood Stable.

“We use several trainers, and we hired Todd four years ago,” Campbell said. “I had known him when he worked for Lukas, and we were impressed that a lot of Lukas’ people had gone out on their own and done well. Todd has done a splendid job. He’s a great detail guy, and he has a great memory. Besides the important stuff, he remembers everything. He remembers the phone number I had at Saratoga three years ago. Shoot, I can’t even remember that.”

Horse Racing Notes

Fusaichi Pegasus, the Wood Memorial winner, had a six-furlong workout Sunday at Churchill Downs in 1:14 3/5 and galloped out for a seven-furlong time of 1:27. Stablemate Bodyguard broke in front of him to start the work. “He did the last quarter in :23 and change and galloped out in :12 and change,” trainer Neil Drysdale said. “He behaved well.” . . . For the first time, Wayne Lukas had a Kentucky Derby hopeful have a workout from the gate, and Exchange Rate’s 1:00 for five furlongs earned him a spot in Saturday’s race. He’ll be ridden by Calvin Borel, who was aboard for the workout. . . . Lukas’ other Derby horses also had workouts, Commendable covering six furlongs in 1:12 3/5 and High Yield was clocked in 1:13 3/5. . . . Lukas said that True Confidence, who suffered a minor leg injury while finishing last in Saturday’s Derby Trial, is a possible for the Preakness or the Illinois Derby. . . . Other Derby workouts: Trippi, five furlongs in 59 3/5, and Hal’s Hope, a half-mile in 46 2/5. . . . Laura Lukas, Wayne’s wife, saddled Worth A Look, thewinner of the $164,400 Los Alamitos Derby Saturday night.

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Kentucky Derby Facts

When: Saturday

Where: Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

Time: 2:30 p.m. PDT, Channel 7

(TV coverage starts at 1:30 p.m.)

TODD PLETCHER’S PROBABLE STARTERS

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Horse Owner Jockey Graeme Hall Eugene, Laura Melnyk Sellers Impeachment Dogwood Stable, Lewises, et al Perret More Than Ready James Scatuorchio Velazquez Trippi Dogwood Stable Chavez

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Note: For betting purposes, Impeachment and Trippi will run as an entry with Commendable and High Yield.