Pletcher Remains Hot at Saratoga

Midway through the 40-day meet, trainer Todd Pletcher is on target to equal his Saratoga record of 38 victories set in 2011.

Pletcher won three races on Saturday to give him 19 through 20 racing days heading into Sunday's card, where he has seven horses entered in four races, including both the Grade 2, $200,000 Adirondack and Grade 2, $200,000 Toyota Saratoga Special.

Among his wins are stakes victories in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks with Stopchargingmaria, the Grade 3 Schuylerville with Fashion Alert and the Birdstone with Micromanage.

"Aside from the Whitney [in which Palace Malice finished sixth], I think everything has gone really well," said Pletcher, an 11-time Saratoga training champion who had a 10-win cushion over Chad Brown entering Sunday.

Pletcher has seen nothing but positive signs coming out of the Whitney for Palace Malice, who remains on target for the Grade 1, $600,000 Woodward on August 30.

"He's done very well. I'm still a little lost for his subpar performance," said Pletcher. "I don't have a clear explanation. He's training great, just like he was leading into the race, so I don't know."

Six of Pletcher's wins at the meet have come with 2-year-olds, most recently first-time starter Designed for War, a War Front ridgling who led all the way to win in 1:44.35 for 1 1/16 miles on the Mellon turf in Saturday's seventh race.

"We were pleased with the way he had trained and we were anticipating he would run well. We were happy to see him perform up to expectations," said Pletcher. "The fractions were very soft, and we felt like when he made a comfortable lead in 25 and 50 [seconds], it would have been very disappointing had he not delivered from there."