Pletcher readies for Belmont Stakes with 'different dynamic'

Todd Pletcher knows the way to Belmont Stakes success better than most trainers throughout history with three victories, five runner-up efforts and three third-place results.

As proud as he is of those accomplishments, they will do nothing for him on June 20.

The 152nd edition of the famed “Test of the Champion” will be unrecognizable when the one-turn, mile-and-an-eighth contest is staged without spectators that afternoon as the Triple Crown’s opening leg.

“The only similarity I can draw is that the race is being run at Belmont Park,” Pletcher said. “Aside from that, it is certainly way different from the way we would normally approach the Belmont. It’s a completely different race altogether.”

Pletcher’s three Belmont winners -- the filly Rags to Riches (2007), Palace Malice (2013) and Tapwrit (2017) – had pedigree on their side and were managed in strikingly similar fashion.

The trainer has described Rags to Riches as being “put on earth” to compete in the traditional mile-and-a-half Belmont. Her sire, A.P. Indy, captured the 1992 edition. Better Than Honour, her dam, produced Jazil, 2006 winner of what normally is the final leg of the Triple Crown.

Palace Malice is by Curlin, a two-time Horse of the Year. Tapwrit, by proven sire Tapit, was so suited to classic distances that he fetched $1.2 million as a yearling.

“The classic races, those are the dreams that trainers, owners and jockeys have, to win those types of races,” Pletcher said. “When you go to the auctions and spend that type of money, you certainly hope you are getting a horse with classic capabilities.”

Pletcher’s three expected starters this year – Dr Post, Farmington Road and Gouverneur Morris – look to have classic capabilities. Dr Post and Farmington Road are by Quality Road. Gouverneur Morris is a son of Constitution.

Due to the havoc wreaked by the pandemic on the racing schedule, they will not have the benefit of following in the path of the stable’s previous Belmont winners by skipping the Preakness as the middle leg of the Triple Crown, then having five full weeks to prepare to run the race of their lives at their home course.

“I think that definitely has played a role in our success. By running in the Derby and then having that five weeks to prepare at Belmont for a mile-and-a-half race has been helpful,” said Pletcher. “Now, this is a very different dynamic when you talk about a one-turn mile and an eighth.”

Rags to Riches, coming off a rousing Kentucky Oaks triumph, could not have run a stronger race than the one she produced to out-slug Curlin in a fierce stretch duel and emerge as only the third filly to win the Belmont and first in 105 years.

Palace Malice needed all of five weeks to recover from a Derby in which the addition of blinkers led him to set ruinous fractions. The equipment was removed and the much more settled colt rebounded in convincing fashion. Tapwrit made significant strides following a sixth-place Derby finish.

With the pandemic and the uncertainty of when racing might return to hardest-hit New York, Dr Post, Farmington Road and Gouverneur Morris are not scheduled to ship to Belmont Park until June 8. Each is scheduled to have only one work over the massive oval.

“With the horses we’re preparing for it, the biggest beneficiary is Dr Post, who would have been behind for the traditional Triple Crown series,” Pletcher said. “In his case, he’s going to be coming around at the right time. By gradually stretching out to a seven-furlong race, to a mile and a sixteenth, to a mile and an eighth, that’s a big help to him.

“Now, Farmington Road or Gouverneur Morris, they would have probably been better suited for a traditional run at the Derby or getting another race under their belt and stretching out to a mile and a half. That might have given them their best chance, but you never know how these things are going to work out.”

Dr Post broke his maiden at seven furlongs on March 29 at Gulfstream Park in his second career start before taking the April 25 Unbridled Stakes at a mile and a sixteenth, also at Gulfstream. Farmington Road finished fourth in the second division of the May 2 Arkansas Derby; Gouverneur Morris secured third in the first division.

Racing, of course, is a game of constant adjustments. Pletcher has been adept at that through the years as a seven-time winner of the Eclipse Award as North America’s leading trainer. He is doing his best to handle the wicked curveball COVID-19 has thrown at everyone.

“Once we knew when the race was, it became very easy to prepare for it,” he said. “But I do miss having the mile-and-a-half Belmont.”

Since the challenge is so different, Pletcher anticipates that it might be difficult for a fourth Belmont triumph to be viewed in the same light as previous successes.

“I honestly don’t expect that it would feel the same,” he said. “I mean I would be very excited, don’t get me wrong. But when you are having spectator-free racing, I’ve always said there are very few sporting events, period, that are more exciting than a Belmont Stakes with a Triple Crown on the line.”