Did you catch the fabulous article in Sunday's New York Times about uber-trainer Todd Pletcher? If not, it is well worth the read because Joe Drape does a masterful job of recounting a day in the life of this very busy trainer.
Make no mistake about it, Pletcher works hard. You have to with 100 horses in your stable, all of which are the pride and joy of their owners. There is no disputing the fact that Pletcher is successful (he bills roughly $15 million annually), but the skeptic in me sometimes thinks that is more a matter of the odds. With that many, pricey horses, one can't help but be successful.
But the article points out, that Pletcher is much more hands on than I had imagined. And that it is definitely a family affair--with his dad J. J. riding shot gun so to speak, running interference with owners and breaking the yearlings on his Ocala farm. This is a very well oiled machine that gets its marching orders from the top. "With having a large stable, you have more opportunities for good things to happen, and more opportunities for bad things to happen," he says.
If you ever want to know what happens behind the scenes, follow this day in the life of a trainer and remember this caveat: As successful as Pletcher is, (last year his stable collected $23.1 million in earnings), Pletcher wins only 27 percent of his races.
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