Todd Plecher is no stranger to running a 3-year-old run with a Belmont stake offered by Neela Bett.
The Hall of Fame trainer owns a modern record with 39 starters, counting four wins and nine seconds from Belmont stakes runners.
However, this 157th edition of “The Test of the Champion” is not a typical Pletcher experience.
After training a long list of top contenders with the Triple Crown final gem, it will be held at Pruccia on June 7th at the Saratoga race course. Crudo and Uncaged have two of the three horses with odds or more than 15-1 on the morning line of the eight horse field.
“It’s a little different this time. These horses don’t have some other foundations,” said Pletcher, who has won, three seconds and a third of the races since 2022.
Owned by celebrity chefs Bobby Frey and James Ventura, Kurds have two better qualifying. The son of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify won a 7 1/2 length victory at Preakness Stakes Undercard at Pimlico at Barton Stakes on May 17th.
This was the second straight set win from Deputy Minister Marle Blossom, Colt’s three career start to be raised by Opendale/Chelston/Winat. Pletcher basically weighed all the options, then waited until the last day before entering Crudo in Belmont, listed at 15-1 on the morning line.
“It’s been a few weeks since Il Burton,” Pletcher said. “We saw the options. Wait a week for Pegasus (the Monmouth Park Stakes) as a possible preparation for Haskell. Or you can see all these different places like Indiana and Ohio. But the horses know they’re here.
Crude’s entry changed the complexion of the 1 1/4 mile Belmont due to the lack of Wood Memorial Stakes where Resort World Casino winner Rodriguez pressed for a lonely speedhose in the race. Now, the early battle between Kurds and Rodriguez appears to be destined to unfold in the spa.
“We ran out and came out and saw how it unfolded,” Pletcher said. “I liked the way he galloped after the finish line at Ir Burton, so I think the miles and a quarter should suit him.”
Ir Burton’s Kurdish numbers for bland speed highlight his odds, but I believe Colt’s efforts are better than the numbers show.
“There’s a bit of a problem with some of the speed figures that day. There was an early post (time) and the trucks were dry all day,” Pletcher said. “It was a difficult day to make numbers. For me, his race was a little stronger than some of the numbers suggest.”
The Uncaged entry was an idea for Repole
Winstar Farm and Repole Stable’s Uncaded finished sixth in the Peter Pan Stakes on May 10, reaching a 30-1 odds at the Belmont Stakes morning line, 10 1/4 long on the winning Belmont Starter Hill Road. It wasn’t a normal effort leading to a triple crown race, but it was co-owner Mike Pole, who pushed Pletcher into joining Carlin’s son. The replet text of a wise summary to Pletcher was, “I’m running a horse in Belmont. Want to train him?”
“It was mostly what the text said,” Pletcher said. “I give Mike all the credit for making the decision that he ignored him. But he’s healthy. He won his career debut in Saratoga. I think he can travel a little differently than what he got with Peter Pan and pick up a bit of it.”
At Peter Pan, when Uncaged was sent with an odds of 8.60-1, jockey Kendrick Kalmuche said that the kickback caused him to lose interest.
“Kendrick said he thought he had an error on his first turn. He parked four or five spaces and chose to go inside. That’s logical. Unfortunately, he said the kickback couldn’t hit the horse and he couldn’t get out.
Raised by Winstar from Nile Marle Dark Nile’s pioneer, Uncaged is searching for his first stakes wine, both have won two of four starts in muddy terms and faces an unattractive tuck in tackling a field filled with three-year-old top-3-year-olds, including Kentucky Delby and Preakness stakes.
