Todd Pletcher

Vino Rosso won the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic by 4 1/4 lengths, drawing away from 5-2 favorite McKinzie down the stretch of a race marred by a fatal injury to a 15-1 long shot on Saturday night.

Trainer Todd Pletcher, always dangerous in the Belmont Stakes, sends out a pair of long shots Saturday in the final leg of the Triple Crown. The focus of attention will fall on two other horses — Tacitus, the 9-5 favorite, and War of Will, the Preakness winner and the close second choice at 2-1. Bettors who ignore Pletcher do so...

Something Bob Baffert always dreads has come true ahead of the Belmont Stakes.

Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Justify won’t have to further contend with Audible in pursuit of the colt’s bid for the Triple Crown. Trainer Todd Pletcher said Friday that Audible will be pointed toward a summer campaign, with the $600,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga on July 28 or the $1 million Haskel Invitational on July 29 being the top options...

The competition isn’t exactly lining up to take on Kentucky Derby winner Justify in the Preakness.

Justify splashed through the slop to win the Kentucky Derby by 2½ lengths on Saturday, becoming the first colt in 136 years to wear the roses after not racing as a 2-year-old. The chestnut colt that began his career in February improved to 4-0 — winning his races by a combined 21½ lengths — and gave Bob Baffert his fifth...

Trainers have called this year’s 20-horse field one of the deepest in a while, though the Run For The Roses might come down to five considered to have the best prospects over 1 1/4 miles at Churchill Downs.

The smile on D. Wayne Lukas’ face shows how much he still loves what he’s doing. The 82-year-old trainer Hall of Fame trainer is still going strong, and especially enjoys this week. Lukas is back in the Kentucky Derby for the first time since 2015 with colt Bravazo running on Saturday, which has the four-time winner savoring being part of...

Always Dreaming, ridden by jockey John Valezquez, won the 143rd Kentucky Derby on a muddy track ahead of 19 other athletes at Churchhill Downs on May 6, 2017. It is the second Derby win for both Valezquez and Always Dreaming’s owner, Todd Pletcher.

Tapwrit overtook favored Irish War Cry in the stretch to win the Belmont Stakes by two lengths on Saturday, giving trainer Todd Pletcher his third career victory in the final leg of the Triple Crown....
Ridden by Jose Ortiz, Tapwrit ran 1 1/2 miles in 2:30.02 on his home track. Ortiz’s brother Irad won the race last year with Creator....
“The distance,...

This year’s topsy-turvy Triple Crown trail comes to an end in a Belmont Stakes without the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners or the expected favorite who dropped out. It does come with questions about a Japanese horse with a sore foot. No horse has dominated the 3-year-old ranks so far, leaving the 1½-mile Belmont up for grabs among 12 horses...

Todd Pletcher, trainer for Always Dreaming, talks about the Kentucky Derby winner’s mechanics and how he expects the three-year-old to bounce back for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes.

Lookin at Lee has received little attention at Pimlico Race Course this week and is a 10-1 underdog in the Preakness behind Always Dreaming, the 4-5 favorite in Saturday’s race after outlasting Lookin At Lee by a mere 2 3/4 lengths at Churchill Downs. What gives?

Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming has gone for a routine gallop ahead of the Preakness, which trainer Todd Pletcher sees as a positive development. Pletcher says “everything went very smoothly” with Always Dreaming on Tuesday, saying he had “good energy” and a “good controlled gallop.” That hasn’t always been the case for the dark bay colt who figures to be...

Classic Empire has recovered nicely from his distressing race at the Kentucky Derby — and so have his handlers. After being bumped and jostled early at Churchill Downs, Classic Empire finished a disappointing fourth. If that wasn’t bad enough, the bay colt emerged from the race with an inflamed right eye. Now healthy and charging through his workouts, Classic Empire...

Always Dreaming, ridden by jockey John Valezquez, won the 143rd Kentucky Derby on a muddy track ahead of 19 other athletes at Churchhill Downs on May 6, 2017. It is the second Derby win for both Valezquez and Always Dreaming’s owner, Todd Pletcher.

Classic Empire was made the early 4-1 favorite for the Kentucky Derby on Wednesday, with just four of the 20 horses listed at single digits in a wide-open race. The colt will break from the No. 14 post on Saturday. Just two horses have won the Derby out of there. The last was Carry Back in 1961. Trained by Mark...

His name is Patch, a horse with one eye, and he’ll be running in the Kentucky Derby. How he lost the eye is a mystery. “No one really knows,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.

“The 37-year wait is over! American Pharaoh is finally the one! American Pharaoh has won the Triple Crown!” Those words from famed horse racing announcer Larry Collmus at the Belmont Stakes last year marked the end of a nearly four-decade drought, and thrust horse racing into the national spotlight . American Pharaoh galloped into the history books with ease, leaving...

In just over an hour, in three races from coast to coast, the field for the Kentucky Derby mostly came into focus. Outwork is in. So are Brody’s Cause and Exaggerator.”Anytime you’ve won one of these major preps, it puts you in the top area,” trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday, a day after Outwork outlasted Trojan Nation in the $1...