Comparing Todd Pletcher to Tiger Woods or Arod is a bad analogy because those guys are singular athletes whose performances are mostly due to physical superiority. Pletcher is more of a general manager type. I would make the comparison to John Schuerholz, GM of the Atlanta Braves. Both Pletcher and Schuerholz are extremely successful and respected in their fields. Both have tremendous accomplishments, Pletchers money records, Saratoga titles, etc and Schuerholzs' Atlanta Braves winning 14 straight division title and several NL pennants. However the one thing that they also have in common is their horses/teams seemingly inability to win the BIG one. If you count TP's 2 breeders cup wins and the Braves 1 World Series titles as equivilents, the similarities are there.
I think Ruperts point, that Pletcher wins so much other than the TC races that it is not a problem is wrong. When you win so much on 361 days of the year but no so much on the 4 biggest days, questions will be and should be raised. Of course he is held to a higher standard. That in of itself is a sign of respect. To say that we should ignore his dismal record because he has not had the right horses is silly. No one in the history of horseracing has a better group of horses of which to choose from than TP. His stable is historically strong except for the days when the spotlight shines brightly. I'm sure he will win classic races, with the strength of his horses it will be almost impossible not to.
My problem was that he seems to be sending his horses in without proper preperation for the DERBY. What works for other races does not work for this race because it is so much different and harder than what these horses have ever faced before. He is training his Derby horses the same as if they were going into the Dwyer or Jim Dandy.
The guy is obviously a very good trainer. He is a great manager of people. He has put together a great program and it works for most of the year. But as long as the Derby eludes him the questions will linger. And they should.
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