Kentucky Derby: Which Trainers With Horses In 2024 Field Have Had The Most Success?
Written By Mo Nuwwarah | Last Updated at May 3, 2024
Bettors can use many angles to handicap Kentucky Derby odds, and one important step is evaluating the trainers. Some trainers have shown a repeated ability to coax good performances out of their horses in the Kentucky Derby, consistently putting up good results year after year.
TheLines took a look at the 2024 field through that lens. Which trainers with horses in the 2024 Kentucky Derby have had the most success?
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Todd Pletcher Leads Kentucky Derby Trainers
Below, find a list of the relevant results of Kentucky Derby trainers with horses in the 2024 field. We've broken them down into win/place/show finishes, as well as all other top 10s. Posted results are from the Kentucky Derby points era (2013-).
| Trainer | Wins | Second | Third | Total WPS | Other Top 10s |
| T. Pletcher | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 13 |
| B. Cox | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| S. Asmussen | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| C. Brown | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| B. Mott | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| D. Lukas | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| K. McPeek | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| S. Joseph | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| D. Gargan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| W. Beckman | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Takayanagi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Y. Yahagi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| L. Demeritte | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| M. McCarthy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| V. Barboza | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| P. D'Amato | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Ennis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Engler | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
No matter which way you slice the results, Todd Pletcher comes out on top. Pletcher guided Always Dreaming to the roses in 2017 while also training a trio of third-place finishers. He also has another win in the pre-points era, with Super Saver in 2010.
Pletcher's four W/P/S finishes ranked first, and his 13 top 10s lapped the rest of the field, nearly equaling everyone else's combined (16).
In 2024, Pletcher finds himself well-positioned to add to the aforementioned tallies since he trained Fierceness, the early favorite.
After Pletcher, Brad Cox and Steve Asmussen have been the most consistently successful, followed by Bill Mott and Chad Brown. Cox has Just a Touch and Catching Freedom, the latter scoring highly in TheLines' look at the Kentucky Derby winners through a historical lens. Brown has longshot Domestic Product, as well as co-favorite Sierra Leone. Mott trained Resilience, while Asmussen has Track Phantom.
It's also worth noting that while the points era has not been as fruitful for D. Wayne Lukas, the Hall of Fame trainer has had much Triple Crown success. He's trained four Kentucky Derby winners among his 14 Triple Crown race victors, although his last one came at the 2013 Preakness Stakes. Just Steel is Lukas' lone entrant in 2024.
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