LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Both of them were racetrack whiz kids when they met more than two decades ago in New York, where the pedigrees of the horses are dissected like earnings reports, but the blood lines of the humans not so much.
Todd Pletcher was the son of a salty Texan by the name of J. J., a trainer who had more stories than he did victories. John Velazquez was a rider from Puerto Rico who went north at the behest of a mentor, a Hall of Famer named Angel Cordero Jr., to find fame and fortune.
Pletcher had a puny string of a dozen or so horses.