Jockey John Velazquez puts Kentucky Derby hopeful Always Dreaming through a workout at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., Friday. Always Dreaming, trained by Todd Pletcher, is one of five colts eyeing the Saturday race in his care.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — If it’s May, Todd Pletcher must be at Churchill Downs preparing a horse — or several — for the Kentucky Derby.

Just once since he first took a crack at America’s greatest race in 2000 has the trainer missed the Derby. Pletcher saddles three starters in Saturday’s race: Always Dreaming, Tapwrit and Patch. That will tie him with mentor D. Wayne Lukas for most starters in Derby history at 48.

Pletcher is 1 for 45 going, his lone victory coming in 2010 with Super Saver. Lukas is a four-time Derby winner, but doesn’t have a horse this year.

“The Derby is the goal for many of our young horses. It will continue to be the goal,” Pletcher said on a rainy Thursday at Churchill Downs. “It’s like a shooter in basketball: Just because they’re not going in all the time, you don’t stop shooting. The only way you’re going to make a basket is to shoot. Forget what your percentage is, keep shooting.”

Lukas often tossed numbers at the Derby. The Hall of Fame trainer and former high school basketball coach had five starters in 1996, when he won with Grindstone, and three on five different occasions, including 1995 when he won with Thunder Gulch.

Pletcher has followed in Lukas’ footsteps. The 49-year-old trainer had five starters in 2007 and 2013. Three times he’s had four starters, twice he’s had three and six times he’s had two.

It’s not that Pletcher believes every horse he enters has a chance to win. With 20-horse fields, many owners get a case of Derby fever and overestimate their horse’s ability to withstand running 1 ¼ miles in chaotic traffic for the first time.

“It’s hard to tell an owner who has that chance not to do it,” he said. “They may never see that opportunity again.”

If the first Saturday in May hasn’t been Pletcher’s finest hour, the rest of the racing calendar is dotted with his victories in major races. He’s twice won the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown.

He has a knack for developing colts and fillies into Grade 1 stakes winners at an envious clip. He’s racked up a record of more than $336 million in purse earnings and won seven Eclipse Awards as the nation’s leading trainer, another record. He’s won over 4,200 races in a career that began at age 7, cooling out horses for his father.