Having spent the winter in New York and without a major star in her barn, trainer Amelia Green hasn't gotten much attention this spring. But that's no fault of her own. Through Tuesday, the former assistant to Todd Pletcher had won 18 races on the year, good for a 25-percent win rate. It took her the complete calendar year in 2025 to win the same amount, 18 races.“I think a lot of this has to do with the lessons I've learned when it comes to running horses where they belong,” the 32-year-old trainer said. “I think last year I was maybe running some horses over their heads, but I think this year, I have been finding the right spots for them, and that's big.”That's been the case with Ivy Girl (Maxfield). She broke her maiden last year for a $40,000 tag and then finished sixth in the GII Demoiselle Stakes. But Green didn't give up on her becoming a top filly. She took a step back, ran her in an allowance race at Laurel, then won the Main Line Stakes at Parx before winning the Weber City Miss Stakes at Laurel.“Ivy Girl is a prime example,” she said. “I needed to ship her out of town for a different track. There are horses for courses, and not everyone fits everywhere. I think last year I was primarily running in New York and this year I've learned to branch out.”Ivy Girl is 15-1 on the morning line in the GII Black-Eyed Susan Stakes and looks slow on the figures, but Green believes she has a chance to give her what would be her first graded stakes win.“I feel that she seems to be improving with every start and I think she will improve again,” Green said. “Obviously, she's going to have to take a step forward on Friday, but I think it's a pretty wide open race. I like how she's training. I like the added sixteenth of a mile compared to her last start. So yes, we're quite optimistic about her chances.”Born in the U.K., Green began by showjumping ponies throughout Great Britain. At 16, she graduated from the British Racing School and went on to be an exercise rider and apprentice jockey for Sir Henry Cecil.Her initial dream was to become a jockey. But in the two years she rode in the U.S., she managed to win just nine races from 148 mounts.“I struggled with my weight a lot,” she said. “In the early days I didn't get many mounts, but when I moved to Laurel, funnily enough, I rode races consistently there for a couple months. I really saw the draining side of it mentally. I was a seven-pound bug. I had to do 113, 114 pounds daily, and it just got to the point where it wasn't enjoyable. I'm a realist first and foremost, and I was a very average, slightly below average jockey. I was aware, even if I lost the bug, that I wasn't going to be riding on the A circuits. I could have found my home somewhere, but that's not ultimately what I wanted. I didn't want to be riding at the lesser circuits.”So, she turned to training. She became the assistant trainer to George Papaprodromou in 2016. The following year, she headed east to take a job with Pletcher, where she eventually became an assistant and a trusted exercise rider.“I learned pretty much everything I know from Todd,” she said. “I was there for seven years. Before that I worked for George Papaprodromou in California. I learned a lot from him too. But from Todd, I'd say the biggest thing I learned is just being consistent with your work. Treat your staff well, treat everyone fairly, make sure everyone's happy, make sure your horses are happy. It's mainly about just being consistent, keeping doing what you do every day, even if it's a grind, the small things will pay off eventually.”Having long ago given up on her plans to become a jockey, she switched gears and focused on becoming a trainer. The Pletcher influence had rubbed off on her.“I rode races for the longest time, since I was 16 coming out of the jockeys' school until I was 24,” she said.“That was all I wanted to do, ride races. I love the adrenaline of going fast. So from ages 24 to 26, it took me a little while to figure out what I wanted to do. But then, yes, when I got in Todd's barn and started being around nice horses all the time and riding them, and seeing Todd's work ethic, that was when I decided, 'You know what? Yeah, this is what I want to do. I want to train.'”Ivy Girl | Jeffrey Snyder/MJCShe left Pletcher in the fall of 2024 and managed to win with her first-ever starter, the maiden special weight winner On Command (Omaha Beach). She picked things up in 2025, with her stable topping $1.4 million in earnings. But this has been the year in which she has people taking notice of her.“Amelia was a great asset to our team,” Pletcher said. “I'm not surprised that she's doing so well training on her own. She's a skilled horsewoman, totally dedicated and motivated. She has an extremely bright future.”But Pletcher also coached her to not be in too much of a hurry.“I was ready to go out on my own and he persuaded me to stay one more year,” she said. “I guess it was a little bit of me being impatient, but also a little bit more of Todd saying, 'Okay, give me one more year and I think you'll be ready.' So it was a combination of me wanting to do it now and Todd making me wait a little bit and understanding that I needed a little bit more time.”Green is up to 46 horses now and her clients include Mike Repole, who has given her a handful of horses to train who might not fit into the top echelon of Pletcher's stable. Her year also includes a win in the Ruthless Stakes with Two Bits (American Pharoah).Two weeks before the GI Preakness, Green, like the rest of the racing world, watched Cherie DeVaux make history as the first female trainer to win the GI Kentucky Derby. (No female trainer has won the Preakness. Brittany Russell, who trains Taj Mahal {Nyquist} also has a chance to win the race.) But Green wants to be known as a good trainer, not a good female trainer.“I thought what she did was amazing and I was obviously very happy for all the females in the business,” Green said. “I shared a sentiment with her that I've never seen myself as a female in the industry. I just happen to be a female in the industry. I do think having that mentality goes a long way. We don't see ourselves as any different from the male trainers. I'm not trying to see myself as any different than male trainers either, but yeah, it's nice for other people to see (females) can do it too.”Green may not be there yet. But she appears to be building something and doing so rather quickly. Ivy Girl may not, and probably will not, win the Black-Eyed Susan. But her trainer will likely have plenty more shots down the road at winning at the top level.The post Former Pletcher Assistant Amelia Green is Thriving, Seeks First Graded Win in Black-Eyed Susan appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.