So, who do you like?
Ten of the top 3-year-olds in the country will roar down the Saratoga stretch Saturday in the 145th running of the Travers Stakes. This years edition of the midsummer derby promises to be a highly competitive 1 ¹/₄ miles.
Bayern, the runaway Haskell winner, has made his way over from Monmouth and is the morning-line favorite. Belmont Stakes champion Tonalist is here, as is his rival, Wicked Strong, recent winner of the Jim Dandy.
Gates open at 7 a.m. with the first of 14 races set for 11:35. Get there early. According to weather.com, after some overnight showers, Saturday’s high will be 78 with the sun breaking through after noon. If you can’t be there, NBC will provide live coverage of both the Travers and the Ballerina starting at 4:30 p.m.
Even though the connections for California Chrome, the Derby and Preakness winner, elected to stay home, the field is fully stocked.
Tonalist followed his impressive victory in the test of Champions with a second-place finish to Wicked Strong in the Jim Dandy. Trainer Christophe Clement thinks his charge will enjoy the added real estate.
“I think everything was fine,” Clement said. “He just got beat. It’s called a horse race and you get beat sometimes. I’m looking forward to the 1 ¹/₄ miles. I’m excited. … Lets go.”
The addition of blinkers by Wicked Strong’s trainer, Jimmy Jerkens, may have been the difference in the Jim Dandy. After disappointing fourth-place finishes in both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont, the colt showed a brand new dimension as he pressed the pace and held off Tonalist convincingly.
“It definitely made him get on the bit,” Jerkens said. “ It was a combination of blinkers and [jockey] Rajiv [Maragh] sending him early. I can’t deny that he does seem to run straighter and truer with them on. No question.”
After a troubled trip in the Preakness, Bob Baffert’s Bayern won his next pair by seven lengths and has quickly risen up the 3-year-old rankings. He took the Haskell field gate to wire and opened up late.
“That was pretty impressive,” Baffert told NYRA.com. “Will he take a step backward? I don’t know. He’s not a big horse but he’s got a lot of speed. I’m not totally convinced he can go the distance. You can’t worry about it.
When you have a horse with that kind of brilliant speed, you have to use it.”
More than rounding out the field are Commanding Curve, Charge Now, V.E. Day, Viva Majorca, Ulanbator, Mr. Speaker and Linda Rice’s Kid Cruz.
“This is my first Travers and I’m very excited just to be here,” Rice told the track’s website.
Since 1961, the canoe that resides on the infield pond has been painted in the colors of winning stable. A fresh coat will be applied this evening.