Saratoga Saturday
Travers Stakes (Grade 1)
IT’S a huge night of action at Saratoga, on a card of six Grade 1 races headed by the ‘Midsummer Derby’.
The Belmont Stakes winner Essential Quality is the strong favourite for the $1.25 million Grade 1 Travers Stakes (11.12pm).
Winner last time out of the Grade 2 Jim Dandy over this track from two of today’s rivals, he will leave from stall two under Luis Saez in a field of seven for the 10-furlong contest.
Essential Quality is pretty much the leading US three-year-old and has won seven of eight races, including three Grade 1s. His only disappointment was a fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, a race in which he race wide and covered more ground than the winner.
The form of the Derby has held up with the third and Belmont Stakes second Hot Rod Charlie then winning the Grade 1 Haskell even though he was disqualified for interference and the race award to the Derby second Mandaloun.
It took Essential Quality a bit of time to get in full flow last time when beating Keepmeinmind by half a length in the Jim Dandy and the inside draw is a slight worry.
“He seems to be a little more forward leading up to this race than he was in the Jim Dandy. We’ve tried to sharpen him up the last few weeks and I feel like we have mentally. He’s ready to go,” trainer Brad Cox reported.
Steve Asmussen’s Midnight Bourbon is the second choice. He was sixth in the Kentucky Derby, seven lengths behind Essential Quality. He was in contention in the Haskell at Monmouth with Hot Rod Charlie and Mandaloun when he was chopped off and clipped heels and unseated his rider.
Dynamic One and Jim Dandy second Keepmeinmind (seventh in the Derby) are both 6/1, with Masqueparade at 8/1.
Dynamic One, trained by Todd Pletcher, comes off a victory in the Curlin at the Spa on July 30th.
While Saratoga is known as the “Graveyard of Champions,’’ the race has seen eight of nine odds-on favourites from 1989-2020 ending up in the winner’s circle the exception being the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, beaten by Keen Ice.
Essential Quality’s inside draw is a bit of a worry with a horse who has need to be kept up to his work in the early stages but he usually finishes strong and should improve off the Jim Dandy.
Sword Dancer
Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore will be hoping to keep up their run of success in American Grade 1s when Japan lines up in the Sword Dancer Stakes (10.25pm).
American runners Cross Border and Channel Maker dance every dance in the middle-distance turf races and Cross Border won the Grade 2 Bowling Green at Belmont last time with Channel Maker only seventh.
From the one stall, Tribhuvan looks a biggest danger to the O’Brien runner. The French-bred son of Toranado trained by Chad Brown has three wins to his name in five outings since moving Stateside and impressed in the Grade 1 United Nations last time, to follow up a good second to Domestic Spending in the Grade 1 Manhattan, his front-running style suits these turf contests.
Gufo is also due a big one, last year’s Grade 1 Belmont Derby winner has never been out of the first three and comes off a Grade 2 win in Belmont. Third might be the best Japan can hope for.
The Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial (9.10pm) over seven furlongs sees the third meeting in a row of Jackie’s Warrior and Drain The Clock, with the score one each and this distance the possible key. Jackie’s Warrior possess terrific speed, but can he hold it for the seventh furlong?
In Belmont’s Woody Stephens, six furlongs in 1m 8.88 secs did for Jackie’s Warrior and Drain The Clock caught and beat him a neck. Back over six furlongs here at Saratoga, Jackie’s Warrior dismissed Drain The Clock by seven lengths in the Grade 2 Amsterdam.
Life Is Good, who impressed on the west coast early in the season for Bob Baffert, is an intriguing runner on his reappearance for Todd Pletcher. The son of Into Mischief, unbeaten in his three runs has been absent since March 6th and this is a watch-and-see race, in a tough comeback task.
Star filly
Bob Baffert’s star filly Gamine heads the seven-furlong Ballerina for females (8.02pm). Although she looks head and shoulders above her rivals, she carries top-weight of 126lb, giving up to 10lb to some of her rivals. She has never lost a one-turn race and equalled the stakes record for seven furlongs here in last summer’s Longines Test Stakes.
She is drawn one, which should not be an issue for the speedy daughter of Into Mischief. Sconsin, second to Gamine in a Churchill Downs Grade 1 in May, looks set for second again, ahead of Godolphin’s Lake Avenue.
The Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes (9.47pm) is a race worthy of the mare it remembers. Two of the top older females, Letruska and Swiss Skydiver, head nine fillies and mares over nine furlongs.
The 2020 Preakness Stakes winner Swiss Skydiver returns on three weeks’ rest to face Letruska who beat her back to third in the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn in April.
After winning the Grade 1 Beholder Mile Stakes early in the season, Swiss Skydiver had an infection that affected her in the Apple Blossom Stakes; had to miss the Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park; and an EHV-1 quarantine at Saratoga forced McPeek to run in the Whitney Stakes where she finished fourth.
“She came out of the Whitney good. I have no reservations about running her back in three weeks,” trainer Ken McPeek said.
Letruska has 15 wins from 20 starts, including four victories this year, all in graded stakes races.
Chad Brown will saddle two five-year-olds, Dunbar Road and Royal Flag. Dunbar Road won the Grade 1 Alabama at three but has disappointed on her two runs this season. Royal Flag had finished in the top three in all 10 of her races, with a Saratoga win last out in the Grade 3 Shuvee Stakes.
Another Grade 1 winner, Harvey’s Lil Goil switches back to dirt after two poor runs on turf.
The seven-furlong Grade 1 Forego has some familiar names such as eight-year-old Whitmore and six-year-old Firenze Fire. Mind Control won the Grade 1 Carter Handicap in Aqueduct but has disappointed in a pair of Grade 1s this season.