Afleet Express wins the Travers Stakes
Afleet Express got the best of an epic last-furlong battle to win the 141st running of the Grade One Travers Stakes at Saratoga.
The race was not short of quality but there was no outstanding market leader in the field of 11, although Trappe Shot having the slight edge.
In the race itself it came down of a slugging between Afleet Express and Fly Down, which Afleet Express won on the nod, with First Dude in third. Miner’s Reserve got the early break and took the first turn in front, closely followed by First Dude, with Trappe Shot easing into a pocket on the inside as A Little Warm came alongside in fourth. Afleet Express was in about seventh just ahead of the Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, with Fly Down about six lengths adrift of the main pack.
Miner’s Reserve was still leading as the field swung into the home stretch but those who had been on top of the pace were not going to get home.
Jose Lezcano brought Fly Down for a run on the outside as Javier Castellano worked his way into the race from off the rail. The pair met heading into the final furlong with Afleet Express holding perhaps a half-length lead. A hundred yards from the line the advantage switched between each horse with every stride and they hit the wire as a blur of speed and colour, but the photo-finish gave victory to Afleet Express, although Fly Down lost nothing in his courageous defeat.
A series of physical problems kept Afleet Express off the track until last December and even then his debut at Aqueduct was far from a promising start for his trainer Jimmy Jerkins. In fact when the gates burst open, the colt did not move. "He just stood there. He spotted the field a tremendous amount," Jerkens recalled. "I never saw a horse spot the field so much and win going away. When a horse does that, you're pretty sure you've got something special."
Afleet Express came through to win by one-and-a-half lengths but he did not make a mark at the top end until June when he won the Grade Three Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park and then got the worst end of the race when he was third to A Little Warm in the Grade Two Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga last month.
Jerkens believes that a cure to a hip problem has been the key to unlocking the potential of Afleet Express. "From that time on, he seemed to be more confident pushing out of there," the trainer said. "I think that was the key."
The Travers is often referred to as either the “Midsummer Derby” or the fourth leg of the Triple Crown, but those who had fought out the finish of the first leg were nowhere in this one, with Super Saver 10th and Kentucky Derby runner-up Ice Box eighth.
Discreetly Mine was a hugely impressively winner of the Grade One King’s Bishop Stakes. He set fast fractions from the break as John John Velazquez made a quick grab for the rail. From there Velazquez was always in control of the race even while Bulldogger was hounding him for the lead heading through the first four furlongs.
But while Bulldogger was already digging into diminishing reserves, Discreetly Mine was still going easily at the beginning of the home stretch. Despite a searing pace, he was under little more than a hand ride from Velazquez until well into the final quarter-mile. Only then did his jockey have to reach for his whip and even then it was for little more than keeping colt up to his work as he came clear of Bank Merger, who never looked like closing this deal.
Like many three-year-old colts Discreetly Mine was originally aimed at a Triple Crown programme by Todd Pletcher but that proved beyond his stamina when finished a distant 13th, beaten 26 lengths, to Super Saver in the Kentucky Derby. But the son of Mineshaft, who has five wins from 13 starts, has speed to burn as he showed when he clocked one minute 23.16 seconds for the seven furlongs here.
Informed Decision had been expected to take her career record to 14 wins from 19 starts in the Grade One Ballerina Stakes, but the mare was never able to get to grips with the early speed as Rightly So, tracked by Warbling, had the field on stretch from the gates. Julien Leparoux tried to make his move on Informed Decision from before the end of the back stretch but she was always struggling to get into the race and it was left to the front two from the top of the stretch.
Warbling did her best to make a battle of it but Rightly So, trained by Anthony Dutrow, just had too much as Cornelio Velasquez brought her home under little more than a hands and heels ride to win by four lengths from Warbling to make it seven wins from a total of 11 starts.
The well-touted Qualia, who had a career record of four wins and two seconds from six starts, never figured.
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