Hansen will target Travers according to part owner Dr. Kendall Hansen
Michael Maker trained 3-year-old colt, Hansen’s plan for the second term of his 2012 campaign has been laid out by the majority owner, Dr. Kendall Hansen, who has targeted the Grade 1, $1 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga, as the 2011 juvenile champion’s main goal for the latter half of the season.
Though, between now and then, Hansen will participate in prep races for the 25 August, 2012, feature race at Saratoga, and he is reported to either start in the Grade 3 Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows or the Red Legend Stakes.
The Kentucky bred is also connected for an entry in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort, but Dr. Kendall Hansen says that their main focus will be the Grade 3 Iowa Derby leading up to the Travers Stakes.
The Grade 3 Iowa Derby is set to go underway on 30 June, 2012, and will be contested over Hansen’s favoured distance of 1 1/16 miles over the dirt footing of Prairie Meadows.
Since finishing ninth in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby to winner, I’ll Have Another – now retired, at Churchill Downs, Hansen hasn’t been in the news, as his owner states the reason that the second part of the season is when Hansen is expected to make some noise, and be in the Eclipse picture.
“I have removed myself from the limelight long enough, now that the spring classics are over,” he said. “It was such a privilege that Hansen got the 2-year-old-champion's attention all winter and spring. There has been a lot of press over the past six months. I have no idea how many interviews I did. I noticed at the end a few haters were coming out, and that was understandable. Heck I would have got a bit tired of me as well."
The light gray son of Tapit, this year has a single victory added to his account – the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes, and two second placed finishes in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes and the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes, out of four starts this season.
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