Super Saver heads open Travers Stakes field
Rather like the ageing star, the Travers Stakes is finding itself upstaged by a relative upstart as this year’s Saratoga meeting reaches its climax.
Given that the Travers predates even the Kentucky Derby, and has been the magnet race that has drawn crowds to the Spa track for most of its 146-year history, it would have taken something special to put it in the shade. The presence of Rachel Alexandra, who runs in the Grade One Personal Ensign Stakes the following day, was enough to ensure that. Whether she can put up a special performance worthy of the interest will only be proved on Sunday.
The interest in the Travers comes with an open-looking field of 11 who go to post. It is not that the race lacks quality but those who have achieved still have something to prove and others have this race as a chance to stake a claim to such pretentions.
The Travers is also described as the “Midsummer Derby” but it was victory in the Kentucky Derby that shot Super Saver to prominence, but the colt has gone a fair way back towards obscurity since. He was not sighted when only eighth to Lookin At Lucky (who himself misses the race due to illness) in the Preakness although he got closer to the same winner when he finished a four-and-three-quarter fourth in the Haskell Invitational Stakes at Monmouth three weeks ago.
Super Saver’s trainer, Todd Pletcher, has said that the run in the Haskell was a progression similar to that shown by his horse prior to the Derby win. Now is the chance to prove that there is enough talent in the field to test that claim, which includes colts who have finished runner-up in each if the season’s Triple Crown races - Ice Box (in the Kentucky Derby), First Dude (Preakness) and Fly Down (Belmont).
Super Saver was widest of all in stall 11, but his chances of reversing the Haskell with runner-up Trappe Shot, who was unbeaten in four previous starts, and third-placed First Dude, as he tries to become the 11th Kentucky Derby winner to follow up in the Travers and the fourth in succession since 1993, is aided by a 4lb pull in the weights from Monmouth.
Calvin Borel is often noted for ground-saving rides and he might be tempted to drop in behind the early speed as he did at Churchill Down three months ago. “His versatility and the kind of tactics Calvin was able to employ in the Derby should bode well in there,” Pletcher said. “Sometimes, the No. 11 might be a little further out there than you’d ideally like, but I think with a mile-and-a-quarter it’s okay; you get a decent run to the first turn so Calvin should have the option to survey everything inside and see who’s using their horse and fall into a cozy spot, hopefully.
“Super Saver is capable of doing anything. He’s won on the lead and he’s settled pretty well off the pace in the Derby so I think it’s more about how fast they’re going and where Calvin feels comfortable tucking him in.”
If Super Saver is seeking some measure or redemption then those behind A Little Warm might be looking to show what might have been. The colt did not make the cut for the Derby, due to low earnings and an oversubscribed field, and then was a late scratch from the Preakness when he bled after a workout five days before the race.
Rick Dutrow has taken a patient approach which brought its first reward with a win at Delaware Park and followed that up by winning the most reliable Travers trial, the Grade Two Jim Dandy Stakes over nine furlongs at Saratoga last month.
“We are so looking forward to the Travers with him,” Dutrow said. “We couldn't feel better about the horse's ability or how he's coming into the race.”
And ready to upstage the rest?
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