This Side Up: Will Travers Stars Stick to Script?

Our sport thrives on anticipation; our business, on outcomes. But actually it can take a while to unpick one from the other–especially when even a race as storied as the GI Runhappy Travers S. is not just an end in itself, but also a potential means to viability for the whole program of whoever is lucky enough to own the winner.

In principle, the bare couple of minutes dividing anticipation from outcome at Saratoga on Saturday will be history tangibly in the making. From the flux of hopes and interests vested in the maturing Thoroughbreds that enter the gate, a single name will suddenly be petrified into the pantheon.

In reality, however, it's very seldom that we can know quite what it is we might be looking at. In terms of volunteering a stallion of due stature, for instance, it has to be acknowledged that the Travers overall shares a rather patchy profile with the GI Kentucky Derby either side of the last horse to win both, Street Sense in 2007. Take out Bernardini, who won the Travers the year before, and it's only recently that a couple of young stallions have begun to shore things up again for either race.

Poignantly, it does appear as though the spectacular flowering of Arrogate in 2016 was a legitimate signpost–only for the road to plunge clean off a cliff. Those bidding for his final crop of yearlings at Keeneland in a few days' time will be contesting a legacy that has very quickly evolved, from an unsurprisingly slow start, via the charismatic endeavors of Secret Oath and now Artorius.

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For the time being, at any rate, Artorius does feel like quite a good example of the way we tend to look into the future through the prism of the past. He brings a fairly irresistible narrative into the Travers, being even more lightly raced than was his sire when picking up the pieces against exhausted Triple Crown protagonists. And, being out of an elite Ghostzapper racemare, he does look tantalizingly eligible to salvage Arrogate's legacy, if only he can cope with this steep elevation in grade. Yet it's almost as though those high emotional stakes have somehow been loaded into odds that imply some ordained destiny.

Yet who would presume to predict the future, when even the past can take so long to separate itself into coherence? Nobody, of course, could have foreseen the tragic denouement of Arrogate's tale. But most of us were pretty sure of where we stood with Gun Runner, when he staggered into third in the Travers, fully 15 lengths behind Arrogate: a horse that had shown his hand, precocious enough to run third in the Derby but apparently tapering off by this point. Gun Runner persevered, however, and after observing Arrogate reach the bottom of the barrel–presumably an oil barrel–in Dubai, he ran up to that sequence of five Grade Is by an aggregate 27 1/2 lengths.

And now here he is, poised to seal one of the most remarkable stud debuts of recent times with two runners–and don't forget that he would have a third, but for the local prohibition of Taiba's trainer–in a race that offers a pretty instructive snapshot of the shifting landscape among Kentucky stallions. Another young gun, Upstart, fields a son who has had this race in mind ever since that fleeting flirtation with an uncontested coronation on the home turn in the Derby; while Not This Time, consolidating his own outstanding start, matches Gun Runner with two: Epicenter, whose candidature for divisional honors makes a Grade I feel pretty imperative, and Ain't Life Grand.

Of the established elite, indeed, only Medaglia d'Oro can muster a candidate to emulate his 2002 success in outsider Gilded Age. To be fair, he also has a stake in proceedings through the dam of Ain't Life Grand, Cat Moves. This is the only mare owned by Peggy and Ray Shattuck, whose homebred GII Iowa Derby winner would hardly be as stupefying a result here as Rich Strike, himself of course by a Travers winner in Keen Ice, back at Churchill in May. While expectations for Rich Strike seem pretty much back to what they were on Derby day, Ain't Life Grand announced himself at Saratoga with a molten 45.88 workout last week, fastest of 79 clocked that morning.

Ain't Life Grand with Tammy Fox aboard | Sarah Andrew

Certainly the game could do with another fairytale. There's no need to dwell on the potential for awkwardness, in showcasing our best to the outside world, when three of eight runners are saddled by a trainer currently subject to such uncomfortable attention. Having been raised locally, this race is one he would prize perhaps beyond any other. But there you go: all of us have to accept that human capacity for anticipation is distinctly finite; and that fulfilment belongs to the complex, unpredictable realm of outcomes.

Setting all that aside, my own anticipations remain stubborn as ever. As Chad Brown would agree, he is only one of many whose dreams are centered on these three horses. And our community could seek no more flattering representation, to those beyond, than Brereton C. Jones and his family at Airdrie Stud, breeders of Zandon. And if this colt can mark the 50th anniversary of the farm's foundation by finally getting it all together here, even greater laurels would be on the line just down the road at Keeneland in the fall.

Yes, I know: all I'm doing is choosing a different script from the one that appears to favor Artorius so inexorably. I'm shoehorning Zandon's ostensible need for a particular tactical scenario, and a different kind of race from the cat-and-mouse of his latest start, into a storyline of far greater neatness and symmetry than tends to be indulged by this unsentimental, unpredictable world. But we're all sports fans first. We all enjoy our anticipation while it lasts. And we can leave dealing with all those business outcomes until such time as we know what they actually are.

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Kela’s Turn Named Iowa’s 2021 Horse Of The Year

Loretta McClintock's homebred Kela's Turn earned double honors from the Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association for her accomplishments at Prairie Meadows in 2021.

The talented daughter of Kela – Lauren's Turn (Lion Heart) was recognized as the 2021 ITBOA Horse of the Year and the champion ITBOA “3-year-old filly.”

Kela's Turn earned $233,951 in total purse money last year, winning three of her six starts for her owner under jockey Shane Laviolette for trainer Henry Guillory, Jr.

Her 2021 season started with a bang when Kela's Turn took command early and drew off to a seven-length victory over five rivals in the traditional opening-weekend allowance sprint for the distaff 3-year-olds and up.

Kela's Turn bested the likes of Snapy Gal, 2020 seasonal champ Topless, and eventual top 2021 champion older Iowa-bred mare Naughty Shirley.

She won the Bob Bryant Stakes one month later and finished second to Naughty Shirley in the Mamie Eisenhower Stakes on June 19.

McClintock and Guillory decided to stretch out Kela's Turn into route races in her next two starts, which resulted in a third-place optional claiming finish and a narrow victory over Snapy Gal in The Hawkeyes Handicap at a 1 1/16 miles on Aug. 7.

“We really thought she could get a route of ground,” explained Guillory at the time. “After her first two-turn race, we decided to take the blinkers off and that really made the difference.”

The day after her tenacious victory in The Hawkeyes, Guillory stopped at the Prairie Meadows racing office to view the race again.

“I could watch the replay a hundred times,” Guillory exclaimed. “I knew she could win at two turns and she proved it!”

Guillory dropped Kela's Turn into the entry box more than a few times the rest of August and into early September, but was unable to get his filly into a race before the season-ending Iowa Breeders' Oaks on Iowa Classic Day Sept. 25.

In her first start in almost two months, Kela's Turn settled for second behind open-lengths winner Bossy Moment, an effort that solidified her status as the top Iowa-bred 3-year-old of the season and ITBOA Horse Of The Year for 2021.

“I'm so proud of her and her accomplishments,” said McClintock. “That first allowance race win was amazing! You never know for sure whether or not a young horse is going to move forward off a good two-year-old season or not and she ran like she hadn't missed a beat.”

“Sure, we wanted her to end the season with an Iowa Classic stakes victory,” added McClintock. “But it's pretty tough to go into those races on works alone.”

Guillory added, “She was the best Iowa-bred filly on the grounds all season long. I'm not trying to make excuses, but they all dodged her in the weeks after The Hawkeyes.”

Before the end of 2021, Kela's Turn added to her win total and career earnings with back-to-back victories, including a stakes score, at Delta Downs in Louisiana.

“We'll bring her back to Prairie Meadows for her 4-year-old season,” said McClintock. “We've already got our eyes on the major stakes races for the older fillies and mares. And, if we have to, we'll ship out to take advantage of any opportunities that might come up at other tracks in the Midwest.”

The other Iowa-bred champions of 2021:

2-year-old Iowa-bred colt — Ain't Life Grand, a son of Not This Time – Cat D'Oro (Medaglia D'Oro), won three of his four starts last season for owner/breeder RPM Thoroughbreds of Prairie Meadows Hall of Famers Ray and Peggy Shattuck, earning $128,730.

The precocious 2-year-old set off some fireworks of his own in an impressive Fourth of July debut, breaking alertly under jockey Elvin Gonzalez, seizing command early, and pulling clear to a three-length score.

Under the care of Prairie Meadows Hall of Fame trainer Kelly Von Hemel, Ain't Life Grand finished third in the Iowa Stallion Futurity on July 24, then capped his season with a double-digits tally in the Richard Radke Memorial at one mile on Sept. 4 and a gutsy three-length victory in the Iowa Cradle on Sept. 25.

2-year-old Iowa-bred filly — Demidanu, bred by Iowa State University and running for trainer Kelly Von Hemel, also recorded three wins in four starts during her debut season, posting earnings of $102,390.

Campaigned by the ownership group of Lynette Dreifurst, Dana Hellbusch, Warren Hellbusch, and Anthony Schieffer, Jr., Demidanu scored by eight lengths first time out under jockey Kevin Roman on June 27.

The daughter of Formidable – Soaring Goddess (Desert God) was unplaced in the Iowa Stallion Futurity before winning on Aug. 24 and capping her season with a solid score in the Iowa Sorority on Sept. 25.

3-year-old Iowa-bred colt/gelding — Sir Wally Wally, the son of Revolutionary – Paws Up (Posse), notched two wins from six starts at Prairie Meadows in 2021 for the ownership group of Midnight Thoroughbreds, LLC, Parenza Farms LLC, and Mark Deterding.

Trainer Kelly Von Hemel sent out Sir Wally Wally to stakes scores under Prairie Meadows Hall of Fame jockey Glenn Corbett in the Grays Lake on May 31 and the Iowa Stallion Stakes on July 17.

Older Iowa-bred mare — Naughty Shirley, a daughter Jafmil – Pulpinit (Pulpit) enjoyed the best season of her career during a seven-race campaign as a five-year-old.

Bred by Joe Robson Thoroughbreds and owned by Mercy Man Racing of Dylan Robson, Naughty Shirley recorded back-to-back wins at Prairie Meadows in 2021 under jockey Ken Tohill for trainer Doug Anderson.

She added a victory at Gulfstream Park on November 19, to reach $110,091 in total earnings for her season.

Older Iowa-bred horse — Topper T, a son of Bellamy Road – Des Moines (Evansville), hadn't won a race at Prairie Meadows in almost three years when he tallied an optional claiming sprint score under Shane Laviolette on July 12.

The 2018 Iowa Cradle winner for breeder Black Oak Farm (Sherry Tracy) changed hands four times after his two-year-old year and was claimed out of his July win by owner Gene Burkholder and trainer William Martin.

Topper T ran three times for Burkholder and Martin, winning the Dan Johnson Sprint on Iowa Classic Day to finish 2021 with earnings of $128,094.

The ITBOA also named champions based on earnings at Prairie Meadows in 2021:

Owner/Breeder of the Year—Allen Poindexter, whose Iowa-owned runners earned $854,870 and whose Iowa-bred foals earned $936,399.

Stallion of the Year — Native Ruler, now pensioned at Unbridled Spirits in Lisbon, IA. His progeny earned $430,295.

Broodmare of the Year — Paws Up, owned by Midnight Thoroughbreds, whose offspring earned $166,423.

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