Travers Stakes | Horse Racing Free Tips

Travers: Uncle Chuck ‘Will Have To Step It Up,’ Late-Running Max Player Should Love Distance

While Tiz the Law will have to wait to the fall to complete the Triple Crown trail [the Preakness is slated for October 3, just four weeks after the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5], he will be tested in Saturday's Grade 1 Travers at Saratoga by Uncle Chuck. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert will ship the lightly raced but talented son of Uncle Mo, who enters 2-for-2.

Unraced as a juvenile, the quarter-million dollar purchase at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale won his debut by seven lengths on June 12 at Santa Anita and handled a step up in class with aplomb in a four-length victory at 1 1/8 miles in the Grade 3 Los Alamitios Derby on July 4.

“He's quick,” Baffert said. “He's a big, tall horse but he's really quick on his feet. He's got a tremendous stride. That's why I thought the mile and a quarter would suit him well. If you can win the Travers, it's a big thing. But Tiz the Law looks unbelievable. I watched his last work and he looked tremendous, so Uncle Chuck will have to step it up. It should be a great race.”

Baffert is a three-time Travers winner, including with Arrogate, who set both the stakes and track record when he dominated the field in 2016, hitting the wire in 1:59.36. Baffert won for a second year in a row with West Coast in 2017.
Luis Saez, aboard for his stakes win, will be in the irons against from post 3. Uncle Chuck is listed at 5-2.

“He's been training well, and I thought he deserves a chance to run in it,” Baffert said. “He's only had two races, but they were pretty impressive. The talent is there, he's just still figuring it out and putting it together.”

Another upstart in the Travers is Max Player, the Belmont Stakes third-place finisher, for trainer Linda Rice.

A winner of the Grade 3 Withers in February at Aqueduct Racetrack, Max Player has never finished off the board in four starts, posting a 2-1-1 ledger. Owned by George E. Hall and SportBLX Thoroughbreds, Max Player is 15th on the Derby leaderboard with 40 points.

Max Player will stretch out to a mile and a quarter for the first time after competing at 1 1/8 miles in his previous two starts.

“He was closing ground at the end of the mile and an eighth in the Belmont, so I'm hoping the extra distance only works in his favor,” Rice said. “It would be great if we had an honest pace in this race, so it would set up better for a horse coming from off the pace.”

The Honor Code colt is listed as 6-1 on the morning line and will break from post 4 under Joel Rosario, who will have a Travers mount for the fifth consecutive year.

Rice was the first female to win a Saratoga training title when she paced all conditioners with 20 wins in 2009. She will be saddling her second Travers starter and first since Kid Cruz [fourth] in 2014.

“For someone who has raced in New York year round for quite some time now, the Travers is one of those races on your bucket list that you'd really like to win,” Rice said. “It's exciting to be in the race. It's disappointing that we won't have the crowds or the fanfare that goes with it, but I'd still be thrilled to win a race like the Travers.”

The top-two finishers of the Grade 3 Peter Pan on July 16 at Saratoga will make short turnarounds to rematch in the Travers, including the winner Country Grammer, who will bid to give four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown his first “Mid-Summer Derby” victory.

Country Grammer, owned by Paul Pompa, Jr., worked a sharp half-mile Saturday in 47.66 seconds in company with last year's Grade 1 Secretariat winner Valid Point.

A maiden winner at second asking when travelling nine furlongs in November at the Big A, Country Grammer was fifth in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth in his seasonal debut in February at Gulfstream. Following a closing third in a one-turn, 1 1/16-mile allowance event on June 4 at Belmont, Country Grammer made his return to two turns a winning one in the 1 1/8-mile Peter Pan on Opening Day July 16 at Saratoga.

Brown said the breeze, which was the colt's first since his Peter Pan win, went according to plan.

“The work went super. He's not a great work horse but for him it was one of the better works I've seen. He's gotten a lot stronger,” said Brown. “He's a May foal and he was always destined to fill out and get stronger as he goes along.”
Bred in Kentucky by Scott Pierce and Debbie Pierce, Brown said the bay son of 2014 Belmont Stakes-winner Tonalist should appreciate the additional furlong on Saturday.

“He's looking for more ground,” said Brown. “He's going to have to step it up obviously on short rest and the fact that it's a much tougher race. But the horse, physically, is doing everything you want him to do. We're excited to participate and give him a shot.”

Listed at 6-1, Irad Ortiz, Jr. will have the call from post 2.

Global Thoroughbred and Top Racing's Caracaro was the Peter Pan runner-up, a neck behind Country Grammer. Conditioned by Gustavo Delgado, the son of Uncle Mo ran second in his debut in December at Gulfstream at seven furlongs and broke his maiden with a six-length win at one mile on January 11 at the Florida track before taking the step up in class last month.

Delgado has won his native Venezuela's equivalent of the Triple Crown with Taconeo in 2007 and Water Jet in 2010. He will bid for Saratoga glory with Caracaro, who is listed at 10-1.

Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano holds a record six Travers wins, two more than the next-closest competitors all-time, and will aim for No. 7, piloting Caracaro from post 7.

Jacks or Better Farm's Shivaree ran second to Tiz the Law in the Grade 1 Florida Derby and will make his first start at Saratoga after compiling two stakes wins, capping his 2-year-old year with a victory in the Buffalo Man at Gulfstream Park and starting 2020 with a Limehouse win on January 4 at Gulfstream.

Trained by Ralph Nicks, Shivaree, a son of Awesome of Course, is listed at 30-1 with Junior Alvarado set to ride from post 5.

South Bend, the runner-up to Dean Martini in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby last out on June 27 at Thistledown, will make his first start for his new connections. Owners Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable, Peter Deutsch and Pantofel Stable acquired South Bend and transferred him to the care of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.

South Bend, an Algorithms colt, will go for his first graded stakes win, drawing post 8 with Jose Ortiz. He is listed at 15-1.

First Line will make his first stakes appearance in his fifth career start for trainer Orlando Noda, who also co-owns the First Samurai gelding with his brother Jonathan as part of Noda Brothers, LLC.

First Line broke his maiden at fourth asking on July 29 at the Spa and will return off a quick turnaround looking to give the 31-year-old Noda his first career stakes winner. David Cohen will ride from post 1 at 30-1.

“I think we got a perfect post,” Noda said. “He's going to come out running when the gates open and he might just fight the whole mile and a quarter. It is a quick turnaround, but I've hyped this horse up from before he even debuted. These are my points for the Derby. He's a longshot for a reason but he's going to outrun his odds and, God willing, we will win this race.”

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‘I’ve Never Seen Him Take A Deep Breath’: Tagg Unconcerned About Travers Distance With Tiz The Law

Trainer Barclay Tagg is looking forward to Saturday's Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga with even money morning-line favorite Tiz The Law, and he doesn't believe the 1 1/4-mile distance will be a problem for the 3-year-old son of Constitution.

“He's done everything we've asked him to do,” Tagg told NYRA publicity after Wednesday's post position draw. “We've been very fortunate. I don't think any distance makes a difference for this horse. From what I've seen, I just don't have any feeling that he can't handle it. It would be nice to win it if we could.

“I've never seen him take a deep breath. I've never had him out of breath after a workout. I've never had him way out of breath after a race and he [cools] off very quickly. His lungs settle right down and nothing seems to be a hazard. I could be all wrong in that. It might change in another eighth of a mile, I don't know, but I've got no reason to worry about it.”

Tiz the Law will break from post position six in a field of eight, and the Sackatoga Stable colt will be ridden by regular jockey Manny Franco.

“I think he's matured enough now that outside or inside is not going to bother him too much,” said Tagg of the post. “I'd prefer that he's on the outside just because you have less chance of getting in trouble. Not that you can't, but you have less chance. I think post 6 is fine. Five would have been fine. Four would have been fine. Any of those three would have been fine with me.”

The Belmont Stakes and Florida Derby winner has a total of 272 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, and tops the current leaderboard approaching the rescheduled classic on Sept. 5. The $1 million Travers will offer 100-40-20-10 points to the top-four finishers.

With four weeks between the Travers and the Run for the Roses, Tiz the Law will face a field that includes lightly-raced Bob Baffert trainee Uncle Chuck, last-out winner of the Los Alamitos Derby.

“Bob Baffert does very, very well,” Tagg said. “He's got fresh stock all the time and good horses, so you've always got to be concerned. But if you let the concern bother you too much, you wouldn't be racing horses. You can't worry about that. All I worry about his having my horse get there the best we can get him there. He's done everything we've asked him to do.”

The full field for the Travers is as follows:

First Line – Orlando Noda – David Cohen (30-1)
Country Grammer – Chad Brown – Irad Ortiz, Jr. (6-1)
Uncle Chuck – Bob Baffert – Luis Saez (5-2)
Max Player – Linda Rice – Joel Rosario (6-1)
Shivaree – Ralph Nicks – Junior Alvarado (30-1)
Tiz the Law – Barclay Tagg – Manny Franco (1-1)
Caracaro – Gustavo Delgado – Javier Castellano (10-1)
South Bend – Bill Mott – Jose Ortiz (15-1)

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‘He Covers A Lot Of Ground’: Baffert Compares Travers Contender Uncle Chuck To Arrogate

Though the bottom side of Uncle Chuck's pedigree suggests he might prefer one turn, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is sending the 3-year-old son of Uncle Mo east to contest the 1 1/4-mile G1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga this Saturday.

“One of the reasons I bought him, when I saw him, he's an Uncle Mo with all speed in there, but if you look at him he just doesn't look it,” Baffert said on Tuesday's NTRA teleconference. “He was big, tall, lanky, not like a typical Uncle Mo… He's got the body of a two-turn horse.”

A $250,000 yearling at the Keeneland September sale, Uncle Chuck went to Barry Eisaman for his early training. Baffert specifically told Eisaman not to rush the big colt, that he didn't plan to run him at two. In fact, Uncle Chuck didn't debut until June of his 3-year-old year, winning his first start over a mile at Santa Anita by seven lengths. In his second start, the colt posted a four-length win over stablemate Thousand Words in the G3 Los Alamitos Derby.

“A horse like Uncle Chuck, he would never have run in the (Kentucky) Derby, but now he's got a chance,” Baffert said, referring to Churchill Downs' decision to delay the Run for the Roses to Sept. 5. “We just let him grow into himself, the same thing that happened with Arrogate.”

It isn't the first time Baffert has compared Uncle Chuck to Arrogate, the record-setting Travers winner of 2016.

“I really think with his stride, he covers a lot a ground,” said Baffert. “The ground that he covers reminds me of Arrogate. He handles it well, doesn't get tired.”

There are questions left to be answered, however. Uncle Chuck will be shipping across the country to for the first time in his short career, and he'll be facing a tough group of more experienced rivals, including likely favorite, the Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law.

“I've been very impressed with (Tiz the Law),” Baffert said. “They have managed him well and picked the right spots with him. I think he has progressed perfectly. He definitely is the best 3-year-old in the country right now. I'll get an idea if I can run with him or not. It is going to be exciting, but we're hoping we are as good as he is, that is why we are going over there.”

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Knowlton Looking for ‘Redemption’ with Tiz the Law

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Mixing confidence with the cautiousness that comes from years of experience in Thoroughbred racing, Jack Knowlton is more than ready for the GI Runhappy Travers S. Saturday that will feature Sackatoga Stable’s Tiz the Law (Constitution).

Seventeen years after Sackatoga’s GI Kentucky Derby and

GI Preakness S. winner Funny Cide (Distorted Humor) was scratched from the Travers the day before the race, Knowlton is eager to watch one of the horses he co-owns compete in the marquee race in the city that has been his home since 1982. Tiz the Law, winner of the GI Belmont S. in June and the GI Curlin Florida Derby in March, will be a heavy favorite to add the Travers to his list of accomplishments. For Knowlton and a number of his Sackatoga partners, the Travers is more than just a Grade I race with a $1-million purse. It is personal. First run as the inaugural race on opening day at the newly constructed Saratoga Race Course in 1864, the Travers has become part of the local culture in the region surrounding America’s oldest race track.

The 2003 Travers looked to be a showdown between the Triple Crown rivals Funny Cide and Empire Maker. Funny Cide had edged Empire Maker (Unbridled) in the Derby. Five weeks later, after skipping the Preakness, Empire Maker won the Belmont, five lengths in front of third-place Funny Cide. Both were entered in Travers on Wednesday. Trainer Bobby Frankel announced that Thursday evening that Empire Maker was sick and would not make the Travers. The next morning, Funny Cide was scratched, too. The Sackatoga gelding had taken ill after running third in the GI Haskell Invitational S. on Aug. 3 and when mucous was found in his lungs after a routine gallop the day before the Travers, trainer Barclay Tagg pulled the plug.

“I tell everyone that my second-biggest disappointment with Funny Cide, other than obviously not winning the Belmont and the Triple Crown, was not being able to run in the Travers,” Knowlton said. “He just got knocked out running in the Haskell. That was the race you got money to go to. The timing was right. It was off a nice break after the Belmont. It was kind of the typical progression that you would do. Unfortunately, it did not work out. It was a bad-weather day down there in terms of heat and humidity. Then he got a clod of dirt in his eye and his eye got infected. It just didn’t work out the way we had hoped it would.”

Knowlton paused ever so slightly and said, “Now, God willing we will get through another week and he will be ready to roll in the Travers this year.”

In 1995, Knowlton persuaded five of his high school buddies from Sackets Harbor, NY, a little town on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, to form a partnership to buy and race some horses. They blended Sackets and Saratoga to name the stable. With four other partners in the mix, they hit the mother lode with Funny Cide, a New York-bred they had acquired for $75,000 in a private transaction in early 2002. Their appealing everyman-beating-the-Goliaths story attracted international press coverage and cross-over appeal.

While small stables do come up with a Grade I-level horse on occasion, Knowlton appreciates that having a second star is quite unusual. Like Funny Cide, who was from Distorted Humor’s first crop, Sackatoga took a chance on the initial crop of babies of Constitution (Tapit). The stable bought him as a yearling for $110,000, the most it had spent on a horse. He has won five of six starts, earned $1,480,300 and his breeding rights have been sold to Coolmore.

“It’s beyond what anybody could ever imagine, to have a horse like this, that has accomplished what he has already accomplished,” Knowlton said. “You’ve got three Grade I wins, you’ve got the Classic race. You’ve got the Florida Derby that is probably considered the most important Kentucky Derby prep. You’ve got the Champagne that is maybe even more prominent than the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in terms of 2-year-old races. What he has done is pretty incredible. To be along for a second ride after the first one is mind-boggling, quite honestly.”

The situation is slightly different with Tiz the Law. Lew Titterton and Knowlton are the only Funny Cide partners in this ownership group. In 2006, Knowlton and fellow Saratoga Springs businessman Ed Mitzen formed Sackatoga Stable LLC with Knowlton as the operating manager. Typically, they have operated a four-horse stable with shares priced at $5,000.

“Our goal, when we buy a horse, is to have it be a New York-bred that can run in the New York-bred stakes program,” Knowlton said. “When we buy them, that’s the ceiling that we are looking at. We’ve been able to do that not that often.”

Knowlton pointed to Niko’s Dream (Central Banker), who was second in two NY-bred stallion stakes last year and was fifth in the ungraded Dayatthespa S. last week at Saratoga.

“She would be the star of the stable any other time,” Knowlton said. “She’s earned $200,000. We paid $60,000 for her as a 2-year-old. That’s our game.”

For Tiz the Law, Sackatoga Stable offered 26 shares at $7,500. Knowlton said that a total of 35 people have ownership stakes in the colt. About half of the owners are expected to be in Saratoga on Saturday. The COVID-19 restrictions in place at Saratoga Race Course allow a total of 12 licensed owners in a horse to be on the grounds for the race. The rest will of the group will be at a viewing party in the ballroom of a local hotel.

Thanks to Tiz the Law’s success, the stable has made some changes this year to the way it operates. On June 29, it went far beyond its usual level and spent $290,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old sale to purchase a daughter of Tonalist (Tapit) out of the Harlan’s Holiday mare Holiday Apple. Knowlton chuckled at the suggestion that Tiz the Law paid for the filly that has been named Tapple Cider.

“You would have to ask all the partners,” he said. “Most of the partners are spending found money. There are a couple of people who aren’t in Tiz that are in this one. For the most part they are Tiz parnters who have been rewarded. There were some people who were interested in having a little smaller group, so we put one together with 15 shares for this horse.”

Sackatoga has also picked up a pair of 2-year-olds by first-crop sire Laoban (Uncle Mo), who was represented by his second winner Aug. 2 at Saratoga. Knowlton said there here are 47 partners in the Laobans, which he said had a lot to do with Tiz the Law.

“I’ve had to turn people quite a few people away,” he said. “I figure that the two percent with 47 is the most that I would ever go. There were a lot of people who seemed very interested. We were able to keep the share price down to $6,000 and pay all the expenses through the end of the year with that. That’s pretty attractive for everybody who are in already and for new people, many of whom may have had experience elsewhere and are looking for a different experience. All the publicity about Tiz and Barclay and Sackatoga has brought a lot of people out of the woodwork and being interested in being part of it.”

Sackatoga completed its deal with Coolmore following Tiz the Law’s three-length victory in the GIII Holy Bull on Feb. 1 and the Florida Derby. Knowlton said that there was plenty of interest from breeders in Tiz the Law, whose only loss was a third by three-quarters of a length on a sloppy track at Churchill Downs in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club on Nov. 30. Knowlton gambled on Tiz the Law running well in the Holy Bull.

“They wanted to buy him before that race, but I was in no rush to do anything,” he said. “I just felt that after he had lost that race in Kentucky I told people to just draw a line through that. That was absolutely the right answer. You look at his next three races and every one of them has been a knockout.”

There were no breeding rights to sell with Funny Cide, who ran until he was seven and earned over $3.5 million. Knowlton said he knew what he wanted out of any agreement with a farm.

“I drew two lines in the sand with everybody that I talked to: that you cannot buy any racing rights and he has to run through the 4-year-old year,” Knowlton said. “If you look on social media there are a lot of people who don’t believe that, but as long as he is healthy and running well, that’s the deal.”

Knowlton was up before dawn Saturday to watch the last of Tiz the Law’s three Travers works at 5:30 a.m. He covered five furlongs on :59.44 under Heather Smullen and Knowlton figures that Tagg has him perfectly set up for the Travers.

“I’m hopeful and I think there is a pretty good chance that the mile and a quarter will bring out the best in him,” Knowlton said. “I have absolutely no doubt that he is absolutely going to relish the mile and a quarter.”

To make his case, Knowlton points to his pedigree, his performances as the races have increased in length and an assortment of statistical data.

“He just closes. He gallops out,” Knowlton said. “Then you look at this breeding. With a mare by Tiznow, who won two [GI Breeders’ Cup] Classics at a mile and a quarter, I just see a mile and a quarter being so much in his wheelhouse that I probably have more confidence coming into this race than I did in any race that he has run so far.”

For Knowlton, in particular, the Travers has so much meaning. He said he went to his first Travers in the 1970s and has been a regular at the biggest race of the Saratoga season for more than 40 years. The Derby on Sept 5. and the GI Preakness on Oct. 3 are very much on the schedule for Tiz the Law. And he could go on to compete in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland. But, first, it’s the 151st Travers. Knowlton said a victory in the Travers in front of empty stands would not diminishe the accomplishment for him.

“Obviously it would be much happier to have life normal and have 50,000 people there, an awful lot of happy people to see the horse going into the race that will still be the favorite for the Kentucky Derby,” he said. “That’s pretty exciting stuff. It’s historical, the Mid-Summer Derby before the Kentucky Derby. This being a prep race for the Kentucky Derby. But, unfortunately, that’s not the way it is, not the way it’s playing out. We’ll hopefully have our dozen people there and be able to see it, which we haven’t been able to see his last two Grade I wins. It will be a big step up.”

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