Travers Stakes | Horse Racing Free Tips

Rosario Set For Record-Breaking Saratoga Meet

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – It's not your imagination that jockey Joel Rosario is having a big summer at Saratoga.

Rosario, 37, is very much in the hunt for the overall title, a competition led by Irad Ortiz, Jr. Through Thursday's program, Ortiz had 37 wins, eight more than Rosario. However, in graded stakes races, Rosario is far and away the leader with 10 victories from 19 starts, a remarkable 53% win rate. Ortiz is next with five.

With the 10, Rosario is in position to smash the current record of 11 graded stakes wins in a Saratoga season. According to Equibase stats, Hall of Famers Javier Castellano and John Velazquez share the record of 11. Castellano won 11 of 31 graded stakes starts in 2015 and Velazquez, who is nearing 1,000 wins at the track, finished first in 11 of 23 graded stakes in 2005. At 10, Rosario is on level with Castellano (2016) and Jerry Bailey (2001).

“It's unbelievable what we've done early,” Rosario said. “Thanks to all the people who gave us the opportunity. My agent, Ron Anderson, has done a really great job for me. We appreciate the opportunities from the owners and the trainers.”

Rosario is no stranger to success. The native of the Dominican Republic has finished in the top 10 in North American jockey earnings for 13 years, has a resume filled with graded stakes wins, including 13 in the Breeders' Cup. Last year, he had a career year, riding horses that earned $32,956,215 and secured his first Eclipse Award as champion jockey.

In 2020, Rosario was the leading graded stakes winner at Saratoga with seven. Last summer, he finished in a tie with Luis Saez for the top spot at six. This year, he had seven graded wins in the first 13 days of the 40-day season.

“We always are looking for a good meet,” Rosario said, “But, we've been doing really well this year.”

During the first four days of the meet, Rosario won the July 15 GIII Forbidden Apple S. with City Man (Mucho Macho Man) for trainer Christophe Clement; the GI Diana S. on In Italian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) for Chad Brown July 16; and the GIII Quick Call S. on Big Invasion (Declaration of War) for Clement July 17. He completed the month with three wins for Steve Asmussen: the GII Shuvee S. on Clairiere (Curlin) July 24, the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt S. on Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) and the GII Jim Dandy S. on Epicenter (Not This Time).

In August, he won the GII National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame S. on Ready to Purrform (Kitten's Joy) for Brad Cox Aug. 5 and the next day won the GI Test S. on Chi Town Lady Verrazano) for Wesley Ward and the GII Glens Falls on War Like Goddess (English Channel) for Bill Mott.

Six trainers. Dirt. Turf. Sprints. Routes.

Starting on Saturday with the GI Alabama and the GII Lake Placid, there are 17 graded stakes left in the Saratoga season. Rosario has the mount on Haughty (Empire Maker) for Brown in the Lake Placid and will ride Gerrymander (Into Mischief) for Brown in the Alabama. He is likely to be up on contenders in most of the remaining graded stakes, including the Asmussen triumvirate of Epicenter in the GI Runhappy Travers S., Jackie's Warrior in the GI Forego S. and Clairiere in the GI Personal Ensign.

In 2015, six of Castellano's 11 wins were in Grade I races. Velazquez had five Grade I winners in 2005. So far, Rosario has three.

The post Rosario Set For Record-Breaking Saratoga Meet appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Rich Strike Looks to Complete Derby/Travers Double

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Trainer Eric Reed is looking back and ahead as he prepares GI Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike (Keen Ice) for the GI Runhappy Travers S.

With a firm opinion of what went wrong in the Rich Strike's sixth-place finish in the GI Belmont S. June 11, Reed is expecting a much better performance in the $1.25-million signature race of the Saratoga Race Course meet Aug. 27. He will be the first Derby winner to run in the Travers since Always Dreaming (Bodemeister) finished ninth in 2017. The last horse to complete the Derby-Travers double was Street Sense (Street Cry) in 2007.

Rich Strike was the sensational and shocking winner of the Derby May 7 at odds of 80-1. Under little-known jockey Sonny Leon, he benefitted from a torrid early pace, made a run from far back and wove around a bunch of horses without checking in the stretch. Approaching the wire, he zipped past the dueling leaders, Epicenter (Not This Time) and Zandon (Upstart), on the inside to complete a storybook performance. His connections decided to skip the GI Preakness S. two weeks later and focused on the Belmont, where he turned up as an also-ran.

Reed shipped his colt from Kentucky to Saratoga Sunday and said he has him ready to start the second half of his season in America's oldest race for 3-year-olds.

“He's going to show up and run his race and if he can beat Epicenter and those horses again, good for us,” Reed said. “I know he can. He's done it once before.”

The journey to Saratoga by van was uneventful and Reed said that Rich Strike seems comfortable in his new surroundings at Dale Romans's barn. Reed and Romans have known each other since they were young trainers sharing the same barn at the old Latonia track, now Turfway Park.

“He shipped really good,” Reed said. “When he got here he was bucking and playing in the shedrow as soon as we unloaded him, so the trip didn't seem to take too much out of him.”

Though it's only been a couple of days, Reed said that Rich Strike looks to be smoothly getting over the main track, which is about 200 yards from his stall.

“He seems happier on the track,” Reed said. “He trained great at Belmont, but it seemed to me watching him that he was really putting a lot into it. Up here, he's training as hard but he's not having to put as much into it. I don't know if that's just the difference in surface or what it is, but really in the 10 weeks off he's matured a lot. He's calmed down He's just seemed like he's more relaxed about doing this and not so swelled up trying to show off so much. He's trained great.”

In the 1 1/2-mile Belmont, Reed asked Leon to keep the colt on the outside and away from traffic in the field of eight. He said he realized by the time the field reached the first turn that it was the wrong strategy. Reed said that even though the colt comes from off the pace, he is at his best when he is surrounded by the competition.

“The race was not the right race anyway, for his style,” Reed said. “I think if I hadn't given Sonny those instructions, he could have been down where he wanted to be and he would have tried a lot harder. We'd never, ever had him out in the middle of the track in any race. He's run in the center of the track in the Derby, but he had horses all around him on both sides. And we just learned that if he doesn't have a horse to the right, he just gets too aggressive with the horse beside him. But if they're on each side, he just wants to fight all of them and he'll run through them. I didn't know that. My God, we had one speed horse, we were the deep closer and six gallopers. I said 'the worst, you're going to be two or three wide when you got to run by them. Don't get in trouble.' It was a bad decision. You could see he had his head cocked the whole way around the turn trying to get to the inside.”

While he understands the error, Reed said he hasn't gotten past the disappointment of how the Belmont played out.

“It still haunts me,” he said. “Not because of me, but because everybody starts saying 'I told you so.' But every race that horse ran all year he ran great. The competition got better every race. The races were tougher, every race, and he kept getting better and better and better. The only bad race, or anomaly, wasn't the Derby, it was the Belmont.

Reed looks at the 1 1/4-mile Travers as a fresh start. He hopes he will get his colt to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic and the division title. The veteran trainer said he was never tempted to give Rich Strike a prep for the Travers.

“No, we were going to give him a mid-summer break,” Reed said. “He needs a little bit more time between races than most horses so there was no way we could hit the [GI] Haskell S. or the [GII] Jim Dandy S. because of the timing. The Haskell was on the wrong track anyway, another track for speed horses, and it's 1 1/8 miles. We knew we wanted to give him a little break. He had come off five races, the Derby, the Belmont and then he's had six breezes. He got 30 days of light training, which to him is still pretty hard training. I think we're right where we always wanted to be.”

Reed will work Rich Strike a half-mile early Friday morning.

“'I'm not going to go fast,” Reed said. “He had a really hard work at Churchill [5f in :59.40 on Aug. 10], so I know we were fit. I'd like :49 or :50 and maybe a 1:02 gallop out.”

Reed acknowledged that the arrival of the Derby winner–the 27th in history to try the Travers–has attracted a lot of interest in Saratoga.

“They've got to come see him,” Reed said. “I guess they're all waiting to see if he's going to back the Derby race up, which I don't blame him. I'm pretty sure he'll run better than in the Belmont.”

The post Rich Strike Looks to Complete Derby/Travers Double appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Asmussen Set For Big Saturday at the Spa

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Two standouts. Two high-profile graded stakes. Two different scenarios Saturday for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

In the Grade I portion of his afternoon at Saratoga Race Course, Asmussen will saddle champion Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music), who just might go off as the shortest-priced favorite in the history of the $350,000 GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H., which has been run since 1985.

One race later, in the $600,000 GII Jim Dandy S., Asmussen will send out Epicenter (Not This Time), runner-up as the favorite in the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S. The Jim Dandy is the local stepping stone to the meet's signature race, the GI Runhappy Travers S. Aug. 27. It is entirely possible that he will be the favorite in a field that includes Preakness winner Early Voting (Gun Runner) and GI Toyota Blue Grass S. winner Zandon (Upstart), both trained by Chad Brown.

Asmussen picked up his first victory of the meet on Sunday when Clairiere (Curlin) solidified her hold on the top spot in the older female dirt division with an impressive score in the GII Shuvee S. over champion Malathaat (Curlin). This weekend at the Spa, the focus shifts to a pair of male horses, who could also end the season with Eclipse Awards.

A tribute to Jackie's Warrior's dominance in the sprint division is that just nine other horses were nominated for the six-furlong Vanderbilt and only five of those will face him Saturday. Further, the 4-year-old will carry a career-high 127 pounds, six more than Ny Traffic (Cross Traffic). The weight assignment is hardly a surprise since the speedy colt is perfect at Saratoga, unbeaten this year and has won six of his last seven starts.

“I don't think that you can talk about Jackie's Warrior running without pointing out how fortunate we are to have a champion colt back in training,” Asmussen said. “Kirk and Judy Robison allowing us to run or enjoy him another year is very special.”

The Robisons purchased the colt as a yearling for $95,000 and he has won 11 of 15 career starts and earned over $2.4 million. Joel Rosario will be up for the 15th-consecutive start.

“His three races this year have been very exciting, very dominating performances,” Asmussen said. “And the Vanderbilt just being another opportunity to run him at Saratoga, where I think his best races have been. Both of his runs as a 2-year-old, the Saratoga Special and the Hopeful were brilliant.

“And last year, a great win in the Amsterdam with a rain delay. You're stuck in the paddock an extra 20-30 minutes and then the performance he put in that day. I cannot say enough about his duel with Life is Good in the Allen Jerkens. So when you talk about getting to continue to run that horse and even better yet an opportunity to run him at Saratoga it's very special and unique.”

Jackie's Warrior was prepared for the races by Asmussen's parents, Keith and Marilyn, at their Texas training center. The Robison's colt promptly built his reputation during morning training and in the afternoon with four-straight victories. In the first three, he was not the favorite.

“When he came from Laredo, he was a very attractive, fast horse,” Asmussen said. “Ran excellent first time out, but I do think the ascension happened at Saratoga. We had a very good 2-year-old that had won the Bashford Manor in Cazadero (Street Sense). We breezed him and Jackie's Warrior together. It was a far more experienced or accomplished Cazadero and Jackie off one race and it was like 'wow, you're better than good. You're special.' I think that every day since then that's who he's been.”

Asmussen nodded in agreement at the comment that there can't be many horses that are four-for-four in graded stakes at the Spa.

“Winning one graded stake at Saratoga is a tall task,” he said.

Epicenter did not make his 2-year-old debut until September at Churchill Downs, a few weeks after the end of the 2021 Saratoga season. He broke his maiden second time out in November and has never been worse than second in his six races since. With victories in the GII Risen Star and GII Louisiana Derby on his resume, he went off as the 4-1 favorite in the Kentucky Derby. The Winchell Thoroughbreds colt looked like a winner in the stretch after a duel with Zandon when long shot Rich Strike (Keen Ice) rolled on by to score a huge upset.

Asmussen took him to the Preakness, but he encountered some trouble early, was far back and ended up 1 1/4 lengths behind Early Voting.

“Two hard races 14 days apart. He got a little freshening since then,” Asmussen said. “We love what we've seen since we've been here at Saratoga, but it is his first run at Saratoga ever. It will be his first try up here against a very accomplished field, but with the eye on the prize, that is the Travers this summer.”

Epicenter has breezed three times at Saratoga on the Oklahoma training track and Asmussen chose the Jim Dandy over the GI Haskell Invitational S. last weekend in order to give his colt a race over the main track.

Asmussen said that Epicenter is a popular runner, whose best performances may be ahead of him.

“Epicenter has a tremendously large rooting section, from people that I come in contact with, and in passing even, Epicenter has a large fan group,” he said. “What I am hoping, and on the way to proving, is that he's the next Gun Runner. And it feels very similar, because he does have a groundswell of support as a 3-year-old, even though he has not been victorious in the major races yet.”

Gun Runner had a very solid though not spectacular 3-year-old season, but became a superstar with $15,998,500 in earnings by winning seven of his last eight starts. That run started with the GI Clark H. in late November 2017 and ended with a win in his finale, the 2019 GI Pegasus World Cup.

The post Asmussen Set For Big Saturday at the Spa appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

The Week in Review: Nest Belongs in the Travers

For Nest (Curlin), the easy route to the Breeders' Cup includes a stop in the GI Alabama Aug 20. It's a prestigious race, has a $600,000 purse and Nest would be an odds-on favorite against many of the same horses she thrashed Saturday in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks. But what fun is that?

Owners Mike Repole, Michael House and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and trainer Todd Pletcher have already shown that they will think outside the box. They ran their filly in the GI Belmont S., where she finished second despite stumbling and getting bumped at the start. It was a huge effort and proved that she can handle herself if thrown into the mix with the sport's best 3-year-old males.

Yet, there had to be a sense of disappointment that she ran so well but lost. Now, there is a chance to make amends, one that could put Nest into the conversation when it comes to the Horse-of-the-Year picture. There's a race out there where she could make history and it's not the Alabama. Nest should go in the GI Travers S.

It's a race the connections will consider.

“We're leaning towards [the Alabama],” Pletcher said Sunday. “I had a brief conversation [with her owners] though and we did not completely rule out the Travers. She showed she can hold her own against [males] and we know the mile and a quarter suits her. So, we'll keep it in the back of our mind. I'd say all things being equal, we'll probably see her in the Alabama.”

The Travers is the right call. For one, she can win it. She got a 104 Beyer for winning the CCA Oaks, two points better than the number Cyberknife (Gun Runner) received for winning the GI Haskell S. on the same day. Among those eyeing the Travers, only her stablemate, Charge It (Tapit), who got a 111 Beyer when winning he GIII Dwyer S., is notably faster. Nest is in the same range as all the other top colts.

And, yes, the Travers will be a very tough race, but it got a lot easier Saturday when Jack Christopher (Munnings) finished a tiring third in the Haskell, all but cementing his status as a horse that wants no part of 1 1/4 miles. The race has also lost Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo), who beat Nest in the Belmont but has since been sidelined.

This has become a sport where there are few chance-takers and the sportsmen have given way to the businessmen. But there remain some out there who get it, that it doesn't always have to be about the money and that you can't put a price on challenging yourself and doing something special. Get Nest to the Travers winner's circle and you have done something that will stamp her as one of the greatest fillies of her generation. In modern times, no filly has won the Travers. Seven fillies have won the race but none since Lady Rotha in 1915. That's 107 years.

It will take a special filly to erase 107 years of history and owners and a trainer who understand the historical significance of pulling off such a feat. In Nest, Repole, Eclipse, House and Pletcher we may just have that combination. For them, winning the Alabama would fall under the category of “just another race.” The Travers would be so much more.

A Missed Opportunity

Fixed odds wagering may some day become a big part of how people bet on the sport, but the slow progress the concept is making is frustrating. It remains available only on Monmouth Park races and only to on-track customers at Monmouth.

Just imagine, though, for a minute, what might have happened last week had fixed odds bets have been available and had they been available to sports betting customers through their on-line wagering accounts.

The Wednesday following the MLB All-Star game is the single slowest day of the year for sports betting. When it comes to the four major sports, nothing is available. It's normally the only day of the year when that is the case.

There's a huge void and maybe some day racing can fill it and fill it in a way that can expose the sport to hundreds of thousands of sports bettors craving action on a Wednesday. But that can't happen until much more progress is made, starting with the advent of fixed odds and getting the product available on sports betting websites. This is something everyone needs to get behind.

Juan Vazquez and Fake News

The New York Gaming Commission came out last week with a press release crowing about how Juan Vazquez has beeen banned from running horses in the state through Jan. 26, 2025. That's sort of like announcing that today is Sunday.

The New York regulators did nothing other than honor the reciprocity agreement that exists among all horse racing states and has been around forever. Vazquez was suspended by the Pennsylvania Racing Commission, so New York, and everyone else, had no choice but to honor the suspension. There was absolutely no need to tell everyone that New York was honoring the suspension and by doing so it looks like the New York commission was looking to take credit for something it had absolutely nothing to do with.

Because the Pennsylvania suspension did not take effect until a few days after it was announced, Vazquez was able to run six horses in Saratoga after it was announced that he had received the lengthy suspension after the Pennsylvania regulators alleged that a horse he shipped from Belmont to Parx arrived in such bad shape with a severe case of laminitis that it had to be put down. The Pennsylvania stewards said his actions were “grossly negligent, cruel and abusive,” yet there he was running in Saratoga. That's a terrible optic.

If the New York Gaming Commission really wanted to do something about Vazquez, it should have taken steps to keep him from running in Saratoga.

On Jack Christopher

So, Jack Christopher is not a two-turn, mile-and-an-eighth horse. At least he sure didn't look line one in the Haskell. But that doesn't mean he still can't have a sensational ending to his 3-year-old campaign. He's still a very fast horse. Trainer Chad Brown can now look to races like the GI Allen Jerkens Memorial and, maybe, the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, where we could see what could be a scintillating showdown between Jack Christopher and Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music).

“We tried!,” began a tweet Saturday from Liz Crow, who purchased the colt for his owners. “Jack Christopher doesn't want nine furlongs. Cut him back to one turn and we will enjoy the ride from there.”

The post The Week in Review: Nest Belongs in the Travers appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post