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Travers Highlights Saratoga Stakes Schedule

The stakes schedule for the 2023 summer meet at historic Saratoga Race Course will include 71 stakes worth $20.8 million in total purses, the New York Racing Association announced Tuesday.

Highlighted by the 154th renewal of the $1.25-million GI Travers Aug. 26 and the $1-million GI Whitney Aug. 5, the 40-day summer meet will open Thursday, July 13 and continue through Monday, Sept. 4.

Whitney Day provides a trio of Grade I events, including the GI Test S. and the GI Saratoga Derby Invitational.

The Travers Festival offers nine stakes including six Grade Is from Wednesday, Aug. 23 through Saturday, Aug. 26. The lucrative Travers Day card features five Grade I stakes, including the GI Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer, GI Ballerina H., GI Forego and GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial.

Following the four-day opening weekend, racing will be conducted five days a week, Wednesdays through Sundays, apart from closing week, when the 2023 summer meet will conclude on Labor Day.

Saratoga Live, the acclaimed television show produced by NYRA in partnership with FOX Sports, will return for its eighth season to provide expansive on-site daily coverage of the summer meet to a nationwide audience on the networks of FOX Sports.

The complete stakes schedule for the 2023 summer meet is available at https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/stakes-schedule/.

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Taylor Made CEO Mark Taylor Talks Not This Time, Yearling Sales On Writers’ Room

Business is booming at Taylor Made, not just because of the company's continued status as the largest sales consignor in the country, but also on the stallion side with the continued ascent of their young star sire Not This Time. Tuesday, Taylor Made CEO joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about Not This Time's newest Grade I winner in Runhappy Travers S. romper Epicenter, his team's approach to yearling sales and more.

“You can never predict that a horse is going to do what Not This Time has done,” Taylor said. “We've been down this path before. We had Saint Ballado, who led the general sires' list. We had Unbridled's Song, who led the general sires' list. And then we've had a lot of horses who never even got close to leading the general sires' list. So when a horse starts out and they're showing promise, people love their babies, the market is reacting positively to them, you feel the momentum building, but then you don't know what's going to happen when the racetrack acid test really happens. But he's just a horse who's gone from strength to strength. At every stage he's excelled and we're very blessed to have him on our farm. He just keeps ratcheting up from one level to the next, and we don't know where it's going to land him, but it looks pretty promising right now.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, Lane's End, the KTOB, West Point Thoroughbreds, Three Chimneys, XBTV and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers broke down a huge Saturday at Saratoga and looked forward to Flightline (Tapit)'s much-anticipated start in the GI TVG Pacific Classic. Click here to watch the show; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Epicenter Draws Six As 7-5 Favorite in Eight-Horse Travers

Winchell Thoroughbreds' MGSW and GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S. runner-up Epicenter (Not This Time) drew post six in a field of eight and was installed as a significant 7-5 favorite in Saturday's 153rd renewal of the $1.25 million GI Runhappy Travers S. The Steve Asmussen pupil, last seen producing a dazzling late-to-first kick to capture the local GII Jim Dandy S. July 30, will be ridden by regular jockey Joel Rosario, who missed most of the past week of racing at Saratoga with an illness.

Given the second-choice nod at 7-2 is Gold Square's rail-drawn multiple Grade I winner Cyberknife (Gun Runner). Scoring in the GI Arkansas Derby earlier this year, Cyberknife has bounced back from a disappointing run in the Kentucky Derby with back-to-back successes in the GIII Matt Winn S. and GI Haskell Invitational S. The chestnut will look to give trainer Brad Cox consecutive Travers triumphs after his champion Essential Quality (Tapit) won the 1 1/4-mile test in 2021.

Kentucky Derby upsetter Rich Strike (Keen Ice) drew post two as a 10-1 chance. After his unforgettable closing flourish to shock the Run for the Roses at 80-1, the Eric Reed trainee famously passed on a try at the Preakness only to run sixth in the GI Belmont S. Journeyman Sonny Leon keeps the mount.

Leading trainer Chad Brown will have three starters in the Travers: Preakness hero Early Voting (Gun Runner, 8-1, post seven), Grade I winner and Derby third Zandon (Upstart, 5-1, post eight) and Artorius (Arrogate, 9-2, post five), an impressive winner of the Curlin S. July 29 at the Spa. Brown, who made news last week after he was arrested in Saratoga Springs, is looking for his first Travers victory.
Rounding out the field are Iowa Derby winner Ain't Life Grand (Not This Time, 20-1) from post three and Curlin runner-up Gilded Age (Medaglia d'Oro, 30-1) from post four.

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Charge It Out of Travers; Nest Exits Alabama in Good Order

There was both positive and negative news coming out of the Todd Pletcher barn Sunday morning, as 'TDN Rising Star' Charge It (Tapit) will be forced to miss next Saturday's GI Runhappy Travers S., but GI Alabama S. romper Nest (Curlin) was in fine fettle after her Saturday romp.

Whisper Hill homebred Charge It, a jaw-dropping 23-length winner of the GIII Dwyer S. at Belmont July 2, missed a scheduled breeze Saturday morning due to a front right foot abscess and galloped Sunday morning.

“He galloped super, but you could tell jogging back he was a little bit tender on it,” Pletcher said. “It's one of those things where if we didn't need to breeze again, we might be able to get it healed up before the race, but needing to get another work into him, it's just unfortunate timing.”

Charge It could resurface in the Sept. 24 GI Pennsylvania Derby.

“That's our next possible target, but the foot is going to dictate when he's going to be ready to breeze again,” Pletcher said.

Nest, meanwhile, was no worse for wear after her 4 1/4-length likely Eclipse-cinching Alabama tally.

“I thought [the Alabama] was more impressive watching the replay because watching it live, I couldn't fully appreciate how quickly she accelerated off the turn there,” Pletcher said. “I was impressed watching it live and even more so watching the replay. Especially the start.”

Despite some clamoring for her to take on males, Nest–who previously took the July 23 GI Coaching Club American Oaks after seconds in the GI Kentucky Oaks and GI Belmont S., will likely stick to races for females for the time being. Pletcher said she could train up to the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff Nov. 5, or possibly run in the GI Cotillion S. Sept. 24 or GII Beldame S. or GI Juddmonte Spinster S. Oct. 9.

“I think we just stay against our own gender for right now,” Pletcher said. “Things can change in this game. If there's a few defections along the way, who knows? But for right now, I think we're focused about running against fillies.”

Pletcher also trains Alabama third finisher Goddess of Fire (Mineshaft), who is likely for Parx's Cotillion.

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