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Weekend Lineup Presented By NYRA Bets: Big Travers Card Features Six Grade 1 Races

A quartet of Breeders' Cup Challenge races and the $1.25 million Travers Stakes highlight this weekend's racing action in North America, with a total of six Grade 1 stakes on Saturday's card at Saratoga.

The Travers drew a field of seven headlined by last year's juvenile champion Essential Quality. The Brad Cox-trained 3-year-old was undefeated until he finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby, but returned to win both the Belmont Stakes and the Jim Dandy.

Other top runners expected to compete on Saturday include champion female sprinter Gamine in the G1 Ballerina, division leader Letruska in the G1 Personal Ensign, and the highly-regarded 3-year-old Life Is Good returns in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens for new trainer Todd Pletcher.

On the West Coast, a Breeders' Cup berth is on the line in Saturday's G2 Pat O'Brien Stakes at Del Mar, where C Z Rocket is the morning-line choice. On Sunday, Kentucky Derby first-place finisher Medina Spirit returns to the races in the listed Shared Belief Stakes.

Here's a quick snapshot of this weekend's graded stakes schedule, starting with Saratoga's big races (all times Eastern):

Saturday

3:02 p.m. – $500,000 Grade 1 Ballerina Handicap at Saratoga

Michael Lund Petersen's Gamine, the Eclipse Award-winning female sprinter of 2020, will get another chance to flash her championship form over a track she dominated last summer when she heads a field of seven in Saturday's G1 Ballerina at Saratoga Race Course.

Also in from the West Coast is Bo Hirsch's 5-year-old homebred mare Ce Ce, who also shipped cross-country for her last start, the G2 Princess Rooney July 3 at Gulfstream Park, beating runner-up and fellow Ballerina entrant Estilo Talentoso.

Godolphin homebred Lake Avenue is chasing her second career graded stakes victory and first in a G1 after running second by a neck in each of her last two starts – the G3 Bed o' Roses June 4 at Belmont Park and G2 Honorable Miss July 28 at Saratoga.

Ballerina Entries

3:37 p.m. – $600,000 Grade 1 Forego Stakes at Saratoga

Calumet Farm homebred Lexitonian, a racing enigma who broke through with his biggest performance to date last month, goes after a second consecutive win for the first time in his career in Saturday's seven-furlong contest.

Five of the eight horses entered in the Forego are G1 winners, including Firenze Fire, Mind Control, Mischevious Alex, and Whitmore, the champion sprinter of 2020. Lexitonian joined the group with a half-length victory in the six-furlong Alfred G. Vanderbilt July 31, his 19th career start.

Also in the field, Yaupon won each of his first four career starts last year, two of them coming at Saratoga – an open allowance triumph over older horses and the G2 Amsterdam – as well as the Chick Lang. Following a troubled eighth in both the Breeders' Cup Sprint to end 2020 and the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen to open 2021, Yaupon returned to capture Pimlico's Lite the Fuse July 4 in his most recent outing.

Forego Entries

4:12 p.m. – $500,000 Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes at Saratoga

J. Kirk and Judy Robison's Jackie's Warrior will seek to solidify himself as the nation's leading sophomore sprinter when taking on a compact field. Jackie's Warrior, trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, has shown an affinity for Saratoga, having not come close to losing in three starts at the Spa.

Jackie's Warrior's biggest obstacle could come from the presence of returning graded stakes winner Life Is Good, who arrives off a five-month hiatus and makes his debut for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. The highly-regarded son of leading sire Into Mischief, owned by CHC Inc. and WinStar Farm, is unbeaten in three starts on the West Coast and has never been behind horses at any point of call, when racing from the barn of Bob Baffert.

Jerkens Entries

4:47 p.m. – $600,000 Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga

Despite Letruska's imposing presence, a field of nine top-class older fillies and mares will line up to go 1 1/18 miles at Saratoga. Trained by Fausto Gutierrez, the dual G1-winning Letruska will be attempting her fourth consecutive graded stakes score. She has already secured her Breeders' Cup Distaff spot with a dominating gate-to-wire 2 ¾ lengths victory in the G1 Ogden Phipps, also a “Win and You're In” event, two starts back at Belmont Park on June 5.

Kenny McPeek is returning Peter Callahan's Swiss Skydiver to the distaff division. After circumstances forced his hand earlier in the Saratoga meet, he ran her in the G1 Whitney against the boys last out on Aug. 7, and she finished fourth.

Bonny South will try to turn the tables on Letruska after a runner-up finish in the Ogden Phipps. The 4-year-old filly was a well-beaten fifth in her last start in the G2 Delaware Handicap as the odds-on favorite, but has been breezing impressively with stablemate, G1 Runhappy Travers Stakes 4-5 favorite [and Belmont Stakes-winner] Essential Quality.

As Time Goes By runs for the Coolmore connections and has been sent from the Southern California base of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. She ran second to Swiss Skydiver in the G1 Beholder Mile and then racked up a pair of G2 wins, taking the Santa Margarita by 9 ¼ lengths and the Santa Maria by a nose, both at Santa Anita.

Personal Ensign Entries

5:25 p.m. – $750,000 Grade 1 Sword Dancer Stakes at Saratoga

Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown will saddle a pair of strong contenders in Tribhuvan and Rockemperor, who will square off against a talented field of G1 winners in the 1 1/2-mile turf contest, which offers a “Win and You're In” berth to the winner for the Breeders' Cup Turf.

With seven wins and more than $3.2 million in purse earnings, Channel Maker will make his fourth straight Sword Dancer appearance following a second in 2018, a fourth in 2019, and a win last year to highlight his championship campaign that also included a score in the G1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont.

Japan, trained by Aidan O'Brien, will make his first start in North America. The 5-year-old, who boasts a record of seven wins and four thirds from 18 starts with purse earnings in excess of $2.1 million, posted consecutive G1 wins in 2019 in the 12-furlong Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp and the 1 5/16-mile Juddmonte International at York. Japan has notched a pair of G3 wins in four starts this campaign, taking the 1 11/16-mile Ormond in May at Chester and the nine-furlong Meld last out on July 15 at Leopardstown.

Sword Dancer Entries

6:12 p.m. – $1.25 million Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga

Juvenile champion Essential Quality overcame Hot Rod Charlie's blistering fractions to run down his rival in the G1 Belmont Stakes on June 5 and followed that 109 Beyer Speed Figure effort with a half-length win over Travers rival Keepmeinmind in the G2 Jim Dandy going 1 1/8 miles.

Keepmeinmind competed in the Triple Crown's second leg, running fourth in the Preakness before earning additional black type with a third place G3 Ohio Derby performance in June. Keepmeinmind matched his career-best 97 Beyer for closing on Essential Quality in the Jim Dandy last month, finishing second and 2 1/4 lengths ahead of fellow Travers foe Masqueparade.

Midnight Bourbon, the runner-up to Rombauer in the Preakness, has not raced since clipping heels with Hot Rod Charlie and unseating rider Paco Lopez in the G1 Haskell in July at Monmouth Park. Masqueparade bested King Fury by a half length in the Ohio Derby, extending his winning streak to three, before finishing third in a Jim Dandy contest that will see the trifecta rematch in the Travers.

King Fury, runner-up in the Ohio Derby, trained at Saratoga through an EHV-1 quarantine, causing him to miss the G2 Jim Dandy and instead return in the G1 Saratoga Derby Invitational on Aug. 7. He finished 10th after a wide trip in his turf debut.

Dynamic One – second in the G2 Wood Memorial – showed his affinity for the Saratoga track last out, rallying from last-of-seven to close strong, besting Miles D by 1 3/4 lengths in the Curlin on July 30 at Saratoga for his first stakes victory.

Travers Entries

9:35 p.m. – $200,000 Grade 2 Pat O'Brien Stakes at Del Mar

A field of 10 stout sprinters will travel seven furlongs the Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” Challenge race funneling into the Dirt Mile.

Morning-line choice C Z Rocket, a veteran gelding who found a new lease on life when he was haltered for $40,000 16 months ago and took up residence in the barn of trainer Peter Miller. The 7-year-old has since won seven races, four of them stakes, and placed in three other added-money tests to bank more than $1.1-million for his new connections.

Chief threat to C Z Rocket appears to be another classy veteran, the 7-year-old Flagstaff, a winner of seven races and $1,011,585. The gelding by sprint champion Speightstown has made five starts this year, but this will be his first in his California home base.

Trainer Bob Baffert has a pair in the dash in Eight Rings and Classier. The former, a 4-year-old colt by Empire Maker, was second beaten only a neck in the G1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs earlier in the meet. Classier, a 3-year-old colt also by Empire Maker, shortens up off a score in the Los Alamitos Derby at nine furlongs on July 4.

O'Brien Entries

Here's a look at the remainder of the weekend's graded stakes, courtesy of NTRA:

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Equibase Analysis: Masqueparade Poised To Upset Travers

The Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers Stakes brings together a seven horse group of 3-year-olds vying for top honors in one of the most prestigious races of the summer. Oddly enough, three of the seven didn't run in the Kentucky Derby three months ago and the other four managed finish positions of fourth, sixth, seventh and 18th. Still, the combined earnings of the seven runners is over $6 million, led by Essential Quality, winner of the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes and the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes in his last two races.

Jim Dandy runner-up Keepmeinmind is winless in six races since taking the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes last fall. Masqueparade finished third in the Jim Dandy after winning the Grade 3 Ohio Derby and may be the lone front runner in the field. Midnight Bourbon won the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes in January to get on the radar among top 3-year-olds but is winless in five races since then although it must be noted he was in position to win the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational Stakes last month before clipping another horse's heels and losing his jockey.

The recent one-two finishers of the non-graded Curlin Stakes – Dynamic One and Miles D, respectively, hope to improve and be competitive at this level, while King Fury hopes to rebound to the form shown when rallying from last of nine to get second behind Masqueparade in the Ohio Derby before a non-threating 10th place effort on turf in the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes earlier this month.

Masqueparade could have an edge in this seven horse field as a lone front runner due to the fact none of the others have truly shown a desire to lead early in a race. Starting with his runner-up effort at a mile and one-sixteenth in March, a race he might have won if not bumped by the original winner before being place first when that one was disqualified, Masqueparade has been in front or very close the lead from shortly after the start in four straight races. When winning one of those races on May 1, Masqueparade earned a stellar 108 ™ Equibase® Speed Figure which just one point shy of the 109 figures Essential Quality has earned in three of his last four races.

Considering Essential Quality will go to post as the prohibitive betting favorite, Masqueparade offers much better value for any bets we make involving this race because he has as much of a chance to win as Essential Quality if both repeat their best recent efforts. Although Masqueparade was no match for Essential Quality last month in the Jim Dandy Stakes when third, there was a different early pace scenario that day as another horse led and Masqueparade stalked that pacesetter before making the lead with a quarter mile to go before being passed by Essential Quality and Keepmeinmind. In this situation it could be Masqueparade who dictates the early tempo and as such he has a shot to relax on the lead and get very brave to post the upset win.

Essential Quality has now won seven of eight career starts for a bankroll of $3.5 million. His only poor effort came at the distance of the Travers when he finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby, but jockey Luis Saez hasn't made the same mistake of getting Essential Quality hung wide throughout the race, resulting in two strong wins in a row. The first of the two came in the Belmont Stakes with a 109 ™ figure, followed by a similarly strong effort in the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga one month ago in which the colt earned a 107 figure. As such, if Masqueparade can't lead from start to finish the horse most likely to pass late to win the Travers is Essential Quality.

King Fury and Keepmeinmind both have slight chances to win and big chances to finish second or third to complete any exacta or trifecta tickets played. King Fury came up slightly ill right before the Derby and had to skip the race, then closed very well from last of nine to get second behind Masqueparade in the Ohio Derby, earning a career-best 105 figure in the process. Not finding a race to run in after that in order to prep for the Travers, King Fury was entered in the Saratoga Derby Invitational three weeks ago on turf, a surface he had never run over previously. Finishing 10th of 11 in that race, the only thing that proved was he is much more well suited to dirt and so on the return to dirt and based on his effort in the Ohio Derby, King Fury could be a factor in the Travers.

Similarly, Keepmeinmind missed by a half-length to Masqueparade in the Ohio Derby in June then by a similar margin to Essential Quality in the Jim Dandy, earning 105 then 106 figure not far enough afield from the likely favorite to discount Keepmeinmind's chances completely. Particularly the Travers being his second start of the Saratoga meeting, Keepmeinmind running as well or better as he did one month ago shouldn't surprise anyone.

The rest of the field, with their best ™ Equibase® Speed Figures, is Dynamic One (103), Midnight Bourbon (99) and Miles D (100).

Win Contenders:
Masqueparade
Essential Quality

Runhappy Travers Stakes – Grade 1
Race 12 at Saratoga
Saturday, August 28 – Post Time 6:12 PM E.T.
One Mile and One Quarter
Three Year Olds
Purse: $1.25 Million

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Special Two-Day Pick 4 Planned For Travers Weekend At Saratoga

The New York Racing Association Inc. (NYRA) will host a special two-day Pick 4 featuring exciting stakes action from historic Saratoga Race Course during the Runhappy Travers weekend.

The wager, which features a $2 minimum base, will be offered with a mandatory payout. Free past performances are available via NYRA.com and NYRABets.com. For more information, visit NYRA.com/CrossCountry.

The first two legs will be the $250,000 Albany and the $150,000 Yaddo in Races 9 and 10, respectively, on Friday. The concluding legs will take place the following day, starting with the Grade 1, $600,000 Personal Ensign presented by Lia Infiniti in Race 10 and culminating with the Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers in Race 12.

Friday's New York Showcase Day will kick off the wager, starting with the Albany for 3-year-olds contesting 1 1/8 miles on the main track with a 5:39 p.m. Eastern post time. Americanrevolution will look to continue his upward trajectory following a 7 ¼-length victory in the New York Derby at Finger Lakes. The son of Constitution handled his two-turn debut with flying colors, arriving at the New York Derby off a narrow triumph against next-out winner Water's Edge in a June 20 maiden event going six furlongs at Belmont Park.

Trainer Kelly Breen will saddle two contenders in It's a Gamble and It's Gravy.

It's a Gamble, a son of English Channel, earned an open company stakes victory when capturing an off-the-turf edition of the Jersey Derby on May 28 at Monmouth Park. The three-time winner broke his maiden over the Mellon turf last summer at Saratoga and defeated winners over the Aqueduct outer turf in the final start of his 2-year-old season.

It's Gravy, by Freud, is in search of his first victory since breaking his maiden on January 16 over a muddy and sealed main track at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The Yaddo, with a 6:13 p.m. post time, is the last of six stakes for New York-breds worth a combined $1.15 million on the Friday card. The handicap for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up going 1 1/16 miles on the Mellon turf course will see a loaded 10-horse field headlined by Myhartblongstodady who returns to defend her title after scoring gate-to-wire last summer. The 6-year-old Scat Daddy bay, trained by Jorge Abreu, boasts a record of 13-5-2-3 with purse earnings of $344,216.

Strong opposition will be provided by the Christophe Clement-trained Classic Lady, who finished third in last year's Yaddo and last out ran fourth in an open optional-claiming race over the Monmouth Park turf on July 31.

Saturday's Runhappy Travers Day, featuring seven graded stakes, including six Grade 1s, will continue the two-day wager with the 74th running of the Personal Ensign for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up going 1 1/8 miles with a 4:47 p.m. post time.

The contest, a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff in November at Del Mar, will see 2020 Grade 1 Preakness-winner Swiss Skydiver take on multiple Grade 1-winning Letruska, who will be attempting her fourth consecutive graded stakes score for trainer Fausto Gutierrez. Letruska has already secured her Breeders' Cup Distaff spot with a dominating gate-to-wire victory in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps, also a “Win and You're In” event, on Belmont Stakes Day June 5.

Swiss Skydiver, the reigning 3-Year-Old Filly champion and 2020 Grade 1 Alabama winner for conditioner Kenny McPeek, will go up against a talented field that includes Letruska and other top contenders including Bonny South.

Bonny South, from the barn of reigning Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox, will try to turn the tables on Letruska after a runner-up finish in the Ogden Phipps.

Concluding the two-day Pick 4 will be the 152nd running of the Runhappy Travers for 3-year-olds contesting the classic distance of 1 1/4 miles at 6:12 p.m. on FOX. Cox will send out the reigning Champion 2-Year-Old Essential Quality, who has sustained his excellence as a 3-year-old with back-to-back wins in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes in June and a last out victory in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy in his first start over the Saratoga track.

Keepmeinmind, trained by Robertino Diodoro, will look to turn the tables on Essential Quality, after running a hard-charging second to the Runhappy Travers morning-line favorite in the Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity and ran third in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile in 2020.

The seven-horse Runhappy Travers field is also comprised of Midnight Bourbon for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, Dynamic One, for Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, Masqueparade [Al Stall, Jr.], King Fury [McPeek] and Miles D [Chad Brown].

Two-day Pick 4 – Friday August 27:
Leg A: Saratoga – Race 9, Albany (5:39 p.m.)
Leg B: Saratoga – Race 10, Yaddo (6:13 p.m.)

Saturday August 28:
Leg C: Saratoga – Race 10, G1 Personal Ensign presented by Lia Infiniti (4:47 p.m.)
Leg D: Saratoga – Race 12, G1 Runhappy Travers (6:12 p.m.)

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The Special Bond Uniting Two Travers Colts

How very apt, that a Saratoga card also featuring a race named in her honor should culminate Saturday in a GI Runhappy Travers S. bearing a twin imprint of the legacy of Personal Ensign. Both Dynamic One (Union Rags) and Miles D (Curlin), one-two in the Curlin S. last month, trace their ancestry to the Hall of Fame mare: Dynamic One's mother is out of Personal Ensign's granddaughter Storm Flag Flying (Storm Cat); while Miles D's dam is Storm Flag Flying's unraced half-sister Sound the Trumpets (Bernardini).

But if nobody could be surprised to see fresh tendrils of class on the family tree developed by Ogden Phipps from Dorine (Arg) (Aristophanes {GB})–the Argentine matriarch imported to Claiborne in 1970–then few will perhaps be aware that both these colts also find a more literal “bond” in a second remarkable female.

For the dams of both Dynamic One and Miles D are among just eight mares grazing the pasture of River Bend Farm, on the banks of the Ohio River near Goshen, north of Louisville. And while the farm's owner Ina Bond is in a position at least to ensure quality, if not quantity, then it is pretty astonishing for so small a band of broodmares to account for two of the six rivals to Essential Quality (Tapit)–especially when you consider that Bond has already bred one Grade I winner at Saratoga this summer, in Coaching Club American Oaks winner Maracuja (Honor Code).

In fairness, this apparent Midas touch did not prevent the sale of Maracuja's dam Patti's Regal Song (Unbridled's Song) for just $50,000 at the Keeneland November Sale of 2019. But if that has turned into a windfall for Checkmate Thoroughbreds, then at that same auction Bond herself achieved a similar coup in buying an 8-year-old mare named Beat the Drums (Smart Strike) for $400,000. She must have been delighted that the Phipps Stable had been willing to cull a mare whose latest yearling had raised as much as $725,000 at the September Sale. After all, while Beat the Drums had shown little in two career starts, the Phipps Stable was glad to retain a stake in the yearling with his purchasers Repole Stable & St. Elias Stable. And this colt, of course, has turned out to be none other than Dynamic One.

Beat the Drums, moreover, has started to pay her way already. The Honor Code colt she was carrying that November was sold as a yearling to Centennial Farms for $260,000; Bond is very pleased with her weanling colt by Ghostzapper; and the mare is in meanwhile foal to Street Sense.

Miles D, for his part, similarly helped to recoup Bond's investment in his dam. Sound the Trumpets had cost $675,000 at the Keeneland November Sale of 2017, with the bonus of a Curlin cover. The resulting foal was Miles D, who was sold through Denali to White Birch Farm as a September yearling for $470,000.

The next foal out of Sound the Trumpets, a Pioneerof the Nile colt, did not achieve quite the same traction, as a $120,000 RNA, and has been retained to race. “He's called Trumpets Blare, he's with Ian Wilkes and just getting ready to run shortly,” explained Bond, adding that Sound the Trumpets was given this cycle off after the late spring delivery of a fine colt by Medaglia d'Oro. The mare, after all, is still only eight.

“She also has a [Quality Road yearling] filly, that I think I'll keep,” Bond said. “I think I'd like to keep any fillies from that family. It just keeps producing, including in the last couple of years, not just runners but producers as well. And Sound the Trumpets is an extremely good-looking mare. We're very careful always to seek good conformation, because if they have an injury you're lost. Frankly I'm more of a commercial breeder than a racer, so I always try to get correct broodmares with a really strong pedigree–not just 'what have you done for me lately', the way a lot of people go for the hot new stallions. I spend a lot of time and get a lot of help doing the matings.”

There is hardly a stronger maternal line in the Stud Book, of course, than the sequence of three consecutive Breeders' Cup winners comprising Personal Ensign, My Flag (Easy Goer) and Storm Flag Flying. But if anyone should believe in pedigree, it is Ina Bond. For her own “page” is one of the most resonant in Kentucky: her great-grandfather George Garvin Brown founded Brown-Forman–think Woodford Reserve, Jack Daniels–and her grandfather Owsley Brown and father W.L. Lyons Brown both served as chairman. Bond in turn inherited an energetic commitment to both corporate and civic service, giving her time to a bewildering variety of business, community, educational and charity institutions. Now a septuagenarian, she admits that for much of her life, she has been too distracted to make the most of the sanctuary she has always relished on the farm since its acquisition in 1990.

“I got kind of overwhelmed,” she reflected. “I used to do a lot of volunteer work and was on a lot of different boards, commercial and non-commercial, I just got very busy and was always playing catch-up. Nowadays there are so many more tracks, so many horses and sires, everybody loves the betting. But it's a good thing, I suppose: it seems like whatever is going on in the world, the market for horses is very strong.

“I was always fascinated by horses, right from when I was little; in fact, I think I was in a horse show when I was in first grade. My mother was a good friend of Warner Jones, and I bought River Bend Farm from his son-in-law. It's a beautiful farm, but when I was starting out, the market was really bad. But though I had just a few mares, that first year one of them got us the second top price at the September Sale.

“I lived on the farm and it got me out a little bit, away from all these other things I was doing. But I also had children, and then eight grandchildren, as well as all those other different things stopping me from getting out with the horses as much as I'd like. But thankfully I did get some help. I have a nice crew who take care of the mares and foals; they never missed a day this summer no matter how hot it's been. And my farm manager Larry Weeden has helped me for 30 years; he's very good.”

Nurturing pedigrees is itself a task of conservation, and that is an area that has impassioned Bond's son Austin Mussulman–notably in the restoration of Ashbourne Farms in Oldham County, long part of the family and now a wedding, meeting and entertainment venue, securing the habitat alongside Harrods Creek. His wife Janie, meanwhile, comes from another storied Kentucky farm in Buck Pond, through which Maracuja–bred in partnership by Bond, her son and daughter-in-law–was sold as a Saratoga yearling for $200,000.

Buck Pond stands a surprise Travers winner in V.E. Day (English Channel) and now Bond, her family and her friends can root for another. The scrupulous standards of this boutique operation are certainly commensurate with the task facing Dynamic One and Miles D. Auspiciously, moreover, Bond reckons she has seldom had young stock on the farm of greater elegance and ease of motion than now. Look out, then, for the first foal of the young Ghostzapper mare Persephone's Dawn, an Into Mischief filly presented by Denali as Hip 488 at Keeneland September.

Aristocratic as these bloodlines are, any underdog can take legitimate inspiration from Bond's Saratoga summer: one mare cheaply culled after producing a subsequent Grade I winner, but promptly replaced by one whose own yearling son was even then embarking on a career that has meanwhile already taken in a shot at the Derby.

“That's what makes this business so attractive,” Bond observes. “You never know. When I sold the dam of Maracuja, she hadn't really produced much, but now she has a Grade I winner. I'm not a great big farm, like the ones around Lexington. We're not Juddmonte or Darley. I've basically been a small commercial breeder for 30 years. So needless to say, I'm quite excited by the Travers, though the competition is huge. I did not raise Dynamic One, but he's from that wonderful family; and I know Chad Brown is a great trainer, and he wouldn't have Miles D in there if he didn't think he had a shot, I think he really likes that colt. As I say, I've always been a small player. So this is a big deal for me, and I'd be thrilled if either of them were to be placed–or even give everyone a big surprise and win.”

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