Posted on
8/23/2007 7:54:30 PM
Horse Betting - Travers Preview and History
By Greg Melikov
Only nine winners of the Kentucky Derby have won the Travers – two of the country’s oldest stakes races.
After Aristides captured the first Derby at Churchill Downs in 1875, D’Artagnan won the 12th Travers at Saratoga. The first Derby winner to take both stakes was Hindoo in 1881.
Only one Triple Crown champion succeeded in both contests: Whirlaway in 1941.
In the last 14 years, two of three Derby champs visited the Travers’ winners’ circle: Sea Hero in ’93 and Thunder Gulch in ’95. But six horses that lost at Churchill Downs won Saratoga’s showcase race often called the Mid-Summer Derby.
In fact, the race staged from ’27 through ’32 was run as the Travers Mid-Summer Derby. In ’30, Jim Dandy, who had a Travers’ prep named after him starting in ’64, shocked Triple Crown champ Gallant Fox.
Street Sense, the overwhelming 3-5 morning line favorite, could become the first horse to take the Kentucky Derby, Jim Dandy and Travers.
The colt surely will be the post-time favorite in a field that may reach nine in the 138th running. The purse was jacked up from $600,000 in ’06 to $1 million.
The son of Street Cry, thanks to the successful strategy of trainer Carl Nafzger, has rebounded from narrow defeats this year.
After being nosed out by Dominican in the Blue Grass Stakes, he roared back to defeat Hard Spun and Curlin in the Kentucky Derby.
After losing by a head to Curlin in the Preakness Stakes, he skipped the Belmont Stakes and defeated several horses in the Jim Dandy that will go in the Travers: runner-up C P West, the second choice at 5-1, and third-place finisher Sightseeing, 6-1.
Between ’04 and ’89, five winners of the Belmont Stakes captured the Travers, including Birdstone, trained by Nick Zito, who has had at least one runner in seven of the last eight years.
Birdstone, one of three Zito entries in ’04, ended the Triple Crown bid of Smarty Jones in the third jewel. He sends out C P West, an also-ran at Pimlico and Belmont after skipping the Kentucky Derby, and the 20-1 Helsinki, fourth in the Lemon Drop Kid Stakes at Saratoga.
Other challengers in the seven-horse field are Loose Leaf, victorious in the Lemon Drop Kid; 12-1; Grasshopper, three victories in five races, 8-1; and For You Reppo, with a lone maiden triumph, 20-1.
Some pretty good horses that lost or skipped the Derby, but won the Preakness and Belmont went on to score in the Travers:
Man o‘ War, who didn’t run in the ’20 Derby; Native Dancer, second to Dark Star in ’53 at Churchill Downs; Damascus, third in the ’67 Derby; and Point Given, off the board in Louisville in ’01, but captured the Haskell, too.
Other winners of the Travers that failed to capture a Triple Crown race include:
Alydar, perennial runner-up to ’78 Triple Crown winner Affirmed, moved to first via disqualification over his nemesis; Holy Bull, 12th in the ’94 Kentucky Derby, who defeated Concern en route to best 3-year-old and Horse of the Year honors; and Medaglia d‘Oro, who also captured the ’02 Jim Dandy.
Prior to 1890, the Travers was staged at 1 ¾ miles. It wasn’t held several years dating back to 1896. Anti-gambling legislation shuttered all New York tracks in 1911-12. The race was run at 1 ½ miles 1890-92 and 1 1/8 miles in 1895 and 1901-03.
The distance has been 1 ¼ miles since ’04 when Broomstick won in 2:06 4/5. The fastest time was posted in ’79 by General Assembly -- two minutes flat.
A nose decided the race seven times from 1916 to ’98. Damascus posted the largest winning margin -- 22 lengths.
William Travers, Saratoga’s first president that steered building of the track, owned the winner of the inaugural race in 1864 when the purse was $2,940: Kentucky.
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