JC / Railbird

Travers Stakes Archive

The Street Sense We Got

It wasn’t the Street Sense who dominated in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile or the Kentucky Derby. The Street Sense who won the Travers, writes Mike Watchmaker, “was the Street Sense who barely edged Any Given Saturday in the Tampa Bay Derby, who missed in a photo in the bizarrely run Blue Grass, and who was nailed by Curlin in the Preakness when he pulled himself up after opening a clear lead in deep stretch” (DRF+). The great shame of Street Sense’s imminent retirement to stud (BRIS) is that he’ll never get a chance to overcome this immaturity and fulfill his immense talent. We might get to see how Street Sense does against older horses before the Breeders’ Cup Classic, though: The September 22 Massachusetts Handicap is among the BC prep options trainer Carl Nafzger is considering. “You need to run, I think, against older horses,” Nafzger said (Times Union). The possibility must be tantalizing Suffolk Downs officials. The MassCap lost its graded status after it was cancelled in 2005 and 2006, but the track is dangling a large bonus on top of its $300,000 purse to any winner of a Triple Crown race entered.

Posted in Saratoga, Travers Stakes on August 27, 2007

And It’s Birdstone, Again

The diminutive Belmont winner repeated that feat with the Travers, easily holding off The Cliff’s Edge and Eddington in the stretch.
More: “Birdstone shows Belmont was no fluke” (New York Times); “Birdstone quiets doubters” (Daily Racing Form); “Little colt proves he’s all heart” (Times Union).
See the race replay.
[8/29 Follow-up: “Lion Heart injured, retired” and “Birdstone’s next start likely BC Classic” (Daily Racing Form)]

Posted in Travers Stakes on August 28, 2004

Last-Minute Travers Roundup

Matt Graves says: The Cliff’s Edge. “I’ve thought the Travers was Cliff’s race for months.” (Times Union)
Eddington looks for redemption. “It’s the classic 7-foot-freshman case.” (New York Post)
Beware Purge. “Purge doesn’t like company, unless it’s tasty.” (Dallas Morning News)
Obligatory Smarty mention. (Boston Globe)

Posted in Travers Stakes on August 28, 2004

Overlooked

“It’s a pity no one pays attention to the Travers,” writes Daniel Habib on Sports Illustrated, “because it features the Triple Crown contenders, winnowed down and more physically mature, racing at the most idyllic track in the U.S.” He’s so right. Of the hundreds of thousands who tuned into the Triple Crown races, relatively few will watch this Saturday as a field of very talented three-year-olds take to the track. What a shame….

Posted in Travers Stakes on August 26, 2004