By Mike Kane
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Though an impressive win in the GI Haskell S. helped make Cyberknife (Gun Runner) the second choice on the morning line for Saturday's GI Runhappy Travers S., trainer Brad Cox agreed with the question: Is your colt underappreciated?
“I think he is a little bit, given the fact he's won two Grade Is,” Cox said.
Very quickly, Cox made it clear that he was not quibbling that the linemaker for the 153rd Travers figured that Epicenter (Not This Time) would have the lowest odds by his name when the gates open. The estimate was that the GII Jim Dandy S. winner leaving from post six would go off at 7-5 in the field of eight.
“Obviously, the favorite is a very good horse,” Cox said. “He was second in the Kentucky Derby and I think that goes a long way. Then, the Kentucky Derby winner is 10-1.”
Cyberknife was listed at 7-2 after drawing the rail in the 1 1/4 miles Travers. Rich Strike (Keen Ice), who won the Derby at odds of 80-1, will be in the next gate. He was sixth in the GI Belmont S. June 11 in his most recent start. Rich Strike will be the 27th Derby winner to have a go in the Travers. Ten have won.
“The Kentucky Derby this year is a race, and I'm not taking anything away from the winner, but it's just a race that if it was run several more times, you would get several different results,” Cox said. “It was one of those Derbys that you see every 10 to 15 years when you don't think what can happen happens. That had a lot to do with the pace and I had two horses who were involved in that pace. If we rewind, we wouldn't go that quick. No one would have. It's just the way it happened and it worked out.”
Cyberknife, owned by Saratoga resident Al Gold's Gold Square LLC, ended up 18th in the Derby after starting in post 16 at 14-1 after staying close to the pace. Another Cox Derby horse, Zozos (Munnings), also paid the price for going too fast and was 10th. His third Derby runner, Tawny Port (Pioneerof the Nile), was able to close after sitting off the torrid early fractions and finished seventh.
“That's not a true read with them going that quick that early,” Cox said. “I don't think he will have any issue with the mile and a quarter, just based off the pedigree and how he has finished up in his races.”
That pedigree has Travers connections. Gun Runner was third in Arrogate's track-record Travers in 2016 and his dam sire, Flower Alley (Distorted Humor) won the race in 2005.
Cyberknife locked up his Derby berth with a 2 3/4-length win in the GI Arkansas Derby at 5-1. The run at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May was a disappointment, but Cyberknife prepped for the Haskell with a win by a nose at 1-2 in the GIII Matt Winn S. at Churchill June 12. He picked up the second Grade I–the only runner in the Travers field to have a pair–with a big performance at Monmouth Park July 23. Months ago, Cox said that Cyberknife was a slow-maturing colt that might be better in the second half of the year. So far, that looks to be an astute assessment.
“He broke the track record and the stakes record in the Haskell,” Cox said. “We're looking forward to giving him an opportunity at a mile and a quarter. We know a lot more about him now than we did when we ran him a mile and a quarter in the Kentucky Derby. Hopefully, he won't be part of some type of suicidal pace. I don't think there'd be one anyway. We'll see how it goes. Overall, the horse is doing really well. He settled in here. He's been here for five weeks, I think he's set up for a huge effort.”
Cyberknife has worked three times over the main track at Saratoga, most recently five furlongs in 1:00 on Saturday.
Starting from the inside post in the Haskell under jockey Florent Geroux, Cyberknife sat a ground-saving, stalking trip. While Taiba (Gun Runner) was making an outside move toward the favorite Jack Christopher (Munnings) near the quarter pole, Cyberknife and Geroux were attacking from near the rail.
“I think probably the most impressive thing is when they turned for home, how Florent seemed to have a good bit of horse left,” Cox said. “It just showed how much talent he really has. He really cruised up there to the lead inside Jack Christopher and was able to dig in and really fight to get there and galloped out well. That was the most impressive.
“Another thing that was very impressive with him, which he did in the Arkansas Derby, he's able to sit inside of horses, and he didn't get too worked up and feel the pressure from other horses. He'll relax down there on the inside, which I think is a big asset.”
Being comfortable on the rail could prove to be a benefit in the Travers, which has had but two winners from post 1 in the last 40 years: Holy Bull (Great Above) in 1994 and Arrogate (Unbridled's Song) in 2016.
The last Haskell winner to double up in the Travers was Point Given (Thunder Gulch) in 2001. Since then, 12 Haskell winners have come up short in the Travers, most notably Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile), who was second to Keen Ice (Curlin) in 2015.
Cox won the Travers last year with Essential Quality (Tapit). While he is confident that Cyberknife is ready for this test, he said he was mildly surprised that the colt was placed as high as he was on the morning line.
“Maybe a little bit,” he said. “I thought maybe Zandon (Upstart) would have been second choice. It didn't really matter. I thought that this guy who does the odds here in New York does it as well as anybody, so he's probably spot on. It doesn't really matter as long as we're the first choice after the race.”
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