Travers

With the GI Kentucky Derby moved to Sept. 5 and the GI Kentucky Oaks pushed to Sept. 4, a quartet of Saratoga stakes will be added to the qualifying prep races. The GIII Peter Pan S. July 16 and the GI Traver S. Aug., 8 will be part of the Road to the Derby at 100 and 50 points, respectively. Added to the Oaks trail are the GI CCA Oaks July 18 and the GI Alabama S. Aug. 15, both 100 points. Churchill Downs has also announced three additional Derby...

The GI Runhappy Travers S, normally run on the next-to-last weekend of the Saratoga meet, has been moved up to Aug. 8. The shift of the Travers date was one of a handful of changes made to the 2020 Saratoga stakes schedule, which was released Friday by the New York Racing Association. Had the Travers stayed in its normal slot on the calendar, it would have been run Aug. 29, just one week before the repositioned GI Kentucky Derby. With the race having been moved back three weeks, it sets...

Arrogate (Unbridled's Song--Bubbler, by Distorted Humor), the richest North American racehorse in history, was humanely euthanized Tuesday morning at Juddmonte Farms in Lexington, Kentucky, after suffering from an undetermined illness, Juddmonte Farms announced via press release. He was 7-years-old. "It is with great sadness that Juddmonte confirms that Arrogate was euthanized this morning, after a battle to save him [from] an illness that began last week. It is still unclear what the illness was and a post -mortem is currently being carried out," the release said. "Arrogate had a very...

Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB}), an Eclipse Award finalist for champion 3-year-old male in 2019, is targeting the GIII Westchester S. for his return on opening weekend at Belmont Park June 6. The dominating GI Runhappy Travers S. hero has post five workouts at Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey's Payson Park base in Florida this spring dating back to mid-April. He is currently in training with McGaughey at Belmont Park. "He went five-eighths in 1:01 and change the other day [at Payson May 17]," McGaughey said. "He was a...

The New York Racing Association has yet to announce if it will move the date of the GI Runhappy Travers S., but at least one owner of a top 3-year-old has weighed in. Jack Knowlton, whose Sackatoga Stable owns GI Curlin Florida Derby winner Tiz the Law (Constitution), said it would be "suicidal" to run the race on its scheduled date of Aug. 29. An Aug. 29 Travers would mean that it would be run one week before a rescheduled GI Kentucky Derby Sept. 5. Considering that top horses very...

John A. DiMario, who trained Runaway Groom to a memorable upset in the 1982 GI Travers S. at Saratoga, passed away Thursday at the age of 91. Runaway Groom famously defeated the winners of all three Triple Crown races in that year's Midsummer Derby-Gato Del Sol (Kentucky Derby), Aloma's Ruler (Preakness) and Conquistador Cielo (Belmont). That feat had only occured once before when Sun Briar pulled it off back in 1918, per Jonathan Stettin of Past the Wire. Runaway Groom also captured two-thirds of that season's Canadian Triple Crown. "I've...

As the TDN Rising Star Amalfi Sunrise drew off for an easy six-length success in the GII Sorrento S., I was reminded of a commission I received in the fall of 2015. With the Breeders' Cup bandwagon due to roll into Lexington and Keeneland, WinStar wanted to promote its extensive team of stallions. I was asked to write 250-word summaries for each of them, including three which were scheduled to be added to the roster in 2016. Strangely, those three--Constitution, Commissioner and Daredevil--were respectively responsible for Amalfi Sunrise, Powerfulattraction and...

Lack of clarity isn't the same as lack of quality. A crop that produces a standout sophomore will sometimes be weaker than those, like the current one, that rotate the laurels. Either way, however, we should as usual have a better sense of where we stand after the GI Runhappy Travers S.--where the Classic veterans will either prove themselves to have been too faintly praised, or allow a later developer to come along and pick up the pieces. Certainly the Aug. 24 showdown should help to identify who bears the...