By T. D. Thornton
As Tuesday's entry time looms, the GI Travers S. is shaping up as a rare showdown of the three winners of this season's Triple Crown races. That's happened only five times since 1978, and on no occasion during the last 45 years when the winners of those spring Classics all graced the starting gate for Saratoga's “Midsummer Derby” has any one of them emerged victorious.
That's a fairly daunting stat considering how the match-up of the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Preakness S. and GI Belmont S. winners is essentially what the public wants to see.
It's also a little surprising because of the presence of several high-profile horses on that list of Travers losers: Two of them had even swept the Triple Crown before getting derailed at the Spa–one crossed the wire first but was disqualified for interference, while the other endured the roughest trip of his career in his only loss at age three.
Adding to this year's intrigue, none of the winners of this spring's Triple Crown races are likely to be favored in the Travers. Derby upsetter Mage (Good Magic), Preakness victor National Treasure (Quality Road), and Belmont bloomer Arcangelo (Arrogate) all figure to be eclipsed in the betting by last year's 2-year-old champ, Forte (Violence).
Turn the clock back to 2017 to find the last Travers that lured all three Triple Crown race winners. Always Dreaming, first in the Derby, finished ninth in Saratoga's showcase race. Cloud Computing, the Preakness winner, ran eighth. Tapwrit, the Belmont winner, finished fourth, eight lengths behind the 6-1, wire-to-wire Travers outsider West Coast, who had broken his maiden in March, passed on the Triple Crown, and prepped with a score in the GIII Los Alamitos Derby.
In 2015, American Pharoah looked like a Travers slam dunk at .35-1 odds after dominating the division with powerhouse performances in the Derby, Preakness, Belmont, and GI Haskell Invitational. But the champ was boxed in, bounced around, and knocked off stride by 7-1 pace-presser Frosted in the Travers, softening him up just enough for the 16-1 Keen Ice to prevail by three-quarters of a length.
Before that, there had been a 33-year gap back to the last Travers that featured all three winners of that year's Triple Crown races.
The 1982 renewal only drew five entrants, but it was headlined by speedy Belmont stayer Conquistador Cielo, the 2-5 chalk who was looking to extend a seven-race win streak. Derby winner Gato Del Sol and Preakness upsetter Aloma's Ruler were the second and third favorites. But Aloma's Ruler and Conquistador Cielo dueled themselves into defeat, allowing the overlooked Canadian-bred gray Runaway Groom to eke out a half-length victory at 12-1 after prepping for the Travers with a score in Fort Erie's Prince of Wales S. Behind him, the Preakness, Belmont and Derby winners had to settle for second, third, and fifth, respectively.
The 1981 Travers also featured a Triple Crown triumvirate, consisting of Derby and Preakness winner Pleasant Colony, sent postward as the 8-5 fave, and Summing, who had beaten him in the Belmont. They were second and ninth, respectively, behind the 24-1 Travers party crasher Willow Hour, who splashed home by a head after refusing to get hooked into running too fast too early by a rabbit entrymate of Pleasant Colony's.
You have to go all the way back to 1978 to find the last time the Travers drew the winners of all three spring Classics and the first horse across the line was a winner of one of those races. But even that apparent victory was fleeting.
In this case it was the Triple Crown champ Affirmed, who was sent off the 7-10 favorite over the even-money Alydar, whom he had defeated in Louisville, Baltimore and New York. Yet in one of the most dramatic renewals in Travers history, Affirmed's 1 3/4-length victory was erased by a disqualification because he had dropped down near the rail nearing the far turn, cutting off his arch-rival and forcing Alydar into the fence. The stewards' reversal of the order of finish based on the foul elevated Alydar to the win.
Big effort from 'Cody's' Lil Bro
Hunt Ball (Into Mischief), the 2-year-old little brother of multiple Grade I-winning miler Cody's Wish (Curlin), didn't win his sprint debut Saturday at Saratoga. But his second-place effort in the first race Aug. 19 behind wire-to-wire favorite Risk It (Gun Runner) stamps him as a horse of interest moving forward.
The Godolphin homebred for trainer Bill Mott got pinballed at the break then rushed up into contention, losing momentum several times while trying to find a comfortable stalking spot chasing a well-meant winner over six furlongs. He leveled off with purpose under coaxing and was drawing a bead on Risk It in upper stretch before the favorite kicked clear by 4 1/2 lengths.
Keep an eye on Hunt Ball with a little bit more real estate to work with in start No. 2, whenever and wherever it comes.
Hunt Ball's dam, Dance Card, lost her sprint debut back in 2012 before racking up four straight wins over 1 1/16 miles and nine furlongs, including a Grade I win in that year's Gazelle S.
And Cody's Wish himself required four initial starts to find winning form in 2021, including twice being a beaten favorite as a juvenile at Saratoga before blasting through with three straight wins over one-turn miles at Churchill Downs.
Axel on a roll
If you have the drive and the talent, the mid-Atlantic region is a great region to launch a racing career as an up-and-coming jockey, because it affords opportunities to ride at both day and evening tracks.
Right now the 18-year-old apprentice Axel Concepcion is making the most of the roughly 75-mile commute between Laurel Park and Charles Town Races. In a span of just under 48 hours between Friday night and Sunday afternoon, he rode nine combined winners at those two tracks.
The weekend spree included the first stakes score for Concepcion, who turned pro Jan. 1 in his native Puerto Rico. He won 21 races there before earning his first mainland U.S. victory Feb. 19 at Fair Grounds. He shifted his tack to Laurel a week later. Riding with a five-pound allowance, he's currently Maryland's leading apprentice this year and is represented by agent Tom Stift.
Concepcion rode two winners at Charles Town Friday, Aug. 18. The next afternoon at Laurel he scored in four, including one aboard an 11-1 shot and another on the 4-1 Field Pass (Lemon Drop Kid) in the $75,000 Find S. for owner Three Diamonds Farm and trainer Mike Maker. Back at Charles Town under the lights Aug. 19, Concepcion made two more visits to the winner's circle. On Sunday, Aug. 20, he rode one winner at Laurel.
In between, he's at Laurel for morning training, honing his skills while trying to get noticed and pick up business on an ultra- competitive circuit.
“He's got to be there in the morning at 6 a.m.,” Stift said. “He's been doing it for months now. He's on a mission. Obviously, Mike [Maker]'s been watching the races and watching Axel ride. You don't put a bug boy on a [stakes] horse like that unless you've been paying attention.”
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