Rinaldo Del Gallo, III
By: Rinaldo Del Gallo, III
I am a bit surprised who skipped this race. FORTE (USA) dkb/br. C, 2020 {1-x}, the controversial winner of the Jim Dandy is in the race. The Jim Dandy at Saratoga is the traditional prep race for the Travers. Yet the horse that lost to Forte by only a nose, SAUDI CROWN (USA) gr/r. C, 2020 {12-c} will not be in the Travers.
Horses such as LEMON DROP KID (USA) b. H, 1996 {3-l} and WILLS WAY (USA) b. H, 1993 {A1} came in 2nd in the Jim Dandy and won the Travers. Yet there is no Saudi Crown in the Travers—perhaps Forte was coming on too strong in the end of the Jim Dandy and the Travers is a 1 ¼ miles as opposed to 1 1/8th miles. Still, what racing fan would not want to watch a horse race with a rematch of two horses that just were a nose apart? Angel of Empire, the horse that in my opinion was fouled by Forte in the Jim Dandy (but the stewards believed otherwise) will also be absent from the Travers, but fourth place Jim Dandy finisher Disarm will also be there.
(Will’s Way represented 3 generations of Travers winners, in that his sire Easy Goer, and Easy Goer’s sire Alydar won the Travers—it was actually 4 in five generations as while Alydar’s sire Raise a Native did not win the Travers, his sire Native Dancer did.)
There are other notably absent horses in the Travers. The Haskell, also a traditional prep for the Travers, is a Grade 1 race (as compared to the Grade 2 Jim Dandy) and has a 1-million-dollar purse as compared to the Jim Dandy’s ½ a million dollars. It would stand to reason, although history has not remotely always borne this out, that the winner of the Haskell should be one of the favorites of this year’s Jim Dandy. Yet the winner of the Haskell, GEAUX ROCKET RIDE (USA) b. C, 2020 {1-n}, is not in the Travers. Nor is the horse that came in 3rd in the Haskell, ARABIAN KNIGHT (USA) b. C, 2020 {23-b}. The Haskell was Arabian Knight’s third start, so I don’t know whether it is health related.
But the Travers does have one unusual quality to it. It will feature something it rarely does. The 2023 Preakness will have the winner of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and the Belmont stakes. The Kentucky Derby winner, Mage, was second in the Haskell and lost by 1 ¾ lengths. The Preakness winner, NATIONAL TREASURE (USA) b. C, 2020 {4-c}, next ran in the Belmont where he finished in 6th, and 7 lengths back. Mage finished 3rd in that Preakness, 2 ¼ lengths back.
Finally, Belmont winner ARCANGELO (USA) gr/r. C, 2020 {8-f}. Arcangelo has BETTER THAN HONOUR (USA) b. M, 1996 {8-f} as his third dam, a dam of two Belmont winners (Jazil and Rags to Riches and Breeder’s Cup Marathon winner MAN OF IRON (USA) ch. H, 2006 {8-f}) perhaps explaining for his win in the 1 1/2 mile Belmont stakes. But Arcangelo sire is ARROGATE (USA) gr/r. H, 2013 {16-g}, an amazing racehorse winning the Travers himself in 2016, the Breeder’s Cup Classic and the Dubai World Cup. So Arcangelo clearly has the breeding for the Travers distance of 1 ¼ miles.
THE 2017 TRAVERS
The strange Travers was in 2017, when the winner of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont entered in the race, and none were in the money and all relegated to “also rans.” Kentucky Derby winning Always Dreaming came in 9th in the Travers. The 2017 Belmont winner Tapwrit came in 4th. The winner of the 2017 Preakness, Cloud Computing, came in 8th place in that 2017 Travers.
I actually wrote about the accomplishment of WEST COAST (USA) b. H, 2014 {9-f} for beating all three classic winners, but major Thoroughbred publications refused to publish it and made little or no mention of this historic fact themselves. Of course, also beating all three triple crown winners in the same race was GUNNEVERA (USA) ch. H, 2014 {16-h} who was second in the 2017 Travers, perhaps one of the richest purse winners that never won a Grade 1, and IRAP (USA) b. C, 2014 {9-b}. Irap was half to Speightstown, who died prematurely ending a hope of continuing the Godolphin Arabian sire line accomplished the same.) Perhaps these publications who refused to run my piece (or even mention that three classic winners not only lost, but were not in the money) wanted to keep good relations for the classic winners for ads for studs, but in doing so diminished the accomplishments of the horses that beat the three classic winners.
2017 Travers
THE 1982 TRAVERS
In the 1982 Travers, near miss of the Canadian Triple Crown RUNAWAY GROOM (CAN) gr. H, 1979 {4-r} won the Travers at odds of 12-1. Runaway Groom beat all three American classic winners in that 1982 Travers. Kentucky Derby winner Gato Del Sol came in 5th and last, winning an allowance race as a prep. Aloma’s Ruler won the 1882 Preakness. Aloma’s Ruler was second in the 1982 Travers. The horse that won the Belmont, CONQUISTADOR CIELO (USA) b. H, 1979 {8-h}, came in third in the 1982 Travers after winning the Jim Dandy. Conquistador Cielo had been on an amazing roll before his 3rd, winning the Belmont, the Metropolitan Handicap (against older horses), the Dwyer and three allowance races. Conquistador Cielo did not run again after that 1982 Travers. Aloma’s Ruler won the Withers, won the Preakness, was 9th in the Belmont, and 3rd in the Suburban against older horses, won the Jersey Derby and then was second in the Haskell. He too never raced again after the 1982 Travers.
Run Away Group won the Breeders Stakes at Woodbine, and the Price of Whales at Fort Erie, but was second in the Queen’s Plate also at Woodbine, thereby just missing the Canadian Triple Crown. Most Canadian Triple Crown winners are as good as American top horses, with AWESOME AGAIN (CAN) b. H, 1994 {1-c}, DANCE SMARTLY (CAN) b. M, 1988 {23-b}, and NORTHERN DANCER (CAN) b. H, 1961 {2-d} being the exception and not the rule.
The 1982 Travers
THE 1918 TRAVERS
1918 Travers was won by SUN BRIAR (FR) b. H, 1915 {8-c}, a French bred horse that was the American two year old champion. The British born JOHREN (GB) b. H, 1915 {2-h} was second in the 1918 Travers—he lost his first 10 races and then won the Belmont. Johren was to eventually be that year’s three-year old champion. In an amazing complete foreign born first, second, and third, WAR CLOUD (GB) b. H, 1915 {4-l}, winner of the Preakness and (surprisingly since he was imported) the first horse to run in all three American Triple Crown races was third in the 1918 Travers. According to pedigreequery.com, War Cloud was “sent to France after his four-year-old season but had little success there and was returned to the USA to stand the 1923 season at Claiborne Farm. Broke a leg following the 1923 breeding season and had to be euthanized.” War Cloud’s sire was POLYMELUS (GB) b. H, 1902 {3-f}, an excellent sire who sire Phalaris, from whom 95% of all thoroughbreds of today descend in tail male. In that 1918 Travers, the Hall of Fame gelding
Sun Briar Racehorse
EXTERMINATOR (USA) ch. G, 1915 {A1} came in 4th.
Exterminator had a strange life. Though he was to run 100 times, the Kentucky Derby was only fifth start and it was his first start as a three-year-old. Exterminator was a long shot in the Kentucky Derby, going off at $29.60 to 1. The purse was $18,000 and he won by a head. His only other two wins were in an allowance race and a maiden special weight. Exterminator was second in the $12,000 Latonia Derby to Johren, and second in the $4,000 Kenner Stakes at Saratoga, a race of prestige at the time. Exterminator, one of the last great horses of the Rataplan sire line, was to turn into such a great horse he would win the Saratoga Cup in 1921 in a walk-over. He went off at $1.10 payout for a $1 bet according to the DRF form for that Travers, but he was fourth, beaten by 12 lengths.
Sun Briar was to eventually sire 1924 Travers winner Sun Flag and became a great sire.
TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS IN THE TRAVERS
Of course, there is the amazing story of Keen Ice who beat Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh in the 2015 Travers–I am not sure how to fit that in this picture, but boy was it an historic upset. You could throw Jim Dandy who beat Gallant Fox also into that mix in 1930. Whirlaway won the 1941 Travers, and is the only Triple Crown winner to have won that race. Triple Crown winners Assault and Citation not only did not run in the Travers, they never raced at Saratoga. So too with Count Fleet, who like Justify ended his career after the Belmont. Triple Crown winner Sir Barton did not run in the Travers, although he ran at Saratoga in later years and during his two-year-old campaign. Sir Barton’s first start at three was in the Kentucky Derby and it is in that race he broke his maiden.
It was an amazing Travers–100-1 Gallant Fox wins but not by a nose–by a whole bunch. Two-year old champion Whichone was third, and never ran again.
Actual footage of 1930 Travers:
Keen Ice beats American Pharaoh in the Travers:
2017 AND 1982 and 1918 ALL OVER AGAIN?
So this year’s Travers will have all three classic winners won by three separate horses, as did the 2017 and 1982 and 1918 renditions. Let’s see what happens. Will an American classic winner win the race? Or will this be only the third Travers, in a race first run in 1864, where all 3 American classic winners (won by three different horses) are beaten in the same race?
In my estimate, there is not a horse in this year’s Travers that would shock me if he won. Even SCOTLAND (USA) ch. G, 2020 {10-a} who won the Curlin, a stakes race under allowance conditions (cannot have been a graded stakes winner at over 1 mile in their 3 year old campaign), stands a chance with his 99 Beyer and beating a horse that next won the Smarty Jones. TAPIT TRICE (USA) gr/r. C, 2020 {19-b} who won the Blue Grass and Tampa Bay Derby and was third in the Belmont is certainly no joke despite his clunker in the Haskell where he came in 5th and lost by 8 lengths.
