There’s more to Travers Day than Travers
Big race often overshadows a galaxy of stars in undercard
Four days out from the Travers, and so far there have been no major defections. The main “selling point” for this year’s running is that, for the first time in 35 years, the field will include the winners of all three Triple Crown races. None of the three won the 1982 Travers – Canadian invader Runaway Groom did – and it will not be a complete surprise if the Triple Crown stars come up short this year as well. A full field of 14 is a possibility.
This is the third year of the expanded Travers Day card that includes five other Grade 1s (Personal Ensign, Sword Dancer, Forego, Ballerina and H. Allen Jerkens) plus the Grade 2 Ballston Spa. It’s a great way to watch and wager on a sort of mini-Breeders’ Cup, with many of the top horses from the eastern half of the country, and sometimes a few from the West Coast, racing at the same place on the same day.
The new arrangement has its downside, however. For one thing, it means nearly half of Saratoga’s Grade 1s (6 of 16) are crammed within a few hours on one day of the 40-day meet. The inevitable result is that the remaining Grade 1s are spread more thinly than they used to be.
Travers Day can also be a logistical nightmare for those who like to view horses at the paddock and winner’s circle, and still have time to get to the betting window, beer concession, bathroom and back to their seat in time to watch the race. Obviously, it can’t be done.
In a sense, the new Travers Day can be too much of a good thing. With all these Grade 1s coming one after the other, one barely has time to digest the result of one race be-
fore it’s time to get ready for the next one. Finally, no matter how many major stakes are tacked on the card, Travers Day will always be first and foremost about the Travers itself, with all other races relegated to undercard status. Races that would otherwise be headlining their own program — regardless of who is running in them — are instead seen as warm-ups for the main event. Take as an example the $700,000 Personal Ensign Stakes, which until 2015 usually headlined its own card, often on a Friday or Sunday. Last year it was scheduled as the sixth race on the Travers Day card, five races before the Travers itself. This year it will probably be in a similar spot. This year’s Personal Ensign has attracted Songbird, the two-time champion who is arguably the best horse currently in training. She’s been here before, of course, having swept last year’s Coaching Club American Oaks and Alabama en route to the three-yearold filly championship. With Forever Unbridled in this year’s field, she faces a much sterner test in the Personal Ensign in what is one of the day’s most anticipated match-ups.
A second race that has been “downgraded” by being transferred to Travers Day is the $600,000 Forego, which in recent years had been paired up with the Woodward on Labor Day Saturday. This year’s edition features a rematch between Drefong, the 2016 Champion Male Sprinter, and Mind Your Biscuits, the reigning New York-bred horse of the year who, in the more recent of their two meetings, finished within a length and a quarter of Drefong in the BC Sprint.