New look for Travers: Derby prep
Jack Knowlton dare not speak the minority opinion, that the Travers Stakes is a means to an end and not an end in itself. But it may well be on his mind.
Which race would you rather win? The Mid-Summer Derby in upstate New York or the Derby in Louisville, Ky., that needs no qualifying adjective?
This is a question no one ever expected to ask. Tiz the Law, the Belmont Stakes winner, can inch closer to superstardom as the 14th Triple Crown winner with a Travers victory Saturday. But what if he comes up short in the biggest race in owner Knowlton’s hometown? Even Derby roses — this year bestowed on the first Saturday in September — might not cure that heartbreak.
How many chances does one get to paint the canoe In the Saratoga infield in the colors of the Travers winner’s silks? No one should ever doubt how much winning a major race in New York means to a native of the Empire State.
Knowlton went down this road with Funny Cide in 2003. “It was the story of the five guys from high school and the school bus,” he said of Sackatoga Stables and the mode of transportation they took at the Derby. “It was the story of that little guy, part of the American dream.”
But on the biggest day of Funny Cide’s racing career, with a chance to join Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed as Triple Crown winners, another horse got his picture taken in the Belmont Stakes. It was Empire Maker, rewarding master trainer (and Brooklyn native) Bobby Frankel with his first victory in a Triple Crown race, and not Funny Cide, his chances perhaps compromised by a sloppy track, in the Test of the Champion.
Perhaps a crueler fate awaited Knowlton’s group two months later when Funny Cide got sick before the Travers. Ten Most Wanted, getting good at the right time for trainer Wally Dollase, won a six-horse Travers without Funny Cide or Empire Maker. Funny Cide, the first gelding to win the Derby since 1929, went on to collect $3.5 million in six racing seasons, but his 3-year-old chapter still seems unfulfilled.
“I tell people that my biggest disappointment during the whole Funny Cide run was not being able to run in the Travers, and not being able to win it,” Knowlton said. “So, when he got sick, that was a bitter disappointment to follow the disappointment of not winning the Triple Crown.”
Tiz the Law may be good enough to provide redemption. He has looked like a Derby winner since the first weekend in October when circling the field in the Champagne Stakes, New York’s premier 2-year-old race. He has been even better at 3, first in the Florida Derby and then in a special edition Belmont Stakes June 20. Rescheduled and shortened because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Belmont fell in Tiz the Law’s lap with Manny Franco biding his time around one turn and over nine furlongs in a race that no one else put up much of a fight.
He is now asked to run a mile and a quarter, the classic American distance, around two turns twice in four weeks. That this bay colt by Constitution, the most gifted grandson to date of three-time champion sire Tapit, can go that far is not the question. For unless he comes up short against a horse he has not seen, it seems unlikely he loses either race. But for Knowlton, half a loaf — even if Tiz the Law wins the Triple Crown — might be too painful to bear.
“He’s done everything we’ve asked him to. We’ve been very fortunate. I don’t think any distance makes a difference for this horse,” said Barclay Tagg, who handled Funny Cide for the same connections. “From what I’ve seen, I just don’t have any feeling that he can’t handle it.”
Still, but what about that extra furlong to run?
“I’ve never had him out of breath after a race and he (cools) off very quickly,” Tagg said. “His lungs settle right down and nothing seems to be a hazard. I could be all wrong in that. It might change in another eighth of a mile, I don’t know, but I’m got no reason to worry about it.”
One sees the race developing along one of two lines. In a replay of the Belmont, Franco secures good early position, settling the favorite into third down the backstretch, and then advances on the far turn. Wide enough (post 6) to avoid early congestion, Tiz the Law takes the lead when the rider chooses and coasts to victory with something left.
That is, if Uncle Chuck, with Luis Saez aboard, isn’t preparing to meet the photographer. This son of champion juvenile Uncle Mo, a romping Saratoga maiden winner in 2010, carries the Bob Baffert seal of approval. The 5-2 second choice on the morning line following his Grade 3 victory in the Los Alamitos Derby, Uncle Chuck calls to mind 2016 Travers winner Arrogate from the same stable. Be sure of this: Uncle Chuck, as with Arrogate, who ran the fastest mile and a quarter in Saratoga history, wasn’t shipped this far to take back early.
“He’s been training well, and I thought he deserves a chance to run in it,” Baffert said. “He’s only had two races, but they were pretty impressive. The talent is there; he’s just still figuring it out and putting it together.
“He’s got speed, so as long as he gets in a nice, relaxed rhythm we’ll see how he handles the mile and a quarter. You’ve got a horse like Tiz the Law in there, and he scared a lot of them away.”
Unlike Baffert, who gets one or two Derby contenders per year, Tagg makes do with a smaller sample.
“Bob Baffert does very, very well,” Tagg said. “He’s got fresh stock all the time and good horses, so you’ve always got to be concerned. But if you let the concern bother you too much, you wouldn’t be racing horses. You can’t worry about that. All I worry about is having my horse get there the best we can get him there. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do.”
Knowlton isn’t the only native New Yorker in the race trying to live out a dream. Chad Brown, from nearby Mechanicsville,
has one to watch in last out Grade 3 winner Country Grammer. Better known for his success with turf horses, Brown had dirt champion Good Magic poised for a second-place run to the Baffert-trained Justify in the 2018 Kentucky Derby. Winner of the last four Eclipse Awards as the nation’s leading trainer, Brown cannot be tossed out of any race too quickly, much less one on his home track
“Hopefully, this horse can get the distance,” Brown said. “I’m confident that he can. He’ll have to step forward in this race and hope that maybe some of the top contenders can’t go this far.”
Bringing one back quickly like Country Grammer, who last raced July 16, is unconventional to Brown, but the 2020 Travers is staged under extraordinary conditions.
“I’m always concerned for more time in between races with my horses, but this is a rare opportunity to take a shot at a race like the Travers,” Brown said. “It’s a shorter field (eight horses) than it usually is. This is such a unique year to give this a shot and the horse just keeps improving. Even on short rest, I think the reward is greater than the risk.”