5-year-old mare Letruska prepping for Personal Ensign.
Grade I stakes race is part of Travers Day card, Aug. 28
A week from today is Travers day at Saratoga Race Course. While the Grade I, $1.25 million Midsummer Derby is the annual centerpiece of the Spa summer, there will plenty of other reasons to make the Spa your destination on the last Saturday of August.
Seven graded stakes races will be run on Travers day, six of them Grade Is. Among the horses, besides the favored Essential Quality in the Travers, that will be on display are known names such as Life Is Good, Swiss Skydiver, Jackie’s Warrior, Gamine and Whitmore.
And then there is Letruska. The 5-year-old mare, who will run in the Grade I, $600,000 Personal Ensign is considered by many to be the best horse in training. She has won four of five starts this year, all of them graded stakes. Two of them have been Grade Is. Letruska’s style is simple enough: go the lead and dare anyone to catch her.
Lately, no one has been able to.
Trainer Fausto Gutierrez is bringing her to Saratoga for the second straight summer. Last year, Letruska won the Grade III Shuvee after finishing fifth in the Grade I Ballerina. This will be Letruska’s first start since winning the Grade II Fleur de Lis Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 26. The ultimate goal for the mare is the Breeders’ Cup but Gutierrez has not decided what race she will run in.
The $6 million Classic is not off the table. First, though, is the Personal Ensign.
“I think we have an obligation to run here,” Gutierrez said Friday morning before watching Letruska jog around the main track accompanied by a pony. “She is the top horse in the division and the race is prestigious.
Saratoga is Saratoga.”
Travers field shaping up
It looks as though a field of seven will contest the 11⁄4-mile Travers.
Jim Dandy winner Essential Quality will be the favorite for the Midsummer Derby and will be challenged by Keepmeinmind, who was second in the Jim Dandy, Masqueparade, who was third, Dynamic One and Miles D, the top two finishers in the Curlin, Midnight Bourbon, who went down in mid-stretch in the Haskell at Monmouth Park but was unhurt, and King Fury, who was 10th on the grass in the Saratoga Derby on Aug. 7.
Two other horses were nominated to the race but their connections say they won’t run. Todd Pletcher, who trains Dynamic One, said Wood Memorial winner Bourbonic, who was third in the Grade III West Virginia Derby on Aug. 7, won’t try the Travers. Jimmy Jerkens, who trains Weyburn, the fourth-place finisher in the Jim Dandy, said he will send his colt to the Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 25.
“After the way he ran (in the Jim Dandy) we would probably be stretching it going a mile and a quarter in the Travers,” Jerkens said at his barn Friday.
The draw for the Travers will be held Wednesday morning.
The Skidmore
When the seventh running of the $120,000 Skidmore was switched from the Mellon turf course to the main track Friday, it was bad news for eight 2-year-olds. That’s because the filly, Averly Jane, was only going to run if the race was on the dirt.
She toyed with the seven colts and one filly that tried her in the 51⁄2-furlong race. Ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, Averly Jane stayed unbeaten after three starts with a dominating 71⁄4-length win. She has won all of her starts by a combined 191⁄4 lengths.
“She’s a nice filly,” trainer Wesley Ward said. “We were kind of going back and forth with the (Grade I, $300,000) Spinaway. We were thinking seriously about it, but I was questioning my ability to train one off the layoff going seven eighths.”
Instead of running on closing weekend in the Spinaway, Ward will likely take Averly Jane to Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., for the Grade I Alcibades on Oct. 8.
Averly Jane, the 8-5 favorite, was timed in 1:03.79 and paid $5.20, $3.90 and $2.70. Pure Panic finished second for leading trainer Mike Maker and leading rider Luis Saez and Overbore, also trained by Ward, and ridden by Joel Rosario, was third.