Trainer hits exacta in Travers: V.E. Day nips Wicked Strong
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Jimmy Jerkens had been here before, waiting for the placing judges to decipher a photo finish in the biggest race at Saratoga Race Course, the Travers Stakes. Four years ago, a late rush by a horse named Fly Down looked to have caught Jerkens’ colt Afleet Express at the finish line.
Nope. Javier Castellano somehow had coaxed an extra burst from Afleet Express to get a nostril in front that time and to give Jerkens his first victory in the race known as the Midsummer Derby.
It was a different kind of tension here Saturday evening for the 145th running of the race, as V.E. Day and Wicked Strong hit the wire together.
“Who won the Travers?” track announcer Tom Durkin asked in his rumbling baritone. “Jimmy Jerkens.”
Yes, indeed, the two colts were stablemates in Jerkens’ barn. Wicked Strong was the big horse, having won the Jim Dandy here last month and the Wood Memorial in the spring. A son of Hard Spun, he had been sent off as one of the favorites at odds of 2.5 to 1, roughly the same as the Belmont Stakes winner, Tonalist, and the Haskell champ, Bayern.
Wicked Strong, who had already earned more than $1.2 million, floated around the mile-and-a-quarter distance behind Bayern and Tonalist through a crisp half-mile of 47.31 seconds and a testing three-quarters in 1:11.27. Rajiv Maragh, Wicked Strong’s jockey, knew he was getting the perfect setup.
“When I saw Tonalist doing that work for me, I just kind of backed off them and just tracked,” Maragh said.
Bayern started backing up; he was finished.
It was go time for Maragh. Midway around the turn, he asked Wicked Strong to get busy.
“I’m going to take over,” he said he had thought. “I figured if I got the jump on Tonalist, it would be hard for them to re-rally.”
But taking flight outside was V.E. Day, ridden by Castellano. Castellano had never ridden the colt before, but he had watched the replay of his last race, a last-to-first victory in the Curlin Stakes.
“I learned a lot from the Curlin,” he said. “I just took my time. I had a lot of patience.”
Castellano also knew V.E. Day had to be a nice horse. Jerkens is old school and rarely enters a horse in a big race unless he thinks he can win it. Even though bettors had made the colt a 19-1 long shot, there was plenty to like about him, including three victories in five starts and the versatility to win on dirt as well as turf.
Maragh peeked under his arm and saw Castellano and V.E. Day steamrollering past horses.
The pair moved in tandem for 2, 3, 4 strides. At the wire, it was too close to call.
“Man, what a feeling,” Jerkens said. “I know I’m going to win the Travers. I just don’t know with who.”
For the colt’s owner, Maggie Bryant, it meant a $670,000 first-place check to send V.E Day’s bankroll past $800,000.
Bettors, too, earned a windfall, collecting $41 for a $2 bet. The colt’s winning time was 2:02.92, which was fast enough to give Castellano his fourth Travers victory and Jerkens his second.
“You dream about finishes like this, but they come true,” Jerkens said. “It’s unreal — I just feel bad for Wicked Strong. That’s the only thing, he ran so hard. But I’ll take it.”
In another Grade I race on the Travers undercard, Artemis Agrotera polished off pacesetter La Verdad midstretch and sprinted clear to an overpowering victory in the $500,000 Ballerina Stakes. Rajiv Maragh guided Chester and Mary Broman’s strapping 3-year-old New York-bred daughter of Roman Ruler to a 6½-length win for trainer Mike Hushion.