Jaxon Traveler to try Bachelor

Jaxon Traveler, the 2020 champion Maryland-bred juvenile colt, emerged from his runner-up effort in the Gazebo Stakes at Oaklawn in good order and will point to the Bachelor on April 24 at Oaklawn followed by a run in the Grade 3 Chick Lang at Pimlico on Preakness Saturday.

Never headed in three starts at 2, Jaxon Traveler sat off a horse for the first time in the Gazebo. Although beaten by a head, his connections were pleased.

“At the three-eighths pole, I would have been happy with just being on the board,” said Terry Finley, CEO of West Point Thoroughbreds. “If anything, we knew we might be a work or two short. It should set us up well.”

Jaxon Traveler missed time at the end of last year with a bruised foot.

“We went from New York, where he was in such a good rhythm, and sent him to Oaklawn,” said Finley. Because of winter weather, “he didn’t train for 12 days. In an unconventional way, that probably was the best thing that could have happened to us with him just tack-walking the shed row and not putting any stress on that foot.”

Finley would love to win the Chick Lang, a race named after the legendary late director of racing, vice president, and general manager of the Maryland Jockey Club.

“Chick Lang was one of my mentors early. He took a liking to me and helped me in any number of ways,” Finley said. “I’ve always wanted to see if we could get to that race.”

Street Lute to skip Primonetta

Trainer John Robb’s Street Lute is getting some time off. Last year’s Maryland-bred juvenile filly champion has won 7 of 9 lifetime starts without ever finishing out of the money.

Street Lute is nominated to the $100,000 Primonetta Stakes against older fillies and mares on April 24 but won’t compete.

“I backed off her a little bit,” Robb said. “I’m not going to run her until Preakness weekend.”

The Grade 3 Miss Preakness Stakes for 3-year-old filly sprinters will be contested May 14 at Pimlico. Street Lute finished third as the odds-on favorite in her most recent outing, the Beyond the Wire Stakes on March 13 at Laurel.

Meanwhile, popular 17-time winner Anna’s Bandit has returned to the work tab and is “doing good,” according to Robb. The 7-year-old multiple stakes-winning daughter of Great Notion breezed a halfmile in 50 seconds on March 27 and followed that up with a halfmile move in 49.40 on Wednesday morning.

Anna’s Bandit last competed at Delaware Park on July 11 when she was third in the $75,000 Dashing Beauty Stakes.

Boyce nears return

Jockey Forest Boyce is recovering nicely from a shoulder injury and should be back in action next week. According to her agent, Jay Burtis. Boyce suffered the injury during a morning mishap last month.

“She just came off wrong and landed wrong,” Burtis said. “She was just really sore.”

Burtis indicated that Boyce worked horses Tuesday.

Boyce has ridden 846 winners with career earnings of $28,081,088. She has booted home 46 stakes winners, five in Grade 3 company. A runnerup for an Eclipse Award as outstanding apprentice in 2010, Boyce led all Marylandbased riders in victories while winning titles at both the summer and fall Laurel meets that year.