SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- When Forte ran in the Belmont Stakes off a 10-week layoff, it was hardly by design. The 2-year-old champion of 2022 was forced to miss the Kentucky Derby and Preakness due to a bruised foot, meaning the Belmont was his first start since the April 1 Florida Derby. He finished a game second. When Belmont Stakes winner Arcangelo runs in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga -- meeting Forte, Kentucky Derby Mage, Preakness winner National Treasure and three others -- he will do so off an 11-week layoff. That was entirely the plan. “It was a very easy thought process,” Jena Antonucci, the trainer of Arcangelo, said Tuesday. “I think he prefers that. I think it’s worked.” Jon Ebbert, the owner of Arcangelo, said coming off the 1 1/2 miles of the Belmont, he didn’t want to turn the horse back to 1 1/8 miles in a race like the Jim Dandy. :: Visit the Saratoga Handicapping Store for Past Performances, Clocker Reports, Picks, Betting Strategies, and more. “I’d rather do the mile and a half to a mile and a quarter,” Ebbert said, referring to the Travers distance. “I didn’t feel like we needed it. I asked Jena as long as fitness wasn’t going to be a problem, let’s skip it.” Arcangelo has proven effective with time between starts. His maiden victory in March came off a nine-week freshening. Eight weeks later, he won the Grade 3 Peter Pan, the performance that put him into the Belmont Stakes. “It’s a combination of one, the horse has let us do it and I think it’s the right thing for the horse to continue to mature and grow and put on weight and body and muscle,” Antonucci said. “I think he looks like a proper 3-year-old now here we are at the end of August.” Here we are at Saturday’s Travers, a 1 1/4-mile race that could very well go a long way in determining the 3-year-old champion as it has the previous two years. Forte, a three-time graded stakes winner this year, drew the rail and was installed as the 7-5 favorite by morning line-maker David Aragona. Arcangelo drew post 2 and is the 5-2 second choice. The draw was held at Tuesday evening at the Adelphi Hotel in downtown Saratoga Springs. Javier Castellano, a six-time Travers winner, will ride Arcangelo, on whom he is 3 for 3, including the Belmont. Mage, on whom Castellano won the Kentucky Derby, will be ridden by Luis Saez, a two-time Travers winner. Birdstone, in 2004, is the last horse to have won the Belmont Stakes and win the Travers without a race in between. Tiz the Law accomplished the feat in 2020, but there were only seven weeks between races and the Belmont was run at 1 1/8 miles that year because of the pandemic. In 2012, Golden Ticket dead-heated for win in the Travers with Alpha having not raced in 112 days, or since he finished second in a first-level allowance on the Kentucky Derby card at Churchill Downs. Last year, Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike finished fourth in the Travers after not having raced since running sixth in the Belmont Stakes. In 2017, Tapwrit ran fourth in the Travers after not having raced since winning the Belmont. That year marked the last time the winners of all three Triple Crown races competed in the Travers. Mage, this year’s Kentucky Derby winner, is coming off a second-place finish in the Haskell at Monmouth, a race his connections felt he needed. Mage, trained by Gustavo Delgado, had a strong gallop Tuesday morning over Saratoga’s main track. “He’s getting more aggressive, aggressive in a good way,” said Gustavo Delgado Jr., assistant to his father. :: Get Saratoga Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day.  National Treasure, trained by three-time Travers winner Bob Baffert, finished sixth in the Belmont. He drew post 5 and will be ridden by John Velazquez. Baffert is removing blinkers from National Treasure’s equipment. This will be third time in National Treasure’s career that Baffert will be removing blinkers after having had them on the previous race. Disarm, the Matt Winn Stakes winner, will have blinkers added for the Travers by trainer Steve Asmussen. He will break from post 6 under Joel Rosario. “Hopefully, with the addition of blinkers we’ll get a little more effort out of him,” said Asmussen, who teamed with Rosario to win last year’s Travers with Epicenter. “He’s competed well, he just needs to finish it off.” Scotland, trained by Bill Mott, comes out of a front-running victory in the Curlin Stakes. He drew the outside post and will likely be forward again under Junior Alvarado. The Travers will go as race 12 on a 13-race card that begins at 11:40 a.m. and will include four other Grade 1 stakes -- the $750,000 Sword Dancer, the $500,000 Ballerina, the $500,000 Forego, and the $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens. There is rain in the forecast for both Friday and Saturday. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.