Bayern runs his way into Travers picture

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Travers really wasn’t on trainer Bob Baffert’s mind for his 3-year-old Bayern when he decided late last week to ship him across the country for Sunday’s $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.

It is now.

Following Bayern’s front-running 7 1/4-length tour-de-force in the Haskell – Baffert’s seventh victory in New Jersey’s signature Thoroughbred race – Baffert said he will give the $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 23 at Saratoga serious consideration for the colt’s next start. Initially, Baffert had been thinking that Bayern would be better suited to the Grade 1 King’s Bishop, a seven-furlong race on the Travers undercard. Now, the King’s Bishop seems on the back burner.

“The Travers sounds a lot sexier than the King’s Bishop,” Baffert said Monday by phone from Del Mar. “If I go back there, we’d go back for the canoe.”

Baffert was referring to the fact that the silks of the Travers winner are painted on a canoe that floats in Saratoga’s infield lake during the meet.

On Monday, Bayern was flown back to Baffert’s Southern California base at Del Mar, where Baffert said he wanted to evaluate how the horse came out of the Haskell and how he trains before deciding where next to run. Baffert said that if he felt Bayern needed more time to recover from the race, he could wait for the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 20.

“It might not have looked that taxing, but he did run pretty fast,” Baffert said.

Bayern, under Martin Garcia, ran 1 1/8 miles over Monmouth’s fast main track in 1:47.92 and earned a 109 Beyer Speed Figure. That race came seven weeks after Bayern won the Grade 2 Woody Stephens, a seven-furlong race, by 7 1/2 lengths at Belmont Park, earning a 107 Beyer.

Though Baffert has won seven Haskells, his record in the Travers is not as strong. Baffert won the Travers in 2001 with Point Given but is 0 for 3 since with Roman Ruler (third in 2005), Coil (10th in 2011), and Liaison (9th in 2012).

Baffert has always been high on Bayern but believes Sunday demonstrated that “he has finally figured out what he was put on this earth to do.”

Should Bayern come for the Travers, it is expected that he will face the top three finishers from Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy – Wicked Strong, Tonalist, and Kid Cruz.

Beginning in 2005, the Jim Dandy has produced seven Travers winners.

Wicked Strong, equipped with blinkers for the first time in a race, showed a new dimension by pressing the pace in the Jim Dandy, which he won by 2 1/4 lengths over Tonalist, the Belmont Stakes winner. Trainer Jimmy Jerkens believes Wicked Strong has the right mix of speed and stamina to be effective at the Travers’s distance of 1 1/4 miles.

“He’s got good stamina,” Jerkens said. “You’d like him as good as anybody else in there, I would think, with all he’s been through. He’s already been the distance – he’s been further. He’s shown speed. He’s versatile.”

Wicked Strong ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.16 in the Jim Dandy and earned a 98 Beyer.

Trainer Christophe Clement thought Tonalist might have been compromised by a wide trip in the Jim Dandy and is looking forward to the Travers.

“Tonalist was second-best with the trip that he had,” Clement said. “Wicked Strong dictated his race a little bit. That’s okay, I still think my horse ran a decent race, and I will do everything I can to get him ready for the Travers.”

Kid Cruz, beaten six lengths, re-rallied to finish third in the Jim Dandy after having what trainer Linda Rice called “an ugly trip.” Under Irad Ortiz Jr., Kid Cruz was up close and three wide entering the first turn, dropped back to next-to-last while three to four wide down the backstretch, and was actually last at the five-sixteenths pole before coming five wide in the stretch to get third.

“It was an ugly trip for Kid Cruz, but to his credit, he gathered himself back up and made a run at the end of it,” Rice said. “He was running through the wire. I was pleased with that. Down the backside, I thought, ‘Oh boy, we’re in trouble.’ I think it was a good enough effort on the horse’s part to bring him back to the Travers, and that’s what we really wanted.”

V.E. Day, also trained by Jerkens, and Charge Now, the one-two finishers in Friday’s $100,000 Curlin Stakes, also are likely for the Travers.

Mr Speaker, who won the Belmont Derby on turf, and Commanding Curve, second in the Kentucky Derby and fourth in the Jim Dandy, are possible for the Travers.