Commanding Curve pointing to Travers Stakes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Commanding Curve will be pointed to the Travers Stakes while perhaps dipping back into the allowance ranks after the colt emerged from his disappointing performance in the Belmont Stakes in good shape.

The runner-up in the May 3 Kentucky Derby at 37-1, Commanding Curve finished ninth of 11 in his only subsequent start, the June 7 Belmont.

“He actually came out of the Belmont great,” said the Churchill Downs-based Dallas Stewart, who trains Commanding Curve for West Point Thoroughbreds. “I haven’t figured out why he didn’t run any better, but the main thing is he’s healthy.”

Commanding Curve remains eligible for a first-level allowance, and Stewart did not rule out entering the colt in such a race.

“It’d be at least a mile and an eighth,” he said. “It wouldn’t be here [at Churchill, which ends its meet June 29] because that’d be pushing it. Our main goal is to make the Travers” on Aug. 23 at Saratoga.

There are unmistakable similarities between Commanding Curve and his Stewart stablemate Golden Soul, who ran second in the 2013 Derby at 34-1 but has been in poor form ever since. In fact, Golden Soul, owned by Charles Fipke, also is still eligible for a first-level allowance after finishing sixth, beaten 20 lengths, in the Grade 2 Brooklyn on the Belmont undercard.

“We’re still trying to figure out what’s going on with him and what we need to be doing,” Stewart said.

The top 3-year-old filly in the Stewart barn, Unbridled Forever, is being aimed for the Aug. 16 Alabama at Saratoga after finishing a good third in the Grade 1 Acorn on the Belmont undercard. “I doubt if she’ll run back before then,” he said.