Essential Quality on target for Travers, possibly the Jim Dandy

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As trainer Brad Cox plots a summer course for his standout 3-year-olds, Essential Quality has been in steady training at Churchill “with the random day off,” said Cox, since the gray colt returned here from his June 5 victory in the Belmont Stakes.

Essential Quality has the Travers on Aug. 28 as his main goal and “would run in the Jim Dandy [on July 31] in case we feel like he should run before then,” Cox said. “He’s doing just great.”

Mandaloun also is in good shape after winning the Pegasus last weekend at Monmouth for Juddmonte Farms and was scheduled to return to training on Thursday at Churchill, Cox said, with the Haskell on July 17 at Monmouth his next race. Another top Juddmonte 3-year-old, Fulsome, worked Saturday in his first breeze since winning the Matt Winn on May 29 and will be kept apart from those other two at least until later in the year, with a next start still to be decided.

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Cox said Caddo River has been turned out after finishing last of six in the Woody Stephens on the Belmont undercard. Another Cox returnee from Belmont Day, the 5-year-old Knicks Go, might use the Cornhusker on July 2 at Prairie Meadows as a stepping-stone to the Whitney on Aug. 7 at Saratoga, he added. Knicks Go faded to fourth as an odds-on favorite in the Met Mile.