Fayeq might jump up and face big boys in Travers

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Fayeq took advantage of a contested pace to win a first-level allowance race Wednesday at Saratoga, and now his connections will mull over whether to take a giant swing in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes here on Aug. 26.

Fayeq, a half-brother to 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra by Malibu Moon, won for the second consecutive time in his first try around two turns. He raced on his left lead for the length of the stretch but ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:51.19 – the fastest time for that distance at this meet – and earned a 92 Beyer Speed Figure.

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Fayeq fell into a dream trip, sitting third behind dueling leaders before swinging three wide and rallying home in the lane.

“He ran very well,” said trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, who noted that he told jockey Luis Saez that he’d like to see Fayeq behind a horse or two early in the race.

McLaughlin said he would talk with Rick Nichols, racing manager of Shadwell Stables, the owner of Fayeq, “to see if we take a shot in the big one or not.”

McLaughlin noted that a lot of work went into getting Fayeq to the races. He had a lot of difficulty at the gate as a young horse. McLaughlin said that the first time he tried to run Fayeq, “he almost injured himself trying to get out of the gate.”

“He was kicking real hard, and luckily they opened up the back doors in time before he injured himself,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin said that his brother Neal and Neal’s wife, Tricia, realized that Fayeq didn’t like having something above him, such as an assistant starter.

“He’s a real classy horse, does everything right,” McLaughlin said. “He didn’t like something above him. We were trying to see if it was his eyes or what. Trish got a bucket, and every day she went in the stall for weeks and would stand on the bucket and pet him and give him peppermints and got him over it.”

Still, as a precaution, McLaughlin has Fayeq enter the starting gate in a blanket so that his body doesn’t feel the metal gates.

For McLaughlin, it was his fourth win of the meet, tying him with Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher for leading honors through the first five days of the meet.