Game Winner and Maximum Security both out of Travers
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- The Aug. 24 Travers Stakes lost two of its major players on Thursday when Maximum Security and Game Winner were removed from consideration for the Grade 1, $1.25 million race by their trainers.
Early Thursday, trainer Bob Baffert said that Game Winner, the champion 2-year-old of 2018 and recent authoritative winner of the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby, came down with a virus and will be forced to miss the Travers.
“Can’t make it,” Baffert said by phone from Southern California.
Asked if Game Winner would be re-routed to the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 21, Baffert said, “Right now, I’m not even thinking about anything. I’m pretty disappointed right now.”
Late Thursday afternoon, trainer Jason Servis announced that Maximum Security, a multiple Grade 1 winner who was disqualified from first in the Kentucky Derby and placed 17th for interference, would also skip the Travers.
Servis, putting out a statement through the Monmouth Park publicity department, said his horse is not where he needs to be to run in the Travers.
“I don’t like where he’s at,” Servis told Monmouth publicity. “He’s not eating the way I want him to eat and he’s not carrying the weight I’d like to see him carry. I just want to make sure he’s 100 percent for his next race and he’s not there right now.”
Both Game Winner and Maximum Security are owned by Gary and Mary West.
Maximum Security won the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park on July 20. It was extremely hot that day, and the Haskell was pushed back several hours due to the blazing temperatures. In interviews subsequent to the Haskell, Servis said he was trying to make the Travers, but was non-committal. He had planned to work the horse on Friday at Monmouth, but now will give the horse a week of no training.
“With Game Winner out, if Maximum Security was 100 percent, I’d go to the Travers,” Servis said. “But he’s just not back to where he was. I’ll probably give him a week off and that still gives me more than four weeks until the Pennsylvania Derby.
“I’m fortunate to have patient owners in the Wests who will allow me to take a step back if I don’t feel the horse is 100 percent," Servis added. “It’s easy to run. But if I ran him when he wasn’t 100 percent, you come out of the race saying to yourself `What was I thinking?’ "
The defections of Game Winner and Maximum Security leave the Travers a wide-open affair. Those expected to run include Chess Chief, Code of Honor, Everfast, Highest Honors, Laughing Fox, Looking At Bikinis, Owendale, Tacitus, and Tax.
Others whose connections have been on the fence but may now join the field include Endorsed, Spinoff, and either Global Campaign or Scars Are Cool.