Honor Marie will get blinkers, Gaffalione aboard for Travers
?q=100)
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Honor Marie will have two new variables in place when he runs in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 24. Both were on display Saturday morning when the colt worked in preparation for the 1 1/4-mile race for 3-year-olds.
Equipped with blinkers and with jockey Tyler Gaffalione aboard, Honor Marie breezed a half-mile in 48.11 seconds over a surprisingly fast Oklahoma training track Saturday morning.
Afterward, trainer Whit Beckman confirmed that Gaffalione will ride Honor Marie for the first time and the horse will wear blinker, also for the first time, in the Travers.
Beckman said he had galloped Honor Marie in blinkers during the week and liked what he saw from the colt. He said that Gaffalione, who had worked Honor Marie twice previously without blinkers, liked the way the horse breezed in the new equipment Saturday morning. Daily Racing Form caught him in splits of 11.78 seconds, 23.39, and 48.11 out caught him out five furlongs in 1:02.36.
“Tyler thought he was great, he thought the blinkers gave him just that little bit more responsivity,” Beckman said. “He’s one when he is asked he will take a minute to kind of get geared up, Tyler felt like he was a little quicker to respond today.”
Honor Marie has fallen well far back in both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, where he did show some late interest to finish eighth and fourth, respectively. Beckman is hoping the blinkers do more to help Honor Marie at the start of the race than at the finish.
“The race might be packed with early speed and hopefully a pretty strong pace,” Beckman said of the Travers. “Even with that being said, he does tend to set himself pretty far back, so if this just gives him a little more motivation to jump out quicker and maybe lay a little closer – I don’t want to take him out of his game, I just want him to get into the game.”
Ben Curtis rode Honor Marie in the Kentucky Derby and Florent Geroux was aboard in the Belmont. Beckman thought Gaffalione was a good fit for Honor Marie because of how well he rode Sierra Leone, a horse with a similar running style as Honor Marie and how well Gaffalione is riding at this meet. Entering Saturday’s card, Gaffalione was the third-leading rider with 21 victories.
“He’s riding lights out,” Beckman said.
Beckman didn’t come to Saratoga Saturday morning expecting to be able to breeze Honor Marie – at least on a fast track. Saratoga Springs absorbed a lot of rain Friday but appeared to be spared the brunt of Tropical Storm Debby and the New York Racing Association maintenance crew did a phenomenal job of having both the main track and Oklahoma training track in excellent condition for training Saturday morning.
“That was unbelievable,” Beckman said. “Obviously, that track has always been good but they did a great job whatever they did.”
As of Saturday, the prospective Travers field, with riders, was: Batten Down (Junior Alvarado), Corporate Power (Javier Castellano), Dornoch (Luis Saez), Fierceness (John Velazquez), Honor Marie (Tyler Gaffalione), Sierra Leone (Flavien Prat), Thorpedo Anna (Brian Hernandez Jr.), and Unmatched Wisdom (Irad Ortiz Jr.). Mugatu and Seize the Grey were possible.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.