Like in the Kentucky Derby, Rich Strike on the outside looking in for Travers
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Rich Strike will be a longshot once again.
The Kentucky Derby winner at odds of 80-1, Rich Strike drew post 2 and was made the 10-1 sixth choice in the field of eight entered Tuesday for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers at Saratoga, a race where Epicenter, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness runner-up, was made the 7-5 favorite on David Aragona’s morning-line.
“That’s fair,” Eric Reed, the trainer of Rich Strike, said of his odds. “His running style makes him hard to pick no matter what. He can be in a Grade 3 somewhere and have a hard time getting by the horses unless he decides to show some speed one of these days out of the gate. He’s got all the speed in the world, but for whatever reason he wants to spot these horses.”
Rich Strike is the first Kentucky Derby winner to run in the Travers since Always Dreaming finished ninth in 2017. The last Kentucky Derby winner to also capture the Travers was Street Sense in 2007. In between, only three Derby winners ran in the Travers including Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, who was upset by Keen Ice.
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After the Derby, Rich Strike skipped the Preakness in favor of the Belmont Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile race his connections felt all along would be the best fit of the three Triple Crown races. In the Belmont, Rich Strike, a stone-cold closer, had an outside trip under Sonny Leon and finished sixth, 13 1/4 lengths behind Mo Donegal. Reed said in his previous races he had saved ground before tipping out.
“My instructions to Sonny were if you find yourself back where he normally has been, we’re on this huge track, you’ll have five gallopers in front of you and the lone speed just pull him out, keep the dirt out of his face so when you make your big run like he did in the Derby. He’ll be by them in a sixteenth of a mile,” Reed said.
Reed said when Leon took Rich Strike to the outside, he saw the horse turn his head to the right.
“I turned to my father and said we’re in trouble, because he does not want to be there,“ Reed said. “I said if Sonny follows my instructions we’re in trouble. Down the backside I was hoping Sonny would say the hell with it, let me go to the inside and do my thing and he didn’t. It’s all on me.”
In the Travers, Reed will want Leon to keep Rich Strike on the inside until it’s time go. That should be somewhat easy from post 2.
“I was hoping for the first time we could get an inside draw because our work is always cut out for him because of the way that he runs,” Reed said. “If he’s on the inside he may want to show a little more speed because he’s already where he’s comfortable.”
Last Friday, Rich Strike worked a half-mile in 46.50 seconds, an indication to Reed that the horse likes Saratoga’s main track.
“He was so well within himself that the next morning I almost had to take him to the track because he was really, really full of himself in the barn,” Reed said.
Epicenter has already proven he can handle Saratoga’s main track, having taken the Grade 2 Jim Dandy here on July 30. Epicenter is still seeking his first victory in a Grade 1 stakes.
“Epicenter at 7-5 in the Travers speaks for where we’re at and how fortunate we are,” said trainer Steve Asmussen, who finished second in last year’s Travers with Midnight Bourbon. “It’s a great group of 3-year-olds. Obviously Epicenter missing his Grade 1 [victory] it would be a great day for him to jump through.”
Cyberknife, the lone dual Grade 1 winner in the 3-year-old division, drew the rail for the Travers. He had that same post when he won the Grade 1 Haskell, setting a stakes and track record for 1 1/8 miles
“It was a hard race, very fast but he did bounce out of it pretty well, I’m happy with the way he’s done physically and mentally,” said Cox, who won last year’s Travers with Essential Quality.
In fact, Cox is the only trainer or jockey in this year’s Travers to have a previous win in the race. Trainer Chad Brown, who sends out Preakness winner Early Voting, Blue Grass winner Zandon, and Curlin Stakes winner Artorius, is winless with 12 starters in eight runnings of the Travers. Bill Mott, who sends out longshot Gilded Age this year, is winless with 10 starters in nine runnings of the Travers. Even Asmussen is 0 for 7 in six Travers.
The eight riders in the race are a combined 0 for 32 in the Travers with Irad Ortiz Jr. (Artorius), 0 for 10 and his brother Jose Ortiz (Early Voting) 0 for 8.
The Travers will go as race 11 on a 13-race card that begins at 11:35 a.m. and includes four other Grade 1 stakes -- the Sword Dancer, Forego, Personal Ensign, and H. Allen Jerkens -- as well as the Grade 2 Ballston Spa.
The Travers will be shown on FOX during a 90-minute broadcast that begins at 4:30 p.m. Eastern.
Though it rained heavily here on Tuesday during the post draw at the Adelphi Hotel, the forecast for Saturday calls for clear and dry conditions and temperatures in the low 80s.