Travers: Leading Change's talent more than makes up for his lack of experience
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Talent trumped experience in the 157th Travers Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga.
Leading Change, a horse who didn’t make his first career start until the day after the Triple Crown series concluded and only had two lifetime starts coming into the race, ran by Preakness winner Napoleon Solo in deep stretch to win the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers by a half-length before a crowd of 47,659 at Saratoga.
It was 1 3/4 lengths back to Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Golden Tempo in third.
Leading Change was ridden to victory by Manny Franco, who for the third consecutive weekend won a Grade 1 stakes, keeping the momentum going for what has been a career summer for the 31-year-old rider. Franco has 58 wins, a personal best at Saratoga and good enough for third in the standings.
Franco was substituting on Leading Change for the injured Irad Ortiz Jr., who had ridden Leading Change to a maiden victory going seven furlongs at Churchill Downs on June 7 and a neck victory in the Grade 3 Indiana Derby on July 11 at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Ortiz has missed the last three weeks with an injured foot.
It was after that Indiana Derby win that trainer Brad Cox suggested to the team at Wathnan Racing that the Travers might be a fit for Leading Change despite his inexperience and the fact that the same trainer-owner combination had Commandment, the Grade 1 Florida Derby winner who had finished second in the Jim Dandy four weeks ago.
“If he was going to win today it was going to be on talent,” said Case Clay, racing manager for Wathnan Racing, the operation of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar. “And, yes, physically, he’s a stretchy two-turn, big, good-looking horse that looks like he could have gotten 10 furlongs.”
Leading Change, a son of Gun Runner and a half-sister to Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil, was entered in a maiden race at Keeneland last October but developed bone bruising, was scratched from that race, and was sidelined for a few months. He didn’t get back on the work tab until April at the Payson Park training center in Florida.
Cox said it took Leading Change a while to get fit, which is why he didn’t get to the races until June 7. In the July 11 Indiana Derby, Leading Change pressed a strong pace and was able to prevail by a neck over Our Moneyman.
In the Travers, breaking from post 2, Franco let Leading Change run away from the gate but he was more than content to cede the front to Napoleon Solo, ridden by John Velazquez, who had the lead through a half-mile in 47.95 seconds.
Franco had Leading Change inside of Sea Strike, ridden by Flavien Prat, the pair only 1 1/2 lengths behind Napoleon Solo up the backside.
Around the far turn, Sea Strike went after Napoleon Solo while Franco waited a little longer to make his move. Napoleon Solo had put away Sea Strike by the eighth pole, but Leading Change and a resurgent Golden Tempo, under Jose Ortiz, were coming after him.
Leading Change was able to collar Napoleon Solo about 50 yards from the wire while Napoleon Solo was able to hold Golden Tempo at bay.
Franco said he got the trip he was looking for, sitting behind Napoleon Solo and Sea Strike, but said he got a little concerned in midstretch when it looked like Napoleon Solo was getting away from him.
“At the eighth pole he opened up a half-length or a lengthand I said ‘oh, no,’ ”Franco said. “But I hit him like twice and he just took off.”
Leading Change covered the 1 1/4 miles in 2:02.98 and returned $22.76 to win.
“Manny did a good job of letting our horse break, go forward and get his legs underneath him and travel at a nice comfortable pace,” said Cox, who previously won the Travers in 2021 with Essential Quality. “The horses that were up there first and third down the backside were right at the wire together. . . . Good horses keep going and it was a very good group of horses and we came out on the right end.”
While it was expected that Napoleon Solo would go to the lead, Velazquez kept his horse out in the five path going into the first turn in part to see if he could get a target to follow.
“It looks like they really slowed the track down, we were cognizant of that so we were hoping if we let Manny go maybe he would take the [bait] a little bit,” trainer Chad Summers said. “Manny sat off us and we wanted to go so we just kind of took it.
“We ended up inside the other horse, I’d have liked to have been outside the other horse, but it’s okay.”
Golden Tempo, coming off powerful late-run victories in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, was second to last about 16 lengths off the pace after the opening half-mile. He tried to make an inside run in between horses under Jose Ortiz in the stretch, but he couldn’t sustain it.
“Jose said he had a big run but he just got a little shy when he was coming up between horses, it stopped his momentum a bit,” trainer Cherie DeVaux said. “But I’m really proud of how he ran and he came back in great shape and that’s what’s most important.”
Golden Tempo finished third, a length in front of The Puma. He was followed, in order, by Emerging Market, Sea Strike, Baby Vino, Renegade, Ocelli, and Silent Tactic.
* All-sources handle was $60,863,320, the second highest for a Travers Day card. The record of $63,023,405 was set in 2024.
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