Major players headed for Travers showdown

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Identifying the favorite for the $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 27 may be as difficult as picking the winner of the Travers, the marquee race of the Saratoga meet.

Yes, Exaggerator’s victory in Sunday’s $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park may have leapfrogged him past Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist for the division lead, but his struggles with the Saratoga main track could leave him vulnerable in the Travers.

Of course, if it rains on Aug. 27, Exaggerator would be the strong favorite and most likely winner.

Exaggerator took advantage of a fast pace and a sloppy track to win the Haskell by 1 1/2 lengths over American Freedom. It was Exaggerator’s third Grade 1 victory this year over a sloppy track – he also won the Santa Anita Derby and Preakness in the slop – and his fourth overall from five starts in Grade 1 races this year.

Exaggerator returned to Saratoga on Monday, and the plan is to train him here for the Travers. However, the primary reason Exaggerator ran in the Haskell rather than Saturday’s Jim Dandy Stakes here is because he didn’t finish his two workouts over Saratoga’s main track to trainer Keith Desormeaux’s satisfaction.

Perhaps the rain that came to Saratoga on Sunday and Monday will change the track a bit and Exaggerator’s training will improve.

“The Travers is the goal,” Julie Clark, Desormeaux’s New York assistant, said Monday. “It looks good on the résumé. All this rain may make the track better. We’re based here, we’ll let him train over it.”

Bob Baffert said the Travers would be strongly considered for American Freedom, who pressed the pace and held second by two lengths in the Haskell. Baffert is also considering the Travers for Arrogate, who is running in a second-level allowance at Del Mar on Thursday.

American Freedom flew back to Southern California on Monday along with Nyquist, who finished fourth in the Haskell.

Nyquist’s trainer, Doug O’Neill, said in a text Monday that he and owner Paul Reddam are “going to huddle up on Wednesday and see how Nyquist is doing, then make a plan.”

“He scoped clean after the race,” he said.

Exaggerator earned a 101 Beyer Speed Figure for his Haskell victory. That’s the same number earned by Laoban, previously a maiden, in upsetting the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths at odds of 27-1 at Saratoga. Connect earned a 100 Beyer for winning Friday’s Curlin Stakes here.

Laoban, trained by Eric Guillot, had run in five graded stakes before the Jim Dandy. Guillot noted that the colt’s best performances were over the track at which he was stabled for an extended period of time. Laoban was stabled at Aqueduct for 12 days before finishing second in the Grade 3 Gotham. He was stabled at Keeneland when he ran fourth in the Grade 1 Blue Grass.

Guillot said he schools Laoban a lot “because he gets all worked up.”

“I can’t really train him that hard,” he said. “He doesn’t do well if I overtrain him. That’s why I work him fast because I keep fitness in him. He just jogs; he never gallops.”

Asked about Laoban negotiating another eighth of a mile in the Travers, Guillot said, “If anything, the last five or six jumps I separated myself from them another half-length.”

“It wasn’t like they were closing on me and I was coming to a crawl,” he said.

Many of the horses Laoban defeated in the Jim Dandy will point to the Travers.

Governor Malibu, who outfinished Destin to get second by a neck, will aim for the Travers, trainer Christophe Clement said.

“He will stay, that not’s the problem,” Clement said about Governor Malibu going the 1 1/4 miles. “If the horse is healthy, he will be there.”

Todd Pletcher said Destin remains a bit of an unfocused horse and that he may experiment by using a shadow roll.

“I think part of it is just experience and him learning how to polish off a race,” Pletcher said. “We might play with a shadow roll or something like that, probably experiment a little bit in his breezes.”

Creator, who did little running in the Jim Dandy, finishing last, will point to the Travers, said Elliott Walden, president and chief executive of WinStar Farm, which owns the colt along with Bobby Flay. Trainer Steve Asmussen said Monday that Creator had a superficial cut on his right foreleg but otherwise came out of the race okay.

Asmussen also trains Gun Runner, who finished fifth in the Haskell. He will be considered for the Travers. Asmussen noted that Gun Runner’s two worst races came over sloppy tracks.

“With Gun Runner, he’s coming back here today to train to see how we’re doing,” Asmussen said on Monday. “I don’t want to overreact to a less-than-stellar sloppy-track performance.”

Mohaymen was a huge disappointment in the Jim Dandy, running fourth in his first start since the Kentucky Derby. Though Mohaymen stumbled at the start, neither trainer Kiaran McLaughlin nor jockey Junior Alvarado felt that was a legitimate excuse.

“I thought he recovered quickly and it wasn’t a big deal,” McLaughlin said. “I just felt like the trip wasn’t ideal – in tight all the way, taking dirt a long way. Not that he hasn’t taken dirt before. We talked about trying to get outside in the clear early, but it didn’t work out. It’s disappointing any way you look at it, fourth, beaten five lengths. Unusual result, just an unusual race – who won it and how they won it.”

McLaughlin said he would talk with Rick Nichols of owner Shadwell Farm to discuss whether to run Mohaymen back in the Travers.

Trainer Chad Brown is pointing three to the Travers. Connect and Gift Box, the one-two finishers in the Curlin, and My Man Sam, the runner-up in a first-level allowance race July 23, are all expected to start.

“We’ve got three good horses who I think are fresh and should move forward off their races and have no problem with a mile and a quarter,” Brown said. “I like the fact all three of them got races over the track – three good races – and all three came bouncing out of their races good.”

Forever d’Oro, third in the Curlin, will train toward the Travers, trainer Dallas Stewart said.

– additional reporting by Jim Dunleavy and Jay Privman