Maximum Security, 'pretty tired' after Haskell, possible for Travers

Maximum Security, who won Saturday night’s Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park, will ship to Saratoga by the end of the week, but trainer Jason Servis stopped short of committing the multiple Grade 1 winner to the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 24.

“My feeling is I’m going to do everything like we’re running, and I’ll make a decision that week whether we can make it or not,” Servis said Sunday by phone from Monmouth Park. “If I’m not happy with him, we won’t run, and if we’re happy, we’ll run.”

Servis said Maximum Security came out of the Haskell “pretty tired” but sound. Considering the circumstances surrounding the Haskell, Maximum Security wasn’t the only one – equine or human – who was tired.

The Haskell went off at 8:12 p.m., 2 hours and 24 minutes after it was scheduled. The heat at Monmouth Park prompted track officials to halt the proceedings after the second race and opt to run only the six stakes races starting at 6:05 p.m.

In the Haskell, Maximum Security sat just off the pace under Luis Saez and was a half-length behind Bethlehem Road after a half-mile in 46.71 seconds. Into the far turn, Maximum Security advanced to the lead, and before the quarter pole, he had Mucho Gusto to his outside applying pressure, which in turn made Maximum Security put pressure on King for a Day, who was checked hard by John Velazquez near the quarter pole.

In the stretch, Maximum Security repelled Mucho Gusto to the wire to win by 1 1/4 lengths, while it was eight lengths farther back to Spun to Run in third. There was a stewards’ inquiry into what caused King for a Day to check, but the stewards quickly made the result official, leaving the original order of finish.

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Maximum Security covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:47.56 and earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure, equaling his career best. The win enabled Maximum Security to avenge a loss to King for a Day in the Pegasus Stakes, in which Maximum Security stumbled at the break.

“He’s a super horse. He makes me look good,” Servis said. “The Pegasus, if he doesn’t lunge and stumble, I think he wins. That’s just my opinion, because he opens up three right away, and then they’re working to get to me the whole time. Then, other than the Derby, he’d be undefeated.”

Servis, of course, was referring to the Kentucky Derby, where Maximum Security crossed the finish line first but was disqualified and placed 17th for interfering with several horses, including War of Will. If he makes the Travers, Maximum Security most likely will face War of Will, the Preakness winner who is scheduled to run in Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga.

Servis is hoping the environment at Saratoga will help Maximum Security bounce back from his hard effort in the Haskell.

“Saratoga has a way of making people and horses blossom, you know,” Servis said. “I’ve sent enough horses up to [assistant Henry Argueta], and he’d call me in two weeks and say, ‘Oh my God, this doesn’t look like the same horse.’ So, if something like that happens, I’d say maybe we’d give it a shot.”

If Servis skips the Travers, then he’d point Maximum Security to the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 21.

The Pennsylvania Derby is one of two options trainer Bob Baffert mentioned Sunday as a potential next start for Mucho Gusto. The other option is the Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens, a seven-furlong race on the Aug. 24 Travers card at Saratoga.

Though Mucho Gusto did not give Baffert his ninth Haskell victory, the Hall of Fame trainer felt the horse validated himself as one of the better 3-year-olds in the country.

“I thought he’d run big, and he did,” Baffert said Sunday at Del Mar. “He put himself right up there.”

Mucho Gusto was scheduled to ship back to California on Tuesday. Baffert does plan to run Game Winner, the Los Alamitos Derby winner, in the Travers.

Spun to Run came out of the Haskell “great,” according to trainer Juan Carlos Guerrero. He returned to Parx and likely will point to the Smarty Jones at Parx on Sept. 2 and then the Pennsylvania Derby.

“The Smarty is going to hit him right between the eyes at a mile and 70 yards,” Guerrero said.

Everfast, the Preakness runner-up who finished fourth in the Haskell, returned to Saratoga on Sunday and will be pointed to the Travers, trainer Dale Romans said.

King for a Day, who beat Maximum Security in the Pegasus, finished fifth, beaten 12 1/4 lengths, in the Haskell. While King for a Day lost crucial position when Velazquez had to check, trainer Todd Pletcher said King for a Day “was all in at that point. It didn’t cost us winning the race; it perhaps cost us some order of finish.”

Pletcher said he would not rule out the Travers for King for a Day but wants to see how he trains before making a decision between that and possibly the Pennsylvania Derby.

– additional reporting by Jay Privman