Maximum Security still possible for Travers, War of Will unlikely

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Maximum Security, a multiple Grade 1 winner, was credited with a half-mile workout in 54 seconds Wednesday at Monmouth Park, which was basically how fast he went the last half-mile of a one-mile gallop. Afterwards, trainer Jason Servis told the Monmouth Park publicity office that he won’t decide until Aug. 19 or 20 whether to run in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 24.

“I just want to make sure he is 100 percent,” Servis said. “He’s still not there yet.”

If Maximum Security does run in the Travers, it is unlikely he will face Preakness winner War of Will, one of the horses the Churchill Downs stewards determined Maximum Security fouled in the Kentucky Derby, from which he was disqualified from first.

Trainer Mark Casse said Wednesday that War of Will is “very unlikely” for the Travers and more likely to run in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 21.

“I thought his [Kentucky] Derby was really good. We did that off a long layoff,” Casse said. “It just seems to make the most sense to me.”