Mr Speaker finds himself in an unlikely spot in Travers

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In the winter, it wouldn’t have been hard to imagine trainer Shug McGaughey being a player in Saratoga’s Travers Stakes. Honor Code, coming off a Grade 2 Remsen victory last fall, was one of the more highly regarded 3-year-olds entering the year. Top Billing, on Jan. 25, looked good winning a first-level optional-claiming race at Gulfstream Park.

But in a span of two weeks in March, both Top Billing (right front cannon bone fracture) and Honor Code (suspensory ligament tear) were injured. While both are on the comeback trail – Honor Code has been galloping for several weeks at the Fair Hill training center and Top Billing is in light training at WinStar Farm – neither could participate in the biggest races of the year for 3-year-olds.

The 145th Travers Stakes, this year worth a record $1.25 million, will be run Saturday, and, for the 13th time in his Hall of Fame career, McGaughey will be participating. He sends out Mr Speaker, who, on the surface, looks to be in the wrong race.

Mr Speaker, a son of Pulpit owned by Phipps Stable, is a Grade 1 winner on turf and a Grade 3 winner on turf and synthetic. His one run on dirt resulted in a seventh-place finish in the Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes, essentially the worst race of his career.

Following Mr Speaker’s win in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby on July 5, McGaughey came to Saratoga with the idea of training Mr Speaker on the dirt to let him prove he deserves another chance on that surface. After a string of five workouts over the main surface, Mr Speaker has done just that.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” McGaughey, a three-time Travers winner, said. “He’s worked awfully good up here, he’s matured a lot. He’s trained well enough, he’s done well enough. If he doesn’t run any good, it’s just going to be because of the dirt.”

When McGaughey analyzes Mr Speaker’s performance in the Holy Bull, he believes it might have been a case of the horse being kept too close to the pace. To McGaughey, it was a similar scenario as in the Pennine Ridge Stakes on turf, where Mr Speaker was on the lead and finished fifth as the 4-5 favorite.

“I figured [jockey Jose Lezcano] had him there because he didn’t want dirt hitting him in the face,” McGaughey said. “I just don’t think that’s his style of running.”

Mr Speaker came from last to win the Belmont Derby, and he expects to employ the same tactics in the Travers, breaking from the outside post in a 10-horse field.

“Ten is fine,” McGaughey said. “We can sit out there, watch the speed on the inside, maybe not lose too much ground, but maybe not eat too much dirt either.”

McGaughey has been around a few horses who excelled on turf but who transferred that success to the dirt. In 1993, he took over the training of the Chilean-bred filly Quilma, who made her first 16 U.S. starts on turf. When the Buckram Oak Stakes at Gulfstream came off the turf, McGaughey ran Quilma anyway and she won. She would win two more graded stakes on dirt.

When he worked for David Whiteley, McGaughey was around Waya, a turf champion who won two Grade 1 stakes on dirt, albeit in the slop. Tiller was another horse McGaughey was around with Whiteley whose preferred surface was turf but who won graded stakes on dirt.

McGaughey enters the Travers knowing one thing – Mr Speaker will get the distance.

“He’ll definitely get the mile and a quarter,” McGaughey said. “He’s done it, he’s bred to do it. Whether he’ll do it on dirt, I don’t know.”

◗ Bayern, the Haskell Invitational winner, drew post 2 and was installed as the 2-1 morning-line favorite by NYRA linemaker Eric Donovan. Bayern was expected to arrive by mid-afternoon Wednesday following a cross-country flight from Southern California.

◗ V. E. Day, the Curlin Stakes winner, blew out three furlongs in 37.50 seconds over the Oklahoma training track Wednesday morning.

“He worked slow the other day, it was good, but it was slow, so I thought he might have needed a little something,” trainer Jimmy Jerkens said.

Jerkens planned a Thursday blowout for Wicked Strong, the Jim Dandy winner, who drew post 7.