Texas Red finally gets another shot at American Pharoah

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – They were the two best 2-year-olds of 2014, and one of them has turned into the best 3-year-old of this or most any other season in the last 37 years.

While American Pharoah has annihilated virtually every 3-year-old he has faced this year en route to winning the Triple Crown, the intrigue of Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.6 million Travers Stakes is the first meeting between him and Texas Red, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, in 11 months.

Injuries forced the two colts to go their separate ways, starting last fall. American Pharoah missed the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with a suspensory injury that forced him out of training for two months. Texas Red won the Juvenile by 6 1/2 lengths.

Texas Red missed the Triple Crown series due to a foot abscess. American Pharoah, of course, swept the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes to become the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years.

The Travers has been the goal for Texas Red since March, when trainer and part-owner Keith Desormeaux realized his dreams of making the Kentucky Derby were dashed. The Travers became the next race for American Pharoah after he impressed his trainer, Bob Baffert, with a workout Sunday at Del Mar.

American Pharoah, who was expected to arrive here Wednesday, will be a heavy favorite to become the first Triple Crown winner since Whirlaway (1941) to also win the Travers. Texas Red could be the biggest obstacle to that happening.

When asked about Texas Red on Tuesday during a national conference call, Baffert said: “I think he’s a very nice horse. He won that Breeders’ Cup. He looked very impressive. I think they did a great job getting him back. He’s going to be tough. I go in there prepared for a tough race. The Travers is not going to be easy.”

The only previous time American Pharoah and Texas Red met was Sept. 27 in the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita. American Pharoah was coming off a win in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 3. Texas Red was coming off a maiden win at Del Mar on Aug. 20.

In the FrontRunner, American Pharoah set modest fractions on the lead while being prompted early by longshot Skyway. He drew off to win by 3 1/4 lengths. Texas Red finished third, 4 3/4 lengths back.

“That’s when he was showing us he was such a dominant horse that day,” Baffert said of American Pharoah. “That’s why when he got injured for the Breeders’ Cup it was a devastating blow to us.”

For Desormeaux, the FrontRunner showed him Texas Red belonged in the Breeders’ Cup, with or without American Pharaoh. When American Pharoah was scratched, Desormeaux started to get nervous.

“It went from no pressure, from being excited about being legitimate in the Juvenile, to ‘We can win this thing,’ ” Desormeaux recalled. “No disrespect to the East Coast horses, but I wasn’t seeing the same thing that I had seen in Pharoah.”

Lagging behind the rest of the field in the Juvenile, Texas Red took advantage of a hot early pace and galloped to a 6 1/4-length victory. The win made Texas Red a finalist for the Eclipse Award for top juvenile, an award that went to American Pharoah.

While Baffert had to wait on American Pharoah to get healthy enough to train during the winter, Desormeaux had a plan to get Texas Red to the Kentucky Derby. It would begin with the seven-furlong San Vicente, a race in which he closed from second to lose by a neck.

“What solidified his class to me was his race in the San Vicente when he closed on a fairly slow pace for seven-eighths and fought it out to the wire,” Desormeaux said. “That, to me, showed class because that race was a building block to the Derby. He wasn’t supposed to win and he tried to win. He showed talent and speed to position himself wherever he need be to win a race.”

A week after the San Vicente, Texas Red developed a foot abscess. He was sent to a nearby farm for a month where he swam to maintain fitness while getting a freshening.

He came back to Desormeaux’s barn in early March, but after a half-mile workout March 14, Texas Red was off again in his left front “so we shut it down right there,” Desormeaux said.

On the afternoon of March 14, American Pharoah kicked off his 3-year-old season with a 6 1/4 length victory in the Rebel Stakes. A win in the Arkansas Derby on April 11 solidified his status as the Derby favorite, and the rest is literally history.

A Triple Crown sweep and a victory in the Haskell later, American Pharoah shows up in the Travers as the heavy favorite.

But Texas Red is here, too. Noting that Texas Red’s sire, Afleet Alex, had success at Saratoga and has already sired a Travers winner – Afleet Express – Desormeaux has had the Travers in mind since March. Texas Red finished second in the Dwyer at Belmont Park, followed by a win in the Jim Dandy.

In seven of the last 10 years, the Travers winner has come out of the Jim Dandy. In the last 23 years, only four Travers winners have come out of the Haskell, though one, Point Given, was trained by Baffert.

“I’m trying to look at it as realistic as possible,” Desormeaux said. “I hope I’ve fallen into the Pharoah-mania, and I think, like everyone says, he’s from another planet. I hope that’s the case. If I’m wrong that means he’s vulnerable. I think the horse is too good to beat, but it’s going to be fun trying.”