Travers 2021: Winner Essential Quality now aims for Horse of the Year
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Having done virtually all he can in the 3-year-old division, Essential Quality will now be aimed at the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, in which he will take on older horses for the first time and make his bid for Horse of the Year.
Whether or not Essential Quality, neck winner over Midnight Bourbon in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga, runs again before the Classic is still to be determined. Trainer Brad Cox on Sunday said Essential Quality came out of the race in good shape and it’s just a matter of what, if any, race between now and the Nov. 6 Classic at Del Mar makes sense.
“I don’t think I’d have any trouble training up to the Breeders’ Cup,” Cox said Sunday. “He responded well from the Belmont to the Jim Dandy. We’ll let the dust settle, talk it over with [Godolphin president] Jimmy Bell and the Godolphin team and go from there.”
Essential Quality, a Godolphin homebred son of Tapit, won the Belmont Stakes on June 5 and had eight weeks to the Jim Dandy, a race he won by a half-length over Keepmeinmind. Though the Jim Dandy was 1 1/8 miles, Essential Quality was wide enough around both turns that he nearly ran 1 1/4 miles that day. There are 10 weeks between the Travers and the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Cox pretty much eliminated running back in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing on Sept. 25, saying Sunday morning “I’m not in a big hurry to run him back in four weeks.”
Essential Quality’s victories in the Belmont, Travers, Jim Dandy, Blue Grass, and Southwest give him a stranglehold on the 3-year-old division heading into the fall. He would be the first juvenile champion since American Pharoah (2014-15) to win the 3-year-old championship the following year.
In the Classic, Horse of the Year will likely be on the line for Essential Quality. The primary competition comes from just a few stalls down in the form of the Cox-trained Knicks Go, the leading older dirt male who earlier this meet won the Grade 1 Whitney.
“We’ll let them settle it on the racetrack,” Cox said. “Obviously, Knicks Go is very fast away from there, he’ll establish position early. Essential Quality will love the mile and a quarter. It’ll be interesting, it’ll be exciting. I don’t want either horse to lose. I’d much rather run both of them in different $6 million races, but that’s not the way it works.”
Knicks Go, who this year also won the Grade 1 Pegasus and Grade 3 Cornhusker, is pointing to the Grade 3, $400,000 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs on Oct. 2.
Essential Quality, who is now 8 for 9 in his career, earned a 107 Beyer Speed Figure for the Travers.
Midnight Bourbon, who ran a gallant second in the Travers, came out of the race well, trainer Steve Asmussen said Sunday while on his way to Monday’s Texas Summer Yearling Sale. Asmussen wasn’t sure what would be next for Midnight Bourbon, but he discounted the Pennsylvania Derby, which is run back in four weeks.
“I would be very surprised if he ran back in less than six weeks,” Asmussen said. “He’s obviously a talented horse that we need to figure out how to use most effectively.”