Since the turn of the millennium, Saratoga has provided 20 runnings of the Travers Stakes, the unofficial fourth leg of the Triple Crown and final classic test for three-year-olds. Some renditions have reaffirmed the stars of the Triple Crown trail, while others have established new runners as the ones to beat as the season wears on. Champions have been crowned, rising stars have shone and disappointed, and massive upsets have turned the racing world on its head.
Every now and again, it’s important to look back on the history of the sport in order to appreciate events to come. On the eve of the 2020 Travers, let’s look back on the 10 greatest Travers Stakes of the last 20 years.
Honorable Mention
2019: Code of Honor Gets Another For Shug
In 1989, Shug McGaughey was blessed to train a horse as talented as he was beloved. In his first start after winning the Belmont Stakes, Easy Goer defeated older horses for the first time to win the G1 Whitney, becoming only the 12th horse to win the race at three since its inception in 1926. Just two weeks later, he was entered in the Travers Stakes, the Midsummer Derby, and he won again in dominant fashion. Another victory in the G1 Woodward later that summer capped off a three-race stretch of dominance that no three-year-old has achieved since.
30 years later, Shug McGaughey was out to prove his mettle as a top trainer in a racing world that, despite its timeless facade, had changed since his dominant era of the late 80s and early 90s. His runner that day was Code of Honor, the runner-up in the Kentucky Derby and impressive winner of the G3 Dwyer.
By the time the field reached the stretch, the three best runners had made their bid for the lead. Tacitus, the big grey and future winner of the 2020 Suburban, held a small lead over Mucho Gusto, future winner of the 2020 Pegasus World Cup. Code of Honor was even further outside, but it didn’t matter. When it came time to run, he had no match that day,
The chestnut colt, mimicking his trainer’s former star three decades earlier in every way, left no question as to who was better. He cruised right past his talented foes, coming home to win by three lengths. Because these horses are still racing today, their legacies and achievements have yet to be fully realized. What is certain, however, is that McGaughey’s fourth Travers victory will always stand as a testament to the existence of living legends in the world of racing.
10
2005: Flower Alley Runs Down Bellamy Road
In 1978, Affirmed became the last horse to win the Triple Crown until 2015. In those 37 years, several horses came close to immortality, but they all failed. Of all those contenders, however, very few were as promising, and then as disappointing, as Bellamy Road. In that year’s Wood Memorial, he earned a stunning 120 Beyer Speed Figure, and before the Kentucky Derby, there was already Triple Crown buzz. Then he finished seventh in the first leg, and the flicker of hope died for yet another year. The supposed superhorse didn’t race again until the Travers, where he seemed to stack up well as the 5-2 co-favorite.
His only real challenger that day ended up being Flower Alley, who also lost in the Kentucky Derby. While Bellamy Road was on the bench, however, Flower Alley had since run twice, finishing second in the G2 Dwyer before taking the G2 Jim Dandy.
The narrative of the race was fairly straightforward: Could anyone catch Bellamy Road loose on the lead? In the end, the former Derby favorite was game, but couldn’t withstand Flower Alley’s stretch drive in the final defeat of his career.
This race won’t be placed in a prominent place in racing history, as its story isn’t one of glory or triumph. Bellamy Road never raced again after sustaining another injury. Flower Alley ran second in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic but was hampered by injuries himself in his four-year-old season. He was never really the same horse and retired in 2006 after an 11th place finish in the subsequent BC Classic.
There are some wonderful, ecstatic moments to come on this list, but not every story is valuable for its happy endings, especially in horse racing. Bellamy Road was supposed to be a savior, and instead, he was simply capable. His legacy is a result of overhyped expectations and bad timing. The reason the great moments in racing are great is because they’re exceptions. It took dozens and dozens of Triple Crown disappointments to get to 2015 and American Pharoah, and it’s those disappointments that made his Triple Crown so satisifying. The story of Bellamy Road and Flower Alley was a stepping stone to something bigger, even if people didn’t realize it at the time.
9
2008: Stampede in the Stretch, Photo at the Wire
In retrospect, the 2008 three-year-old division wasn’t anything special, and if anything, its greatest purpose was setting up a weak field of older male horses for Zenyatta’s historic victory in the next year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic. In fact, the best horse in the race didn’t even end up running on dirt. Court Vision finished sixth that day and transitioned to turf soon after, having a superb career spanning five years. However, whatever this race lacked in quality, it made up for in sheer spectacle.
At the top of the stretch, the field resembled a cavalry charge, with nine horses fanning out on nearly even terms. A spectator would never manage to figure out who was leading, much less whether the horse they bet had any chance. The race was as closely contested as it was when the gates first opened.
However, what started as a stampede eventually became a stretch duel, as Colonel John and Mambo in Seattle took command late. Mambo tried to run down the Colonel, but neither horse gave an inch in a breathtaking photo finish. Colonel John, ridden by Garret Gomez, proved to be a nostril better that day,
Colonel John went on to have a very solid career without ever really standing out among more talented peers, while Mambo in Seattle never won another race and retired halfway through his four-year-old season. There have been better Travers fields than this one, but there have been very few renditions that have proven as unpredictable.
8
2014: Durkin’s Final Travers is a Thriller
In 2014, legendary horse racing announcer Tom Durkin retired after 24 years in New York. That year’s Travers would be his last, and as luck would have it, it proved to be a thriller.
That year’s running was hampered somewhat by the loss of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome to injury, but in the process, the race became more wide open. A trio of three horses vied for favoritism: Tonalist, that year’s Belmont winner, Wicked Strong, the G2 Jim Dandy winner, and Bayern, the G1 Haskell Invitational winner. The bettors were wrong, but not by much.
At the start, Bayern exploded out of the gate and went straight to lead. In what was perhaps a panicked move, Tonalist and Wicked Strong rushed to join him on the front end to create a pace duel between the three favorites.
The duel led to an honest pace scenario, and after settling just off the two leaders, Wicked Strong made a powerful move on the turn to take the lead. Tonalist had enough left to respond, but Bayern quit and eventually finished last.
Wicked Strong eventually wore down Tonalist, and with a furlong to go, he seemed well on his way to taking the mantle of top three-year-old. However, just as he began to drive away, a single runner can be seen stirring behind him. All of sudden, 19-1 shot V.E. Day exploded from the middle of the pack and started to run down the leader. Wicked Strong still had a three-length lead, but his upset challenger was flying. From his booth, Durkin saw it from the very beginning, and the narrative instantly changed: Could Wicked Strong hold on? With one final lunge at the wire, he was denied, as V.E. Day pulled off the upset with his stylish closing kick.
This was another race that didn’t produce many talented runners. At the end of the season, it was actually beaten favorite Bayern who got the last laugh, as he successfully wired older horses to win the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Wicked Strong’s most notable moment after this race was when he unseated jockey Rajiv Maragh later that season in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup. V.E. Day, for his part, never won another race in two and a half years of racing. For one day, however, he was a champion.
7
2013: Will Take Charge Heats Up
The 2013 Travers was very emblematic of the three-year-old division that year. In some years, the division is competitive because all the horses are weak, and in other years, one powerful presence can overwhelm his competition. This year was unique because all of the runners were good without being great. It made for some highly competitive races throughout the year, and this one was no different.
Orb and Palace Malice were Triple Crown race winners, but Verrazano was the favorite following an impressive victory in the Haskell Invitational. In the end though, the bettors seemed to have a lot of trouble foreseeing the result, one that started with Moreno. At the beginning of the year, the 31-1 shot was still a maiden, but at the eighth pole in the most prestigious three-year-old race of the summer, he was leading. Even more surprisingly, he dug in for the stretch run, repelling a Kentucky Derby winner in the process.
Improbability and inevitability clashed in the minds of every spectator as a complete unknown bounded for the wire at astronomical odds. Then, something even more unlikely occurred: he was run down, not by Verrazano or Palace Malice, but by Will Take Charge, a Triple Crown also ran at 9-1 odds. In a three-horse blanket finish, the late bloomer prevailed over Moreno by a nose and added another layer to the fight for top three-year-old.
Unlike some other upset winners on this list, Will Take Charge turned out to be the real deal, and lost that year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic by a nose to take home Three-Year-Old Champion honors. Moreno lived the life of an underdog for his entire career, with his crowning achievement coming in 2014 when he won the G1 Whitney at 10-1, ahead of Will Take Charge who had to settle for third that day.
6
2002: Medaglia d’Oro Shines Bright in the Mud
A rainstorm didn’t discourage bettors one bit as they began placing wagers on the 2002 Travers. To them the surface didn’t matter, because Medaglia d’Oro was running. He eventually ended up as the 4-5 favorite in a nine-horse field.
Despite the sloppy track, the pace was very quick up front, and Medaglia was very much a part of it, sitting just outside the front runner. The half mile was run in under 47 seconds, and he made a move soon after, taking the lead into the turn. However, the quick pace set up well for closers, and suddenly, the 4-5 shot was challenged as Repent moved like a shot from the back of the pack and into contention.
The underdog had every advantage, as Medaglia d’Oro was weary after helping to set such a blistering pace early. However, jockey Gary Stevens kept asking him for more, and he kept responding, holding off Repent, who never relented in his own right. He made one final lunge at the finish but it wasn’t enough, and the best three-year-old in the country earned a victory in the mud the hard way.
Repent ran once more and retired, while Medaglia d’Oro went on to have a stellar career, one in which he never again finished outside the top two. He was the runner-up in two straight runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Classic as well as his final race in the 2006 Dubai World Cup. The determination he showed that day in the Travers was no fluke, and remained with him until the end of his racing days. A prodigious stud career followed.
5
2001: Baffert Makes His Point
When reviewing horses that nearly won the Triple Crown, Point Given very rarely comes up. However, after a disappointing fifth place finish in the Kentucky Derby, one of the original Bob Baffert superstars quickly reestablished himself as the best three-year-old with victories in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. He followed those two with another victory in the G1 Haskell Invitational, and entered the gate for the Travers as the 3-5 favorite.
There wasn’t a story in this race, but more of a showcase of Point Given and the horse he passed. At 9-2, E Dubai was the only other runner with a chance on the tote board, and at the top of the stretch, the silliness of such an upset became immediately apparent. The underdog was fighting hard, but Point Given towered over his foe as they ran side by side exiting the turn. He wore down E Dubai in the final furlong to drive home to a three-length victory. There was no horse better in the country.
In a deflating twist, Bob Baffert discovered that his horse had strained a tendon Point Given just a week after the Travers. He never raced again. Despite this, he was voted the 2001 Horse of the Year, and this performance was one of many that earned him the honor. No one knew it at the time, but it was the farewell for the rising star.
4
2006: Bernardini Pours It On
Bernardini’s popularity in 2006 was immediately tempered by tragedy. His first big victory in that year’s Preakness was overshadowed by the in-race injury (and later death) of Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro. What went unnoticed by many was that a new superhorse was quickly establishing himself in the racing world.
Ridden by Javier Castellano and trained by Thomas Albertrani, Bernardini made his next start in the G2 Jim Dandy, which he dominated in a nine-length victory. The following month, he entered the gate for the Travers as the 2-5 favorite.
His only real challenger that day was Bluegrass Cat, who finished second in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes before winning the Haskell Invitational. At 5-2, he was considered a close second choice in a virtual match race. By the time it was over, it felt more like a walkover.
Bernardini controlled the race from wire to wire, finishing seven and a half lengths ahead of Bluegrass Cat in second. Unquestionably the top three-year-old now, he raced against older horses in a four-horse field in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont. He won by nearly seven lengths there at 1-9 odds. The final race of his career was that year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, and as the even-money favorite, he led into the stretch but was caught in the final furlong by an extremely talented older horse named Invasor. He retired at the end of that season, and will forever be remembered as one of the most dangerous horses of that era.
3
2016: Arrogate the Unknown
Entering the 2016 Travers, many analysts and fans complained about the quality of the three-year-old division. Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist disappointed later in the year, Preakness winner Exaggerator was only effective in the mud, and the rest appeared to be plodders. It was a tough class to follow the greatness of American Pharoah.
Exaggerator went off as the tepid favorite, while Bob Baffert’s newcomer American Freedom was the second choice. The gates opened, and a dull grey runner broke alertly on the inside and led into the first turn. 11-1 shot Arrogate had taken the early lead in his graded stakes debut.
Considered Bob Baffert’s other runner alongside American Freedom, little was expected of the colt that had only broken his maiden two months prior. But he led into the turn, maintained the lead on the backstretch, and when he was challenged on the second turn by his stablemate, it seemed like he would quit.
Looking back on the race, Steve Asmussen, trainer of Belmont Stakes winner Creator, said, “We ran into a freak today. I thought 2:02 would win it.”
2:02 didn’t come close, because Arrogate didn’t quit on the front end. He exploded. He emphatically repelled American Freedom and charged away from the field, as if he was running alone. The previous record time in the Travers was set in 1978 by General Assembly when he won in two minutes flat. Arrogate earned his 13-1/2 length victory in 1:59.36.
What followed was one of the most dominant stretches in the 21st century of American racing. After winning the Travers, Arrogate went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the Pegasus World Cup, and the Dubai World Cup. His four Beyer Speed Figures in those races: 122, 120, 119, and 115. The second half of his four-year-old season was disappointing, but in a span of eight months, the big grey colt carried the baton in a brief golden era of dirt superhorses, originally sparked by the 2015 Triple Crown and ending with the 2018 Pegasus World Cup. He transcended the sport.
2
2012: “It’s A Dead Heat in the Travers!”
The 2012 Travers wasn’t a fight for immortality, or a test of champions, or even a showcase of future talent. In fact, without I’ll Have Another, Paynter, Bodemeister, and Union Rags, the three-year-old division on display in the summer of 2012 was probably the weakest on this list. It wasn’t supposed to be anything special. It was just a damn good race.
As the field rounded the far turn, 2-1 favorite Alpha made a four-wide move, and without any opposition, this race may have been a boring and straightforward affair. However, every spectators’ ears pricked as Tom Durkin exclaimed, “Down on the inside, it’s Golden Ticket, Golden Ticket in with a huge upset chance here with one furlong to go!” At the same time, 32-1 shot Fast Falcon swung out into the center of the track and began a furious drive from the back of the pack.
33-1 shot Golden Ticket had jumped out to a two-length lead, but Alpha wasn’t done yet. The big bay colt began to steadily make up ground on the underdog, but he was quickly running out of room. At the same time, Fast Falcon was flying down the middle, and Golden Ticket’s lead was becoming more tenuous by the tenth of a second. All three runners convened at the wire, and while it was clear that Fast Falcon had just missed, a photo between Alpha and Golden Ticket was too close to call. After several minutes, the historical result was posted on the tote board, and Tom Durkin was there to call it.
“It’s a dead heat in the Travers! A dead heat!”
1
2015: “And Here, On The Far Outside…”
If I had to describe horse racing using only one race, it would be this one. The race itself was as exciting as the story going in, and it was all bolstered by a single sentence that hadn’t been spoken at Saratoga in over 30 years: A Triple Crown winner was coming upstate.
Three months prior, American Pharoah had done what many considered impossible and won the 2015 Triple Crown, the first since 1978. He was already an immortal, and for months afterward, was essentially on a countrywide tour instead of an actual three-year-old campaign. Returning to Churchill Downs in June, he was paraded on the grounds in between races. He made the cover of Sports Illustrated, and even popped up in mainstream magazines like Vogue.
To attract him to run in the Haskell Invitational in New Jersey, Monmouth Racetrack officials raised the purse money for the race to $1.75 million. 60,000 people attended, and he won easily, his sixth straight victory of the year. After a quick trip back to California, Saratoga was next, and the purse for the Travers was increased to $1.6 million. He was an untouchable superstar.
Bob Baffert knew that the Travers would be a difficult race for him, but it wasn’t exactly something he could skip. Saratoga meant another trip across the country, but to owner Ahmed Zayat, the Triple Crown winner had to add a chapter at the country’s most historic racecourse. For the staggeringly popular Triple Crown winner, normal racing logistics didn’t apply. As he prepared for the Travers at the Spa, even his workouts drew large crowds. He drew the 2-slot in the gate and went off as the 1-5 favorite.
When the gates opened in front a sellout crowd of 50,000, American Pharoah broke beautifully and went straight to the front. It looked eerily similar to his start in the Belmont, but then the picture changed. He wasn’t alone up front.
By this point in time, Frosted had become an afterthought in the racing world. After finishing fourth in the Kentucky Derby and second in the Belmont, many considered him opposition that had already been conquered. He was the third choice at 7-1.
As his regular jockey, Joel Rosario had guided Frosted to minor prizes against A.P. in the past with stalking trips. An hour before the race, however, plans on the big grey colt had to change. Rosario was unseated by 26-1 shot Bourbon Courage in the ninth race, shaking him up and forcing him to relinquish the rest of his mounts for the day. In an emergency, Jose Lezcano took the reins for Kiaran McLaughlin, and he had a different idea.
Instead of chasing American Pharoah, Lezcano moved Frosted into a full dueling position. Although he couldn’t maintain quite the same speed, he sat right off his rear for the entire backstretch, constantly pushing him along. On the far turn, all of the plane rides, photo shoots, and prop workouts seemed to catch up to the Triple Crown winner, and for the first time since his two-year-old season, he lost the lead.
In what may be one of the most lionhearted efforts in the history of Saratoga, American Pharoah continued to fight in the stretch. He was clearly running on empty, but on will alone, he re-rallied to overtake his foe to the outside, reestablishing a one-length lead with one furlong to go. After battling Frosted for the entire race, he gave everything he had to put him away. He didn’t see Keen Ice.
Despite having lost to American Pharoah in three straight races, Dale Romans, Keen Ice’s trainer, was hopeful before the Travers, saying, “He’s getting better and better. We’re getting a little bit closer every time, maybe eventually we’ll catch him.” Still, it was impossible for him to know he was training a giant killer.
After an unexpected duel against an unworthy foe, a weary media schedule, and yet another cross country voyage, Keen Ice still needed the best performance of his life to run down American Pharoah in the final yards. His 16-1 odds didn’t begin to describe the magnitude of what he just accomplished.
After the race, American Pharoah was finally given time to rest and prepare for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. In his final start, he delivered the greatest performance of his life to cap off the first ever Grand Slam, a Triple Crown championship to go along with a BC Classic win. He truly was the horse of a lifetime.
However, like so many talented runners before him, champions of the sport through over a century of racing, American Pharoah entered Saratoga as a titan and was humbled. The minuscule mistakes made by his connections were magnified and punished, and in his first Travers call as the new track announcer, Larry Collmus couldn’t help but deliver the somewhat naive, but all too fitting, adage:
“The Graveyard of Champions has claimed another.”