Jon White: 2023 Travers Stakes Selections

Many Thoroughbred racing enthusiasts are looking forward to the Travers Stakes, which will be run for the 154th time this Saturday (Aug. 26) at historic Saratoga Race Course.

The 7-5 favorite on David Aragona’s morning line is last year’s Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old male, Forte, who is coming off a narrow victory in Saratoga’s Grade II Jim Dandy Stakes for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher.

Seven 3-year-olds are entered in the Grade I, $1.25 million Travers, which will be contested at 1 1/4 miles on the main track. From the rail out, the field consists of Forte, Arcangelo (5-2 on the morning line), Tapit Trice (12-1), Mage (4-1), National Treasure (8-1), Disarm (8-1) and Scotland (12-1).

For the first time since 2017, a different winner of the three Triple Crown events will clash in the Travers -- Mage from the Kentucky Derby, National Treasure from the Preakness Stakes and Arcangelo from the Belmont Stakes.

The three different Triple Crown race winners to compete in the Travers in 2017 were Always Dreaming from the Kentucky Derby, Cloud Computing from the Preakness and Taprit from the Belmont.

West Coast, who did not run in any of the Triple Crown races, won the 2017 Travers for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. In my Travers selections for Xpressbet.com, West Coast was my top pick. He paid $14.20 for each $2 win wager. Taprit finished fourth, Cloud Computing eighth and Always Dreaming ninth in the field of 12.

Three different winners of the Triple Crown races also met in the 1982 Travers. That trio consisted of Gato Del Sol from the Kentucky Derby, Aloma’s Ruler from the Preakness and Belmont winner Conquistador Cielo.

As was the case in 2017, the winner of the 1982 Travers, Runaway Groom, did not participate in any of the Triple Crown races. Runaway Groom returned $27.80 for each $2 win ticket. Aloma’s Ruler finished second. Conquistador Cielo ran third as the 2-5 favorite. Gato Del Sol wound up fifth.

Despite Conquistador Cielo’s defeat in the Travers, he was voted 1982 Horse of the Year, an award stemming primarily from his victories in the Grade I Met Mile against older horses on May 31 and Grade I Belmont Stakes just five days later.

There has been only one other time in which a different winner of the three Triple Crown races competed in the Travers. In 1918, Sun Briar, who did not start in any of the Triple Crown races, captured the Travers that year while defeating Kentucky Derby winner Exterminator, Preakness winner War Cloud and Belmont winner Johren.

In the 1918 Travers, Johren finished second, War Cloud third and Exterminator fourth. One of the greatest geldings of all time, Exterminator amazingly won 50 of 100 lifetime starts during his racing career.

It is interesting that all three times that a different winner in each of the three Triple Crown race ran in the Travers, none of them won, with the winner being a horse who had not run in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness or Belmont. Will that happen again this year? I hope not. My top pick in this year’s Travers did win one of the Triple Crown events. I am going with Arcangelo.

Below are my Travers Stakes selections:

1. Arcangelo
2. Forte
3. Mage
4. Disarm

I am attempting to make it three straight winning top picks in the Travers.

My top pick for Xpressbet.com in the 2022 Travers was Epicenter, who prevailed by 5 1/4 lengths as the even-money favorite.

In 2021, my top pick was Essential Quality, who won by a neck as the 2-5 favorite.

In my 2020 Travers selections for Xpressbet.com, I foolishly tried to beat odds-on favorite Tiz the Law with 5-2 Uncle Chuck. Tiz the Law trounced his foes, winning by 5 1/2 lengths. Uncle Chuck led through the early furlongs before faltering to finish sixth in the field of seven.

Will Forte do to me in this year’s Travers what Tiz the Law did in 2020? I wouldn’t put it past Forte.

When I recently tried to beat Forte in the Jim Dandy with Saudi Crown, Forte won that 1 1/8-mile race as the 3-5 favorite. Front-running Saudi Crown lost by a nose at odds of 7-2.

Considering Forte beat me in the Jim Dandy, why am I going against him again in the Travers? I have five main reasons that my choice to win the Travers is Arcangelo.

Reason No. 1: Unlike Saudi Crown, Arcangelo already has defeated Forte. When Arcangelo won the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes on June 10, Forte was the runner-up.

Granted, Forte actually did quite well to finish second in the Belmont despite a 10-week layoff and a wide trip. Admittedly, it did help Arcangelo that he received a marvelous ride by Hall of Famer Javier Castellano, who saved ground when rallying on the far turn, while Forte was racing wide. But I was impressed by the way Arcangelo burst away from the pack in upper stretch to open a 3 1/2-length lead with a furlong to go.

Reason No. 2: I see Arcangelo as an improving 3-year-old who just might be blossoming into a real star. We might not have seen the best from him yet. Talk about Beyer Speed Figures on the rise. Check out Arcangelo’s pattern in his five career starts so far: 53, 70, 84, 97 and 102.

Reason No. 3: Castellano won his first Kentucky Derby on Mage and first Belmont Stakes aboard Arcangelo. Castellano is riding Arcangelo, not Mage, in the Travers.

Castellano has an excellent record in the Travers, having ridden a record six winners: Bernardini (2006), Afleet Express (2010), Stay Thirsty (2011), V.E. Day (2014), Keen Ice (2015) and Catholic Boy (2018).

Reason No. 4: Arcangelo seems to have trained extremely well since the Belmont. His a.m. activity has drawn rave reviews. This is another indication to me that there might be further improvement with him. The Kentucky-bred gray ridgling has been giving every indication that he might be sitting on a dynamite performance in the Travers.

I admit that I’m a bit concerned that Arcangelo is going into the Travers off an 11-week layoff. Daily Racing Form’s David Grening has pointed out that no horse has won both the Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes without a race in between since Birdstone in 2004.

But one of the reasons I’m willing to go ahead and make Arcangelo my top pick in the Travers despite the layoff is the way he seemingly has trained so splendidly up to this race.

Reason No. 5: Arcangelo is by a Travers winner. His sire, Arrogate, won this race in spectacular fashion for Baffert in 2016. In my Xpressbet.com recap of that Travers, I described Arrogate’s performance as being Secretariat-like.

Arrogate drew off in the stretch and crushed his Travers rivals to win by 13 1/5 lengths. Just this week, in a Daily Racing Form article written by David Grening, Baffert was quoted as saying that Arrogate “was phenomenal that day.”

In my Travers recap for Xpressbet.com, I noted a number of ways that a case could be made that Arrogate’s Travers performance actually was better than Secretariat’s when he won the 1973 Kentucky Derby by 2 1/2 lengths at the same 1 1/4-mile distance.

Arrogate’s final time of 1:59 1/5 in the Travers was one-fifth of a second faster than Secretariat’s in the Derby.

Secretariat broke a track record that had stood for nine years. Arrogate broke a track record that had stood for 37 years.

Arrogate was making his stakes debut in the Travers, with just four previous career starts under his belt. Secretariat was much more experienced going into the Kentucky Derby. Prior to the Derby, Secretariat had made 12 career starts, nine in stakes races.

What also made Arrogate’s Travers better than Secretariat’s Derby, in my opinion, was the fact that Arrogate did the heavy lifting early by setting a fast pace en route to his track record. In other words, Arrogate ran hard from start to finish.

By contrast, in Secretariat’s Kentucky Derby, Shecky Greene was the one who ran fast early. Far back early, Secretariat continually ran faster and faster through each stage of the race. The brisk pace set by Shecky Greene set the table for Secretariat’s compelling stretch run. Shecky Greene would go on to be voted the Eclipse Award as champion sprinter that year.

In the Derby, Secretariat ran his final quarter-mile in :23 and change. So did Arrogate in the Travers. It was especially remarkable that Arrogate could come home as strongly as he did after setting an even faster pace than Shecky Greene did in the Kentucky Derby.

Shecky Greene posted early fractional times in the Derby of :23 2/5, :47 2/5 and 1:11 4/5.

Arrogate clicked off early fractions in the Travers of :23 1/5, :46 4/5 and 1:10 4/5.

What kind of a toll did Shecky Greene’s early efforts in the Derby take on him? He faltered and finished 16 lengths behind Secretariat.

Even though Arrogate ran faster early in the Travers than Shecky Greene in the Derby, Arrogate still was able to run his final quarter in the Travers in a terrific :23 4/5.

In the book “Secretariat: The Making of a Champion,” William Nack noted that “Secretariat raced every quarter-mile in the Kentucky Derby faster than the preceding quarter. His final [individual] splits were :25 1/5, :24 flat, :23 4/5, :23 2/5, and :23 flat. No one could remember when a horse had done that over a distance of a mile and a quarter. Secretariat literally went faster and faster from start to finish.”

Arrogate? As noted earlier, he ran fast from start to finish in the Travers. His final individual splits were :23 1/5, :23 3/5, :24 flat, :24 3/5, and :23 4/5.

Getting back to this Saturday’s Travers, I have the utmost respect for Forte, as I should. After all, the Kentucky-bred Violence colt has won seven of nine lifetime starts and finished worse than second just once.

What about Mage?

When Mage rallied from 16th to win the Kentucky Derby, he impressed me so much that I loved him in the May 20 Preakness. But he let me down in Baltimore. Mage made a move to loom menacingly at the top of the stretch, then lacked the needed further response during the stretch run. He came home evenly and finished third to National Treasure and Blazing Sevens.

Mage then didn’t race again until the Grade I Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park on July 22, his first start in nine weeks. His connections set expectations low in the Haskell. They indicated that Mage was running in the Haskell principally as a bridge to the Travers.

In the Haskell, Mage rallied to loom a bold threat at the top of the lane, similar to the Preakness. And like the Preakness, Mage lacked the needed further response during the stretch run in the Haskell, this time having to settle for second behind Southern California shipper Geaux Rocket Ride.

Maybe the Travers will be different for Mage than the Preakness and Haskell. Maybe this time he will have the needed late kick, a la the Kentucky Derby. We shall see.

Disarm never really threatened on a sloppy track in the Jim Dandy. He finished fourth at 9-2. I thought he would do much better on that occasion.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen is adding blinkers to Disarm’s equipment for the Travers.

“We need to add more,” Asmussen said this week when explaining the decision to put blinkers on Disarm. “We aren’t satisfied with the results of his last race. I think he’s capable of more. This is our first step in trying to pull it out of him.”

The word is Disarm has been training like a beast for the Travers.

In my eyes National Treasure happened to be the right horse at the right time to win one of the weaker Preaknesses in recent years. He was permitted to set a moderate pace, yet only barely won. National Treasure subsequently finished sixth in the Belmont.

National Treasure, trained by Baffert, hasn’t started since the Belmont. Look, Baffert is a huge plus for any horse in any big race. But I find it hard to picture National Treasure winning the Travers. With Scotland in the field, I don’t expect National Treasure to get away with being left alone on the front early in the Travers, as was the case in the Preakness.

Scotland is a likely pace factor in the Travers. The Kentucky-bred Good Magic colt is stepping up in class to make his graded stakes debut this Saturday after winning Saratoga’s 1 1/8-mile ungraded Curlin Stakes last time out on July 21.

Despite the class hike, I do consider Scotland to be a very dangerous Travers entrant. He has the look of an up-and-comer for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, who is having a big year. Scottland’s Curlin victory was flattered when the runner-up in that race, Il Miracolo, won the Grade III Smarty Jones Stakes at Parx on Tuesday (Aug. 22).

Tapit Trice, another Pletcher trainee, is adding blinkers in an attempt to get him to improve on his last three races. After winning the Grade I Blue Grass Stakes in April, the Kentucky-bred Tapit colt has finished seventh in the Kentucky Derby, third in the Belmont and fifth in the Haskell.

TRAVERS BEYERS BY THE WINNER

What kind of Beyer Speed Figure will it take to win this year’s Travers? Probably something lower -- perhaps much lower -- than the 112 that Epicenter received when he won last year’s renewal.

It might not even take a Beyer as high as the figures recorded in the Travers by 2021 winner Essential Quality, a 107, or 2020 winner Tiz the Law, a 109.

I think all it might take to win this year’s Travers will be something similar to the 105 Beyer when Code of Honor won this race in 2019 or the 104 Beyer when Catholic Boy was victorious in 2018.

Forte and Mage go into this year’s Travers boasting the highest Beyer Speed Figure of a 105. Forte received a 105 Beyer in the Jim Dandy. Mage likewise recorded a 105 in the Kentucky Derby.

Disarm does go into the Travers having rattled off three consecutive triple-digit Beyers. He recorded a 100 when fourth in the Kentucky Derby, a 102 when he won Churchill Downs’ Grade III Matt Winn Stakes, then a 101 for his fourth in the Jim Dandy.

As mentioned early, while Arcangelo has not yet recorded a Beyer higher than a 102, his figures have steadily been climbing with each successive start.

Tapit Trice’s top Beyer to date was the 100 he received when third in the Belmont.

National Treasure and Scotland are the only two Travers entrants who have not yet recorded a triple-digit Beyer.

Below are Beyer Speed Figures for Travers winners going back to 1990 (the first year they were listed in the American Racing Manual):

2022 Epicenter (112)
2021 Essential Quality (107)
2020 Tiz the Law (109)
2019 Code of Honor (105)
2018 Catholic Boy (104)
2017 West Coast (108)
2016 Arrogate (122)
2015 Keen Ice (106)
2014 V.E. Day (102)
2013 Will Take Charge (107)
2012 Alpha (100)*
2012 Golden Ticket (100)*
2011 Stay Thirsty (101)
2010 Afleet Express (105)
2009 Summer Bird (110)
2008 Colonel John (106)
2007 Street Sense (108)
2006 Bernardini (116)
2005 Flower Alley (110)
2004 Birdstone (108)
2003 Ten Most Wanted (112)
2002 Medaglia d’Oro (113)
2001 Point Given (117)
2000 Unshaded (109)
1999 Lemon Drop Kid (110)
1998 Coronado’s Quest (107)
1997 Deputy Commander (110)
1996 Will’s Way (114)
1995 Thunder Gulch (110)
1994 Holy Bull (115)
1993 Sea Hero (109)
1992 Thunder Rumble (109)
1991 Corporate Report (109)
1990 Rhythm (104)

*Dead heat

EQUIPMENT FAILURE AT HAWTHORNE

If you have a Twitter -- oops, I mean an X -- account, you are urged to check out Jim Miller’s message (@HawthorneJim) that says: “You want pure athleticism, this is it right here! Watch as jockey Abel Lezcano has his right stirrup break in the first turn of race 3 and somehow he manages to avert disaster and stay aboard. Pure strength and grit there!”

Lezcano was riding Christmas Present in this Hawthorne contest for $6,250 claimers at one mile and 70 yards last Sunday (Aug. 20).

“Abel Lezcano put on an incredible display of courage and athleticism at Hawthorne Race Course near Chicago on Sunday, holding on for dear life after his right stirrup broke while he was battling for the lead in the third race aboard the 5-year-old gelding Christmas Present,” the Paulick Report wrote.

The video replay of the race shows Christmas Present broke alertly and led the field in the run to the clubhouse turn. Christmas Present then was vying for the lead while racing inside Blooming Garden when, approaching the backstretch, Lezcano seemingly disappeared from the saddle. That threw track announcer Peter Galassi for a loop.

“As they turn onto the backstretch, less than six and a half furlongs to go, and Blooming Garden from on the outside…” But before Galassi finished the sentence to say that Blooming Garden was in front at that point, he noticed that Christmas Present’s rider suddenly had disappeared. After a brief pause to try and figure out what in the heck was going on, Galassi said, “The No. 1 [Christmas Present], the rider is out of the saddle, but he’s still with the horse. Now he’s trying to get back into the saddle. A little confusing there. Didn’t see him. Thought he was off, but he was on. Now he’s back in the saddle. Just a tremendous job by Abel Lezcano to say on that horse.”

That also was a tremendous job of announcing by Galassi when having to deal with a major curve ball thrown at him during the running of the race.

With both of Lezcano’s feet dangling on the far turn, Christmas Present steadily dropped back to last and eventually was corralled in deep stretch by an outrider.

According to the Paulick Report, Lezcano said he heard a loud snap on the first turn and suddenly his right foot was without a stirrup. Lezcano said that he had just purchased the equipment. The stirrup, Lezcano said, was made from a carbon material.

“Rarely does a race go to plan, but even less frequently does a stirrup break, and the jockey can make a superhuman effort and get back into the tack after clinging to the horse’s neck for a furlong,” BloodHorse’s Lauren Gash wrote.

“My plan from the start of the race was to get out in front,” Lezcano told BloodHorse’s Gash. “That was the plan, and in the first turn, I felt my foot going down. I was in shock; the stirrups were new, so I didn’t understand how or why it was breaking.

“I started falling and knew I had only three options. If I let go of the horse and fall, it will go on without me, but it could hurt the other jockeys and horses behind me. Possibly the horse could get hurt if I let go; he could fall while he was loose. The second option was that if I fell with the horse, it could be bad for me and the horse. The third option was to hold on for dear life and pray that God would give me the strength to pull myself back on.”

Lezcano added that he has been working hard to “being strong again” ever since he had a kidney transplant two years ago.

On Sunday night, Lezcano posted the following message on the social media site formerly known as Twitter: “Thank God I’m only sore but glad I didn’t fall or hurt anybody. By the grace of the lord I’m here and will continue working hard.”

Christmas Present’s trainer, Brian Cook, was in shock at what he had just seen.

Cook “was pale white when I saw his face on the racetrack,” Lezcano said. “He said he has to go to church after witnessing what just happened; it was unbelievable. He was thankful because I saved the horse from getting lose or possibly hurt.”

Steve Byk put it well Monday on his Sirius XM radio program At the Races when he described Lezcano’s actions as “gymnastics” on Christmas Present.

Former jockey Richard Migliore, who rode 4,450 winners and now is a broadcaster for Fox Sports, also talked about Lezcano’s stirrup incident on Byk’s show Monday.

“It was incredible, just incredible,” Migliore said. “If anybody ever doubted a jockey’s strength, athleticism, tenacity -- it’s all there on display in one video.”

Migliore said people don’t realize how hard it is for a rider to pull himself or herself back into the saddle, like Lezcano did. Migliore believes that the horse also deserves props.

The horse “didn’t deviate from his path, he didn’t duck, he didn’t dodge,” Migliore said. “And I’m sure he had to be off balance, too, because Lezcano was off to one side of him. And the horse stayed the course in an amazing athletic feat, too.”

Migliore noted that what Lezcano did to get back in the saddle was “partly motivated by fear. You don’t want to hit the ground there, especially with all those horses bunched up behind you. My hat’s off to him…All the while you’re going 35 miles an hour. It was unbelievable he didn’t come off immediately. But then for him to be in that position, just the sheer strength and will to put himself back in the middle [of the saddle], it really was as tough and strong an athletic feat as you’re ever going to see. And most people are never going to truly identify with it because how many people have ever been in that position?”

For some longtime Pacific Northwest racing fans, the incident Sunday involving Christmas Present and Lezcano brought to mind what occurred in the 1970 Longacres Mile. Jockey Larry Pierce is one person who certainly can identify with Lezcano’s plight on Sunday.

Pierce rode Turbulator in the 1970 Longacres Mile. Turbulator was sent away as the 6-5 favorite. He was coming off a victory in which he had lowered the world record for 6 1/2 furlongs by two-fifths of a second.

Leaving the starting gate in the Longacres Mile, Pierce’s left stirrup iron broke into several pieces. The broken stirrup meant Pierce had his left foot dangling for much of the race. His right foot also slipped out of the right stirrup for a time. Going into the backstretch, Pierce lost his balance and nearly fell off.

“I rolled over to the left side on his neck,” Pierce told me years later. “That scared me. But in a split second -- I don’t know whether it was fear or adrenalin -- I got back down in the saddle. I crawled my way back off his neck. As I came to the half-mile pole, I got my right foot back in the stirrup.”

Throughout the final three furlongs, while Pierce did not have a stirrup to put his left foot into, Turbulator found himself boxed in along the inner rail in the bulky 13-horse field. Turbulator still somehow managed to improve his position from 10th to fifth in the final quarter of a mile.

Christmas Present was pulled up by an outrider in deep stretch during his race Sunday. In Turbulator’s nightmarish Longacres Mile, he continued racing all the way to the finish and lost by only 2 1/2 lengths.

Just as Migliore said that it was an amazing display of athleticism by both Abel Lezcano and Christmas Present last Sunday at Hawthorne, the same could be said of Larry Pierce and Turbulator in the 1970 Longacres Mile.

Turbulator’s owner, breeder and trainer, Tom Crawford, watched that 1970 Longacres Mile from his box seat. When Crawford walked out onto the track after the race, he couldn’t believe what he had just seen as he watched Pierce flopping around on the horse and the horse being boxed in for the entire final three furlongs.

“What the hell were you doing out there?” Crawford snapped as Pierce dismounted.

Pierce simply pointed toward the horse and said three words: “My stirrup broke.”

When Pierce discussed the race with me years later, he shook his head and said, “You know, there were so many ifs.” Turbulator “wins easy if the stirrup doesn’t break, if my foot doesn’t slip out of the right stirrup, if I don’t almost fall off him, if we’re not trapped -- if, if, if. And he still only got beat two and a half lengths.”

All but one of the several pieces of the shattered stirrup were recovered by the starting gate crew and later given to Crawford for a keepsake. Crawford had the fragments framed and enclosed in glass to display in his home like a painting. When I interviewed Crawford’s widow, Marguerite Crawford, at her home in 2004 when writing an article for the Washington Thoroughbred magazine, I actually got to see those framed stirrup fragments. To be perfectly honest, to see those framed stirrup fragments meant more to me than when I saw the Mona Lisa at The Louvre in Paris in 1984.

DEL MAR LOST DAY OF RACING DUE TO TROPICAL STORM

The nine-race card at Del Mar last Sunday (Aug. 20) was canceled as the result of an extremely rare tropical storm that hit Southern California. It had been 84 years since Southern California experienced a tropical storm.

The Los Angeles Times reported that around 8:15 p.m. Sunday, the center of the storm was circulating directly over Dodger Stadium, according to Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist.

The Dodgers had been scheduled to play a home game Sunday against the Miami Marlins. Instead of that Sunday game, the Dodgers and Marlins played a doubleheader Saturday. The Los Angeles Angels and Tampa Bay Rays likewise called off a Sunday game scheduled at Anaheim Stadium and instead played a doubleheader Saturday.

MUSIC INDUSTRY & RACING MOURNS DEATH OF JERRY MOSS

Jerry Moss, a giant in both the music industry and horse racing, died last Wednesday (Aug. 16) at his home in Bel Air, Calif. He was 88.

Moss was the “M” in A&M records, the record company he co-founded in 1962 with Herb Alpert. The label was home to such acts as Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Burt Bacharach, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, the Carpenters, Cat Stevens, Joe Cocker, the Police, Styx, Peter Frampton and Soundgarden.

When I once was doing a phone interview with Moss regarding one of his horses, I happened to mention to him that “The Lonely Bull” had been one of my favorite songs when I was a youngster.

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Moss said. “Did you know that was the very first single we put out on the A&M label?”

“No, Mr. Moss, I didn’t know that,” I replied.

“That was an incredibly important song for us,” he said. “It really helped us get A&M off the ground.”

“The Lonely Bull,” by Herb Albert & the Tijuana Brass, was a hit. It peaked at No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot 100 on Dec. 8, 1962.

In the Los Angeles Times obituary, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: “A&M didn’t have another significant success until 1965, when Alpert embraced pop on ‘Whipped Cream & Other Delights,’ an album as famous for its provocative album cover depicting a model slathered in whipped cream as it was for its swinging rendition of ‘A Taste of Honey.’ ‘Whipped Cream & Other Delights’ started a remarkable streak of five No. 1 albums for Alpert, hits that turned the label into a powerhouse.”

In 1970, A&M signed a distribution deal with Ode Records, which was headed by Alpert’s one-time partner Lou Adler (who through the years has often been seen sitting next to actor Jack Nicholson at Lakers games).

The deal with Ode Records “hit pay dirt when Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’ became one of the biggest-selling albums of the 1970s,” Erlewine wrote.

The double album “Frampton Comes Alive!” also became a huge success for A&M in the 1970s.

“A&M’s biggest hits in the 1980s belonged to Sting, either on his own or with the Police, and Janet Jackson, whose ‘Control’ and ‘Rhythm Nation 1814’ albums changed the course of R&B music and elevated her to a level of stardom comparable to that of her brother Michael,” Erlewine wrote.

Within a decade of its inception, A&M became the world’s largest independent record company. In 1989, Moss and Alpert sold A&M to the Dutch company PolyGram for $500 million. They originally remained on as executives with A&M after the sale, but Moss and Alpert became sour on the arrangement and left the company in 1993. According to Erlewine, “the pair sued PolyGram in 1998, claiming a breach of the integrity clause; they would settle the case for $200 million.”

Born in the Bronx, N.Y., on May 8, 1935, Moss in the 1980s became a prominent Thoroughbred owner and breeder, first with former wife Ann and more recently with his wife Tina.

Among the many trainers for the Mosses were Hall of Famers Bobby Frankel, Richard Mandella and Charlie Whittingham. Brian Mayberry, John Sadler, John Shirreffs also conditioned horses for the Mosses.

While being trained by Whittingham, Ruhlmann ran one mile in 1:33 2/5 to set a track record when he won the Viking Spirit Stakes at Santa Anita in 1989 for the Mosses. Ruhlmann went on to win the Grade I Santa Anita Handicap in 1990.

Mayberry trained Sardula for the Mosses. In 1994, Sardula won the Grade I Kentucky Oaks. (That’s the only Kentucky Oaks that I’ve attended.)

“An art collector who owned pieces by Magritte, Picasso, Warhol and Basquiat, Moss cultivated many interests outside music. Chief among these was horse racing and breeding,” Erlewine wrote. “Named to the California Horse Racing Board in 2004, Moss owned Giacomo, a horse named after Sting’s son that won the 2005 Kentucky Derby.”

Sherriffs trained Giacomo, who won the Run for the Roses by a half-length for the Mosses in a 50-1 upset. (That victory by Giacomo cost yours truly more than $14,000. I had a $200 win wager on Closing Argument, who finished second at odds of 71-1.)

The Los Angeles Times obituary failed to mention the most important and famous Thoroughbred that Jerry and Ann Moss raced. That, of course, would be the great Zenyatta, trained by Sherriffs. Zenyatta won her first 19 consecutive starts, including a dramatic victory in the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita in 2009.

The immensely popular Zenyatta, who was named for the Police album “Zenyatta Mondatta,” is the only female to have ever won the BC Classic. She returned for the 2010 renewal at Churchill Downs, a race she lost by a head when second to Blame. That would be the only defeat in Zenyatta’s extraordinary career.

Despite Zenyatta’s narrow loss in the BC Classic, she was voted 2010 Horse of the Year.

Zenyatta ranks No. 3, behind only No. 1 Flightline and No. 2 American Pharoah, on my list of the Top 100 Thoroughbreds of the 21st century so far to have won in North America. The others on the Top 10 are No. 4 Arrogate, No. 5 Ghostzapper, No. 6 Curlin, No. 7 Rachel Alexander, No. 8 Justify, No. 9 Shared Belief and No. 10 California Chrome.

Jerry Moss and Zenyatta are both Hall of Famers. Moss and Alpert were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 as nonperformers. Zenyatta was inducted into racing’s national Hall of Fame in 2016.

LONGINES BREEDERS’ CUP CLASSIC RANKINGS

Forte heads into the Travers ranked No. 1 in this week’s Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic Rankings.

Joining the Top 10 for the first time is Ushba Tesoro, who is No. 10 this week. He won this year’s Group I, $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 25.

The Breeders’ Cup will be held this year at Santa Anita on Nov. 3-4. The $6 million Classic will be on Nov. 4.

The Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic Rankings are determined by a panel of voters comprised of members of the Breeders’ Cup Racing/Secretaries Panel, international racing and sports media, plus racing analysts.

The rankings will be updated weekly through Oct. 10.

The Top 10 in this week’s rankings are below:

Rank Points Horse (First-Place Votes)

 1. 307 Forte (18)
 2. 257 White Abarrio (4)
 3. 244 Geaux Rocket Ride (3)
 4. 233 Mage (1)
 5. 215 Arcangelo (2)
 6. 121 Rattle N Roll (3)
 7. 104 Defunded (1)
 8.   77 Zandon
 9.   73 Proxy
10.   46 Ushba Tesoro

TOP 10 IN THIS WEEK’S NTRA TOP THOROUGHBRED POLL

Below is the Top 10 in this week’s NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll:

Rank Points Horse (First-Place Votes)

 1. 322 Elite Power (26)
 2. 256 Cody’s Wish (6)
 3. 230 Nest
 4. 168 White Abarrio
 5. 149 Up to the Mark
 6. 140 Clairiere
 7. 117 Forte (1)
 8.   85 Casa Creed
 9.   41 Goodnight Olive
 9.   41 In Italian

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