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Join Mike Somich and Aaron Halterman as they dive into the 2025 Travers Stakes and a stacked Saratoga card. They’ll break down Sovereignty vs. Magnitude in the Travers, Book’em Danno’s chances in the Forego, Torpedo Anna in the Personal Ensign, and key contenders like Patch Adams, Barnes, and Midland Money in the Allen Jerkens.
Jeremy Plonk and Scott Shapiro give their final opinions for Travers Day at Saratoga and dig into Charles Town Classic Day and major stakes at Del Mar this weekend.
Bailey Armour and Scott Shapiro discuss wagering strategies and handicapping tips for the Grade 1 Travers Stakes and the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes at Saratoga. Tune in as our experts provide their in-depth analysis on the field, standout horses, and key betting angles you won’t want to miss.
Romping Iowa Derby winner in July after 5 months on the sidelines after a similarly smashing win in the Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds. Likely second choice in the betting missed all of the Triple Crown season to injury.
Haskell 4th-place finisher won Monmouth's listed Pegasus Stakes in June for his lone stakes score to date. Late season start saw his April return at Keeneland net a runner-up in the Grade 3 Lexington.
April 19 debut winner failed as the favorite in subsequent starts in the allowance ranks and listed Curlin Stakes, most recently third in the latter at 3-5 odds. Son of 2016 Travers third-place finisher Gun Runner. -- Photo Courtesy: Coglianese/NYRA
Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Jim Dandy local prep winner comes into the Travers as a massive favorite. Only loss in 2025 was Florida Derby runner-up to the since-sidelined Tappan Street.
Younger half-brother to 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna exits a runner-up in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer. He's lost 6 straight since a debut score, but placed in the Ohio Derby and Peter Pan along the way.
Romping Iowa Derby winner in July after 5 months on the sidelines after a similarly smashing win in the Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds. Likely second choice in the betting missed all of the Triple Crown season to injury.
Haskell 4th-place finisher won Monmouth's listed Pegasus Stakes in June for his lone stakes score to date. Late season start saw his April return at Keeneland net a runner-up in the Grade 3 Lexington.
April 19 debut winner failed as the favorite in subsequent starts in the allowance ranks and listed Curlin Stakes, most recently third in the latter at 3-5 odds. Son of 2016 Travers third-place finisher Gun Runner. -- Photo Courtesy: Coglianese/NYRA
Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Jim Dandy local prep winner comes into the Travers as a massive favorite. Only loss in 2025 was Florida Derby runner-up to the since-sidelined Tappan Street.
Younger half-brother to 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna exits a runner-up in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer. He's lost 6 straight since a debut score, but placed in the Ohio Derby and Peter Pan along the way.
Romping Iowa Derby winner in July after 5 months on the sidelines after a similarly smashing win in the Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds. Likely second choice in the betting missed all of the Triple Crown season to injury.
Haskell 4th-place finisher won Monmouth's listed Pegasus Stakes in June for his lone stakes score to date. Late season start saw his April return at Keeneland net a runner-up in the Grade 3 Lexington.
April 19 debut winner failed as the favorite in subsequent starts in the allowance ranks and listed Curlin Stakes, most recently third in the latter at 3-5 odds. Son of 2016 Travers third-place finisher Gun Runner. -- Photo Courtesy: Coglianese/NYRA
Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Jim Dandy local prep winner comes into the Travers as a massive favorite. Only loss in 2025 was Florida Derby runner-up to the since-sidelined Tappan Street.
Younger half-brother to 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna exits a runner-up in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer. He's lost 6 straight since a debut score, but placed in the Ohio Derby and Peter Pan along the way.
Romping Iowa Derby winner in July after 5 months on the sidelines after a similarly smashing win in the Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds. Likely second choice in the betting missed all of the Triple Crown season to injury.
Haskell 4th-place finisher won Monmouth's listed Pegasus Stakes in June for his lone stakes score to date. Late season start saw his April return at Keeneland net a runner-up in the Grade 3 Lexington.
April 19 debut winner failed as the favorite in subsequent starts in the allowance ranks and listed Curlin Stakes, most recently third in the latter at 3-5 odds. Son of 2016 Travers third-place finisher Gun Runner. -- Photo Courtesy: Coglianese/NYRA
Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Jim Dandy local prep winner comes into the Travers as a massive favorite. Only loss in 2025 was Florida Derby runner-up to the since-sidelined Tappan Street.
Younger half-brother to 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna exits a runner-up in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer. He's lost 6 straight since a debut score, but placed in the Ohio Derby and Peter Pan along the way.
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SCENE SETTER: This 3-year-old filly turf stakes moves to the Travers Day card for the first time. Lake Placid is about 100 miles north of Saratoga and hosted the 1980 Winter Olympics, which included the famed Miracle on Ice hockey performance by Team USA. The Lake Placid Stakes miracle may be finding a way to beat Chad Brown, who owns this race’s recent history with both quality and quantity of starters. But with this summer’s Wild Applause and Lake George Stakes winners absent, there are no standouts in the entries in what may be the day’s most wide-open stakes.
NOTES:
Chad Brown has trained the Lake Placid winner 4 straight years and 6 of the last 8. The past 3 winners were 5-1, 3-1 and 7-1 runners who were not favorites.
Chad Brown saddled 3 of the top 4 finishers last year in the Lake Placid on the heels of sending out 4 of the top 5 finishers in this race in both 2022 and 2023.
Flavien Prat (2023-’24) and Jose Ortiz (2021-’22) have split the last 4 editions of the Lake Placid among the riders.
SCENE SETTER: The 2024 Horse of the Year season for THORPEDO ANNA included Saratoga victories in the Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks before a thrilling second vs. the boys in the Travers. She’s back at the Spa, and back on the beam after winning the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis last time out at Churchill and washing away her only career misfire in the La Troienne in May. Defending Personal Ensign winner RAGING SEA was second-best to ‘Anna in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff and looks to turn the tables, while Chad Brown stablemate RANDOMIZED brings capable early speed. It’s a Win & You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff with obvious big-time implications.
NOTES:
The Personal Ensign winner has gone on to win the Breeders’ Cup Distaff 3 of the last 8 years, including Forever Unbridled (2017), Malathaat (2022) and Idiotmatic (2023). Last year’s winner, Raging Sea, was runner-up in the Distaff at Del Mar.
10 different trainers have won the last 10 editions of the Personal Ensign.
Only 4 runners over the age of 5 have won the Personal Ensign since its 1948 inception: 6-year-olds Vexatious (2020), Ask the Moon (2011), Quick Mischief (1992) and Manta (1972).
SCENE SETTER: Saratoga’s Belmont Stakes undercard sprint for the 3-year-olds, the Grade 1 Woody Stephens, saw Brad Cox’s PATCH ADAMS live up to his lukewarm favoritism in defeating Bob Baffert’s MADAKET ROAD et al. The top pair return to the same track and distance, but both national powerhouse stables add support with VERIFIRE (Cox) and BARNES (Baffert) as lightly raced, but highly talented, prospects. Late-running CHANCER McPATRICK bounced back from a Stephens dud in the mud by winning the Spa’s Curlin Stakes last time and hopes to stay out of the rain.
NOTES:
Created in 1984, the same year as the Breeders’ Cup, only 2 Jerkens winners have won the BC Sprint the same season: Runhappy (2015) and Drefong (2016). The race was originally called the King’s Bishop until a 2017 renaming.
Trainers Chad Brown (2022, 2024) and Steve Asmussen (2020, 2021) have accounted for 4 of the last 5 editions of the Jerkens Memorial.
3 straight winners of this race turned back in distance from a mile or farther in their most-recent prep.
SCENE SETTER: The Filly & Mare Sprint ranks opened the Saratoga season with a 24-1 upset in the Honorable Miss Stakes by HALINA’S FORTE. With divisional star Ways and Means forced to miss this race, the door is open for fresh faces. Five of the 9 entrants didn’t run at the Spa last out and 4 of those have never appeared locally. Enter, HOPE ROAD from California for Bob Baffert, who was runner-up in the Derby City Distaff at Churchill on the road this spring. A Breeders’ Cup Win & You’re In spot will be on the line in the Filly & Mare Sprint division.
NOTES:
Maryfield (2007) and Goodnight Olive (2022) are the only Ballerina winners to add the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint in the same season.
Jockey John Velazquez is a 5-time winner of the Ballerina, most since its 1979 inception, most recently with Gamine in 2021.
Only 1 Ballerina winner has been older than age 5: the 6-year-old Maryfield in 2007. Four of the last 5 winners have been 4-year-olds.
SCENE SETTER: Defending Forego champ MULLIKIN and archrival BOOK ‘EM DANNO match up for the fourth straight race, which includes Saratoga’s True North and Alfred Vanderbilt most recently. BOOK ‘EM DANNO has won both with MULLIKIN in closest pursuit. Those races were at 6 and 6-1/2 furlongs, while the Forego extends the trip to 7 furlongs. Since being inaugurated in 1980, only Groovy (1986-’87) and Quick Call (1988-’89) have pulled off back-to-back scores as MULLIKIN attempts. The Forego victor gets a Win & You’re In berth to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
NOTES:
Mitole was the last Forego winner to add the Breeders’ Cup Sprint to his resume. Midnight Lute (2007) and Orientate (2002) are the only other dashers who have pulled the feat.
Cody’s Wish stretched out in 2022 to score the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile after winning this Spa sprint fixture.
4-year-olds have won the Forego 6 straight years and have dominated the race’s history.
Trainer Steve Asmusssen accounts for 3 of the last 6 Forego renewals: Gunite (2023), Yaupon (2021) and Mitole (2019).
SCENE SETTER: The 156th edition of the Midsummer Derby gives odds-on favorite SOVEREIGNTY a chance to join 1941 Triple Crown winner Whirlaway as the only horses in history to win the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers. With Derby and Belmont runner-up Journalism sitting this one out, SOVEREIGNTY’s new challenge could come from Risen Star late-winter flash MAGNITUDE, who returned to romp in the Iowa Derby after missing the spring classics. Trainer Chad Brown (STRATEGIC FOCUS) rarely takes a back seat in big races – and this is a big one.
NOTES:
Four straight Travers editions have produced the Eclipse Award Champion 3-Year-Old Male at season’s end, including 2021-’23 race winners Essential Quality, Epicenter and Arcangelo, and capped by last year’s runner-up Sierra Leone.
Eight different trainers have won the Travers over the past 8 years.
Jockey Javier Castellano is a 7-time Travers winner in the saddle, 3 more scores than any other jockey in the 155 years of the Midsummer Derby.
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