Top contenders Essential Quality, Midnight Bourbon start side-by-side in 152nd Travers
In American horse racing, and especially here in the Bluegrass, winning the Kentucky Derby is one of Thoroughbred racing’s most weighty accomplishments.
Essential Quality left the starting gate as the favorite to win the Run for the Roses on May 1 at Churchill Downs but departed that day with a fourth-place finish.
The Brad Cox trainee will never have a chance to undo getting bumped at the start in Louisville, but Essential Quality has been nothing but stellar in every appearance before or since that day.
That’s why Wednesday, the 3-year-old from Godolphin Racing was installed as the 4-5 favorite for Saturday’s 152nd running of the $1.25 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Essential Quality, who has won seven of his eight career starts, will face a field of six others going 1 ¼ miles in a “Midsummer Derby” that could bolster the colt’s bid for 2021 Horse of the Year honors. Essential Quality will race from post position No. 2.
Essential Quality arrived for the Kentucky Derby with five victories in five career races, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.
After finishing fourth at Churchill, Essential Quality rebounded to win the final leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, on June 6. He then won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on July 31 in a warm-up for the Travers.
“One good thing about this horse,” Cox told the Times-Union of Albany, N.Y., last week, “he is always running at the end. Even in his only defeat, he was running at the end. There has never been a race where he was not running at the end. Hopefully, we can keep that going and we will be in good shape.”
Saturday’s top challenger in the eyes of oddsmakers is Midnight Bourbon (9-2), who will race next to Essential Quality from post position No. 1.
Midnight Bourbon ran sixth in the Kentucky Derby, the only time in his nine career finishes he’s come in outside the top three. Midnight Bourbon, trained by Steve Asmussen, was runner-up in the Preakness Stakes.
Midnight Bourbon’s only outing since then, the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park on July 17, resulted in a did-not-finish.
Hot Rod Charlie, who crossed the finish line first that day, drifted into the path of Midnight Bourbon, who clipped his heels, stumbled badly and threw off jockey Paco Lopez during the stretch run. Miraculously, Lopez’s injuries were minor and Midnight Bourbon was unhurt. Hot Rod Charlie was disqualified and Cox’s Mandaloun was declared the winner.
Keepmeinmind, who ran seventh in the Derby, fourth in the Preakness and second in the Jim Dandy, was given odds of 6-1 on the morning line along with Dynamic One, who was 18th at Churchill Downs but bounced back to win the Curlin Stakes at Saratoga on July 30.
Masqueparade (8-1), Miles D (12-1) and King Fury (15-1) round out Saturday’s field.
152nd Travers Stakes
What: $1.25 million race for 3-year-olds
Where: Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
When: 6:12 p.m. Saturday
TV: Fox-56
Distance: 1 ¼ miles (dirt)
Travers Stakes field with odds
1. Midnight Bourbon (9-2)
2. Essential Quality (4-5)
3. Keepmeinmind (6-1)
4. Dynamic One (6-1)
5. Miles D (12-1)
6. Masqueparade (8-1)
7. King Fury (15-1)