Welcome to Night 3 of the Travers Vault. And tonight, an even bigger post as I will be highlighting three of my favorite King's Bishop winners.
Tonight for the Travers, I'm doing the 1995 winner Thunder Gulch, the 2003 winner Ten Most Wanted and the 2007 winner Street Sense.
Thunder Gulch- 1995 winner
The 1995 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner wins by coming from behind. Not bad for the least likely of his trainer's Wayne Lukas, 3 pronged attack in the Derby (the other two where Serena's Song, who of course is now 1 of two fillies to win the Haskell, and Timber Country who would come back and win the Preakness, before TG won the Belmont). Thunder Gulch, now stands at Coolmore's US operations Ashford Stud. Among his most accomplished horses include 2001 Horse of the Year Point Given. Pryamid Peak who was second to Serena's Song in the Haskell and ran second here to her stablemate also stands in Kentucky at Nuckols Farm. One of his foals is the stakes winner Peak Maria's Way.
Ten Most Wanted- 2003 Winner
I looked everywhere, but for some reason I can't find a video of this race. :( However I did find an article which you can find here. With Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide ill and Belmont winner Empire Maker also not particpating (he would end up not racing again), Wally Dollace would send out TMW as the second choice to Bobby Frankel's "B Team". However the B Team which is made up of Peace Rules, was no slouch. Owned and Trained by the defending owner Edmund Gann and trainer Bobby Frankel, Peace Rules had won the Blue Grass S. before finishing 3rd behind Funny and EM in the Derby. However there was no use denying the son of Deputy Commander, himself a Travers winner. Dollace became only the second trainer to send out a father-son winning combo. Peace Rules finished second and Jim Dandy upset winner, Strong Hope third. Unfortanlly TMW has been moved around in his stud career, he started in Kentucky, then went to New York and now stands in California. Peace Rules returned to his home state of Florida, where I believe he's one of a handful of G1 winners standing there (I think it's him Wildcat Heir, Pomory and Showing Up. Proud Accolade was there too, but he passed away).
Street Sense- 2007 Winner
The 2007 3yo class is the one that is often compared to this year's (even though as it turns out the 07 class was much healthier). This was the year that we had Street Sense, Curlin, Hard Spun, Any Given Saturday and Rags to Riches. Add in Dreaming of Anna, Lear's Princess, Octive, Cotton Blossom, Xchanger and King of the Roxy, you had a really nice set of 3yo's. Street Sense was the Kentucky Derby winner with Calvin Borel on him. Although he lost the Preakness by a nose and eventually the 3yo champions. However he did come back to win the Prep the Jim Dandy and this race beating the upset minded Grasshopper. Street Sense now stands at Darley at Jonabell in Kentucky with Hard Spun. Grasshopper is still in training however he hasn't been the same horse since.
I had planned to do my three favorite King's Bishop winners, however due to a lack of time (Vol. job ends the pre-season tomorrow), I wasn't able to get it done. However, I do plan to feature Lost in the Fog, Hard Spun and Visionaire sometime in the future. When? I'm not sure yet. Tomorrow will be the final day of the Travers Vault and it's a good one with four winners. Alydar (1978), Holy Bull (1994), Medaglia d'Oro (2002) and Birdstone (2004).
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