Travers Preview

The big race of the Saratoga meet is here. Here is the field for this year's Travers Stakes going a mile and a quarter on dirt.

Post	Horse	Jockey	Weight	Trainer
1	Commanding Curve	Shaun Bridgemohan	126	Dallas Stewart
2	Bayern	Martin Garcia	126	Bob Baffert
3	Charge Now	Junior Alvarado	126	Bill Mott
4	V.E. Day	Javier Casttellano	126	Jimmy Jerkens
5	Viva Majorca	Julian Leparoux	126	Ian Wilkes
6	Tonalist	Joel Rosario	126	Christophe Clement
7	Wicked Strong	Rajiv Maragh	126	Jimmy Jerkens
8	Kid Cruz	Irad Ortiz Jr.	126	Linda Rice
9	Ulanbator	Brian Hernandez	126	Ian Wilkes
10	Mr. Speaker	Jose Lezcano	126	Shug McGaughey

Commanding Curve (Master Command): 4^th in the Jim Dandy, 9^th in the Belmont, runner up in the Derby. Took awhile for him to break his maiden and has 1 start at Saratoga which was a 6^th place finish in his debut.

Bayern (Offlee Wild): Won both the Haskell and Woody Stephens after a 9^th place finish in the Preakness. All of his starts have been this year and makes his Saratoga debut.

Charge Now (Tiznow): 2^nd in the Curlin after 7^th in the Iowa Derby and won an allowance. ½ brother to KY Derby winner and this will be his Saratoga debut.

V.E. Day (English Channel): Won the Curlin, Allowance and broke his maiden in his last three starts. Stablemate to the Jim Dandy winner and makes his graded stakes debut.

Viva Majorca (Tiago): 4^th in the Curlin, won an allowance and 2^nd in allowance. Graded stakes debut, owners won the 2004 Travers.

Tonalist (Tapit): 2^nd in the Jim Dandy, won the Belmont and Peter Pan. Looked to be spinning his wheels a little bit in the Dandy, but has room for improvement.

Wicked Strong (Hard Spun): Won the Jim Dandy, 4^th in the Belmont and 4^th in the KY Derby. Has never won outside of NY, so could turn out to be a Stay Thirsty type horse.

Kid Cruz (Lemon Drop Kid): 3^rd in the Jim Dandy and won both the Dwyer as well as the Easy Goer. Last try in G1 company was 8^th in the Preakness.

Ulanbator (Offlee Wild): 5^th in the Jim Dandy, 3^rd in the Dwyer and 2^nd in the Matt Winn. A bit over his head in this race.

Mr. Speaker (Pulpit): Won the Belmont Derby, 5^th in the Pennine Ridge and won the Lexington. Lone dirt try was a 7^th in the Holy Bull, but he was bred to run well on dirt, 6^th in his lone start at Saratoga (on turf).

Picks

Win: Wicked Strong

Place: Tonalist

Show: Mr. Speaker

Dark Horse: V.E. Day

Video Preview