Join us on IdaBet.com and wager the the oldest U.S. stakes race for three-year-olds in Thoroughbred racing. Following the Triple Crown series of races, the Travers Stakes is considered the next the big target for three-year-olds and will be exciting!
Known as the “Mid-Summer Derby,” the 1 1/4-mile Grade 1 event is conducted at Saratoga in late August and is worth a million bucks!
There are two preps for the Travers that take place at Saratoga and occur on the same weekend.
The major prep is the Jim Dandy, a rich Grade 2 contest sending sophomores nine furlongs on the main track. Wicked Strong, second in the 2014 Travers to stablemate V. E. Day, captured the Jim Dandy prior to his game runner-up effort.
The other isn’t graded, but the Curlin Stakes of a 1 1/8-mile affair, like the Jim Dandy, takes place during the early part of the meet at Saratoga
The Travers Stakes on Saturday brings together the winners of each of the Triple Crown races for the first time in 35 years, and that fact is a perfect indication of how wide-open the 3-year-old division remains heading into the big fall races and the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
Always Dreaming, Cloud Computing and Tapwrit are the headliners in a stacked field of 12 Thoroughbreds in the Travers but a strong argument can be made that four or five other contenders have a better chance of winning. Overall, the 148th Travers is shaping up to be the key race in determining the 3-year-old championship.
The Travers will be the featured race in a 90-minute broadcast from NBC Sports, airing on NBC from 4:30 – 6 p.m. ET. The Travers is not an automatic qualifying race for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Thanks for choosing IdaBet.com and good luck this weekend to all Travers entries and their connections!
Data provided by Equibase
