Purge Favored to Win Travers


Purge was installed Wednesday as the morning line 2-1 favorite in the 135th Travers Stakes on Saturday.

The son of Pulpit is among seven horses entered in the oldest stakes race for 3-year-olds in America named for the founder of Saratoga.

Purge, breaking from post position 3 with John Velazquez aboard, is trying to become the third horse in the last dozen years to win the $1 million Travers and the $500,000 Jim Dandy. Medaglia d'Oro did it two years ago and Thunder Rumble triumphed in 1992.

The Todd Pletcher-trained colt finished behind Smarty Jones twice before that recently retired horse won the Kentucky Derby at 1 ¼ miles.

Co-second choices Lion Heart, runner-up in the Run for the Roses before taking the Haskell Invitational who drew post 2, and Birdstone, surprise winner over Smarty in the Belmont Stakes breaking from post 5, are 2-1. Joe Bravo stays on Lion Heart and Edgar Prado rides Birdstone.

The Jim Dandy and Haskell, however, were 1 1/8 miles - a furlong shorter than the Travers.

Birdstone is one of three horses trained by Nick Zito, who is 0 for 11 in this Grade 1 event, that includes:

The Cliff's Edge, 7-2, Shane Sellers, second in the Jim Dandy who drew post 6, and Sir Shackleton, 10-1, Rafael Beljarano, winner of the West Virginia Derby who breaks from post 4.

Rounding out the field are Eddington, 15-1, Richard Migliore, post 1; and Suave, 20-1, Pat Day, post 7.

Last year, despite Funny Cide and Empire Maker missing the Travers, a record crowd of 66,122 witnessed Ten Most Wanted capture the race and Day record his fourth victory in he event.

Over the years, quite a few exceptional runners have won this race named for William R. Travers, who with two others built the track at the popular summer resort in Saratoga Springs.

Kentucky, owned by Travers, won the inaugural running in 1864. That's when the purse was only $2,940.

Ironically, only two winners of the Kentucky Derby since Whirlaway in 1941 and Shut Out the next year have taken the track's premier race: Sea Hero in '93 and Thunder Gulch two years later.

The fastest time was posted by General Assembly in '79: two minutes flat. The biggest margin of victory for the 1 ¼ miles is held by Damascus: 22 lengths. Seven times a nose separated the top two between '16 and '98, when Coronado's Quest won.
The copyright of the article Purge Favored to Win Travers in Horse Racing is owned by Greg Melikov. Permission to republish Purge Favored to Win Travers in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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