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Surprise Starter Boosts Travers Field to 7© Greg Melikov
Aug 21, 2005
Bellamy Road will run in the 136th Travers, America's oldest stakes race for 3-year-olds named for the founder of Saratoga, boosting the field to seven.
Trainer Nick Zito won last year's $1 million race with Birdstone after spoiling Smarty Jones' bid for the Triple Crown in the Belmont.
This year he has a more difficult task because Bellamy Road, the 2-1 morning line favorite breaking on the rail, hasn't raced since finishing seventh in the Kentucky Derby and suffering a minor injury.
Zito had considered the $250,000 King's Bishop on Travers Day, but chose the 1 ¼-mile Grade 1 event because he believes it's a better race to build on for the future than the hard seven furlongs against undefeated Lost in the Fog, installed as the 1-5 favorite in the sprint.
"Right now, he's ready to run -- he looks absolutely beautiful and I'm going to take my shot," said Zito, who also saddled the 2004 runner-up, The Cliff's Edge.
That could be a good omen - he also entered Andromeda's Hero, runner-up in the Belmont to Afleet Alex. The closer, 10-1, breaks from post 2 and will be guided by Corey Nakatani.
Roman Ruler, who breaks from post 4, was made the 5-2 second choice despite impressive victories in the Dwyer Stakes at Belmont and the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth. Jerry Bailey rides again.
Knocked off the Triple Crown trail by persistent foot problems, Roman Ruler returned from a 3 ½-month layoff to whip Jim Dandy winner Flower Alley in the Dwyer. Flower Alley, 3-1, drew post 7 on Wednesday and John Velasquez stays aboard.
Birdstone last year became the fifth Belmont winner since Easy Goer in '89 to capture the Travers, defeating six rivals. In '03, Ten Most Wanted scored in a six-horse field.
However, the smallest field for the race occurred four times between 1883 and 1921: two. The margin of victory was a nose seven times -- from 1916 to '98. Damascus posted the largest winning margin in '67 -- 22 lengths.
William Travers, the track's first president, owned the winner of the inaugural race in 1864 when the purse was $2,940: Kentucky.
Prior to 1890, the race was staged at 1 ¾ miles. It wasn't run in 1896, 1898-99, 1900 and 1911-12 while it was run at 1 ½ miles 1890-92 and 1 1/8 miles in 1895 and 1901-'03.
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