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Travers Could Attract Larger Field Than Usual

By GREG MELIKOV

The 139th Travers Stakes could boast double-digit runners for the first time in 15 years since 1993 Kentucky Derby champ Sea Hero roared from back of the pack to defeat 10 challengers.

There could be that many 3-year-olds in the $1 million contest on Aug. 23. Winners of Triple Crown races the past 15 years have done well, winning seven times, including four that scored in the Belmont Stakes.

That's a good omen for Belmont winner Da' Tara, hoping to rebound from a disappointing seventh place finish in the Jim Dandy on July 27. He broke inward, went to the lead, dueled along the rail until the far turn and steadily faded to last, ending up 24 1/4 lengths behind Macho Again after 1 1/8 miles.

While Da' Tara was capturing the Belmont, odds-on favorite Big Brown ended up ninth and last. However, he took the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on Aug. 3 and will go into another race en route to the Breeders' Cup Classic.

The Travers field could reach 10 or 11. In addition to Macho Again, who breezed four furlongs in 50 seconds Friday on Saratoga's training track, and Da' Tara, who went 50 3/5 the same morning, two other expected starters are coming out of the Jim Dandy.

Runner-up Pyro went six furlongs in 1:16 on the muddy training track Sunday 24 hors after fourth-place finisher Tale of Ekati traveled five furlongs in 1:01 3/5 on the turf training track.

Four Jim Dandy winners in the last half-dozen years repeated in the Travers, including '07 Kentucky Derby victor Street Sense.

The top three finishers on the undercard Henry Walden Stakes are under consideration: Mambo in Seattle, You and I Forever and Amped.

Others pointing to the Travers include Harlem Rocker, 4 for 4 on dirt; Colonel John, Santa Anita Derby winner; and Tres Borrachos, victorious in the Swaps.

Possibles are Haskell third-place finisher Cool Coal Man, Court Vision, Acai and Music Note, a filly.

The Travers is notable for several reasons. It's the oldest major thoroughbred race in the United States staged at the oldest track in America.

A four-day experient that began at Saratoga Raceway on Aug. 3, 1863, was such a huge success that an American boxing champion, a lawyer, the grandfather of Winston Churchill and a horseman decided to expand and move across the street in Saratoga Springs and erect a larger facility to accommodate bigger crowds.

They called it Saratoga Race Course in the area where the first thoroughbred race in this country was held in 1847. The principle players were:

William R. Travers, successful stock broker and lawyer named president of the Saratoga Association, who was such a force in racing that the track's premier stakes race bears his name.

John "Old Smoke" Morrissey, former bare-knuckle champ, gambler and later a lawmaker on state and national levels that once was a New York gang member.

Leonard Walter Jerome, flamboyant entrepreneur, father of Churchill's mother and another successful stock speculator known as "the King of Wall Street."

John R. Hunter, whose horses ran on both sides of the Atlantic and co-owned the first winner of the Travers with Travers: Kentucky.

Sports Illustrated once said "Saratoga transports you back to the days when people came to the races in surreys with the fringe on top."

Saratoga Springs began attracting travelers even before the American Revolution when wealthy pilgrims journeyed to the carbonated mineral springs running through the area.

It's where decisive battles were fought during the American Revolution and Civil War.

The 1777 Battle of Saratoga, considered the first Colonial victory and a turning point in the Revolutionary War, ended with General John Burgoyne surrendering his British troops.