SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A quartet of Grade 1 races, three of them sprints and the fourth a long-time fixture on the turf, will serve as a fitting prelude to the $1.25 million Travers, the main event on Saturday’s 14-race program at Saratoga.
The $750,000 Sword Dancer, to be decided at 1 1/2 miles on the grass, lured a compact but accomplished field of six turf specialists and will be followed, in succession, by the $500,000 Ballerina for older fillies and mares, the $500,000 Forego for older colts and geldings, and the $500,000 Allen Jerkens Memorial for 3-year-olds. All three sprint stakes will be run at seven furlongs.
Trainer Charles Appleby will send out the potent duo of Measured Time and Silver Knott in the Sword Dancer. The former is coming off a two-length victory in the Grade 1 Manhattan when making his U.S. debut here on Belmont Stakes weekend, the latter is riding a three-race win streak, with each of those victories coming in Grade 2 races, including the Bowling Green here earlier in the session.
Trainer Christophe Clement will counter with a trio of talented turf specialists: Grade 1 winner Far Bridge, the 2023 Sword Dancer runner-up Soldier Rising, and Tawny Port. Grand Sonata, beaten a nose in the Grade 2 United Nations at Monmouth Park in his last start, completes the lineup.
Vahva, winner of four of her last five starts and considered by most to be the current leader of the filly and mare sprint division, should be heavily favored against seven rivals in the Ballerina. Trained by Cherie De Vaux, Vahva is coming off popular victories in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff and Grade 3 Chicago stakes at Churchill Downs in her last two outings, and has won five of her seven lifetime starts at seven furlongs. She will break from post 3 under regular rider Irad Ortiz Jr.
Society will make just her second start since finishing fourth in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and is one of only two other Grade 1 winners in the lineup along with Chi Town Lady, who upset the seven-furlong Test here during the summer of 2022. The remainder of the field consists of Positano Sunset, Scylla, Shidabhuti, Accede and Munny’s Gold.
Gun Pilot, a very disappointing third as the odds-on favorite in the Grade 2 True North here on the Belmont Stakes undercard following a convincing victory five weeks earlier in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Sprint, will look to rebound against just seven rivals in a relatively wide-open renewal of the Forego.
Gun Pilot was backed to 3-5, got hung wide throughout and never really found his best stride in the True North, finishing a distant third behind runaway winner Baby Yoda. The 6-year-old local favorite also returns in the Forego looking to bounce back from a somewhat disappointing effort of his own when finishing an even and non-threatening fourth behind Nakatomi in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap.
Gun Pilot drew the rail with his regular rider Cristian Torres back in the saddle for his rematch with Baby Yoda, who breaks from post 4 under his new rider Tyler Gaffalione.
Mullikin, a winner of his last three starts including the Grade 2 John Nerud at Aqueduct on July 6, looms a key player in a field that also consists of Angkor, Cagliostro, Full Screen, Run Classic and Twisted Ride.
A field of 11 passed the box for the Allen Jerkens, with the status of potential favorite Book’em Danno still up in the air at the draw, the winner of the Grade 1 Woody Stephens having also been entered by trainer Derek Ryan for the $500,000 Robert Hilton Memorial Friday night at Charlestown.
Book’em Danno, a six-time winner and never worse than second in eight lifetime starts, rallied to a seemingly comfortable advantage at midstretch before holding off Prince of Monaco to win the Woody Stephens in his Grade 1 debut. He validated the effort, posting a career-best 101 Beyer Speed Figure in the process, when narrowly outlasting Little Ni by the slimmest of margins six weeks later in Monmouth’s Jersey Shore.
Little Ni is among the 10 others entered for the Allen Jerkens, which just may prove the biggest handicapping challenge on the Travers Day card. The Jerkens lured a talented group of 3-year-old sprinters that also features Domestic Product turning back in distance off a very impressive victory in the Grade 3 Dwyer going a mile at Aqueduct; World Record, an equally convincing winner of the Grade 2 Amsterdam here earlier in the meet; Prince of Monaco, runner-up in the Woody Stephens in his only start at 3 for trainer Bob Baffert; and Grade 1 winner Timberlake turning back to seven furlongs for the first time since finishing second here last year in the Hopeful.
The remainder of the field includes the lightly raced but up and coming pair of Vettriano and Speak Easy, the latter perfect in his only two career starts; Amsterdam runner-up Jefferson Street; Otto the Conqueror and Reynolds Channel.
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