Super Saver Needs Sea Hero Playbook For Travers

It may not be as historically significant as the 24 consecutive major league loses by the 1889 Cleveland Spiders or the 0-26 losing streak by the National Football League’s Tampa Bay Bucaneers of 1976-1977, but it’s now becoming noticeable – and quite frankly – annoying. Maybe you haven’t even noticed it. But it’s beginning to wear on me a bit.

It has now been since Big Brown won the Monmouth Stakes on September 11, 2008 since a Kentucky Derby (gr. 1) presented by Yum! Brands winner has won a subsequent race. That’s right. It has been almost two years since a Kentucky Derby winner has walked into a winner's circle after the first Saturday.

When Mine That Bird lost in the Whitney Handicap (gr. 1) at Saratoga in early August, it was his seventh consecutive loss since winning the Kentucky Derby last year. Super Saver (photo left) is 0-for-2, after finishing eighth the Preakness (gr. 1); and fourth in last month’s Haskell Invitational (gr. 1) at Monmouth Park. Both races won by Lookin at Lucky.

Gato Del Sol lost 15 consecutive races from September 1983 through April of 1985 before ending his career with a win in the Caballero Handicap at Hollywood, but he had two allowance races and a stake at Del Mar between his Derby victory and his streak of losses.

Proud Clarion, the 1967 Derby winner, finished his career by losing all of his nine races in 1968. But like Gato Del Sol, Proud Clarion won races after the Derby and before his losing streak started.

Tomy Lee, the 1959 Derby winner, had a somewhat pathetic post Churchill Downs career. Trainer Frank Childs chose to return Tommy Lee to California to run in the Cinema Handicap at Hollywood Park instead of trying for the Triple Crown and skipped both the Preakness and Belmont. Tomy Lee finished sixth in the Cinema and was given six months off before coming back to win a 6 furlong allowance race. He finished his career with two loses at age four. Both Super Saver and Mine That Bird passed Tommy Lee in the post Derby career derby the second they stepped foot on the track for the Preakness.

Prior to Mine That Bird and Super Saver (photo right), the last time the Kentucky Derby winner did not win the Preakness nor the Belmont in two consecutive years was in 1992 and 1993 with Lil E. Tee and Sea Hero respectively.

Lil E. Tee finished fifth in the Preakness and was then sidelined for the rest of his 3-year-old campaign. He returned to race at Oaklawn Park in the Spring, but his only significant win came in the grade 2 Razorback and he was eventually retired later that year.

The connections behind Super Saver may be hoping for racing pattern similar to what Sea Hero showed after his Run for the Roses. After finishing off the board in the Preakness and Belmont, Sea Hero ran fourth in the Jim Dandy in preparation for his victory in the Travers at 6-1 odds. Super Saver was, of course, fourth in the Haskell Invitational before this year’s Shadwell Travers Stakes (gr. 1), and happens to be 6-1 in the morning line.

Super Saver won’t have Preakness and Haskell winner Lookin at Lucky to deal with in Saturday’s Travers, but will instead have plenty of competition and some adversity, breaking from the far outside post position eleven. Super Saver gets another shot at Haskell runner-up Trappe Shot and Preakness runner-up First Dude, who was also third in both the Belmont and Haskell. Morning line favorite A Little Warm gets the support nod based on his victory in the Jim Dandy Stakes (gr. 2) at Saratoga the same weekend as the Haskell.

The position appears to be of little concern for trainer Todd Pletcher who said that there would be benefits to being so far outside. “It looks like your main speed is 1-2-3-4-5 and the other horses who have drawn the outside can kind of fall in there somewhere,” he said shortly after post positions were drawn. “Sometimes, the No. 11 might be a little further out than you’d ideally like, but I think at 1 ¼ miles it’s okay. You get a decent run to the first turn, so [jockey] Calvin [Borel] should have the option to kind of survey everything inside him.”

But Elliott Walden Jr., the vice president and racing manager for WinStar Farm, the owners of Super Saver, said “the second race off the layoff is typically his best. We hope he learned something off the Haskell and will have a good race. He's got to step up. We'll let him do the talking. He's set up to run very, very well.”

Of course in all fairness, it is hard to burden Super Saver after only two losses after the Derby with a losing steak label. Mine That Bird is the main culprit in this two-year drought. But like Mr. Walden, there are a lot of racing fans hoping that Super Saver steps up in the Travers – and ends this dreaded losing streak.

Whitney Has All The Feel of NFL Training Camp

With National Football League training camps at full swing, many around the country have their attention on grown men trying to prove themselves to their coaches, teammates and fans. It just so happens that at the prestigious upstate New York racing haven known as Saratoga, we have nearly the same thing in the $750,000 Whitney Handicap - older horses trying to prove themselves as big league performers.

The grade 1 race at 1-1/8 miles on the main track at Saratoga features arguably three of the top five older horses in North America in Quality Road, Blame and Musket Man plus 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird as well as rising stars Haynesfield and Jardim.

The leader of the pack is without doubt Quality Road, who has been blazing through 2010 like he has some kind of equine chip on his horse shoulder. He has won all three of his starts this year – all in graded races - all impressively. In fact, during those three races, he has only been headed by another horse for about the first half-mile in the Donn Handicap (gr. 1) at Gulfstream Park in February. He went on to win that race by nearly 13 lengths while running the second fastest Donn in history achieving an eye-popping 121 Beyer Speed Figure.

That race was sandwiched between wire-wire victories in the grade 3 Hal's Hope Stakes at Gulfstream Park in January and the Metropolitan Handicap (gr. 1) at Belmont Park in May.

After a 3-year-old year in which he was scratched from the Triple Crown trail just days before the Kentucky Derby (gr. 1) presented by Yum! Brands as the potential favorite, Quality Road came back to the races last year at Saratoga with a vengeance to win the grade 2 Amsterdam at Saratoga in track record time. But in his next two races, he was never able to pass Belmont winner Summer Bird in the Travers Stakes (gr. 1) and Jockey Club Gold Cup (gr. 1) in New York.

However, his connections thought enough of him to send him to the West coast for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. 1). But Quality Road got into a pre-race bout with the Santa Anita gate crew before taking on the starting gate itself, delaying the race and eventually being scratched. So irate about the incident was Quality Road, that he refused to board his flight home to New York days later. Instead trainer Todd Pletcher returned Quality Road to his barn at Aqueduct in a van where he promptly placed him in a camp for wayward starting gate horses.

During most of the winter, while every other horse in the barn was enjoying their mid-morning Timothy hay, Quality Road was doing time with former NYRA starter Bob Duncan at starting gate school at Aqueduct.

Unlike the Oscar winning prison rebel Cool Hand Luke however, with Quality Road it seems there was no “FAIL-yah to communicate.”

While still on probation, as exemplified by the post training hour schooling Quality Road still receives at Saratoga, it seems he is reformed and out to prove himself.

Two rookies to the national older horse league this year are Blame and Haynesfield, both undefeated in their last four starts, including two this year.

Blame brings to Saratoga the most credentials having won the grade 1 Stephen F. Foster Handicap at Chuchill Downs June 12. In fact, this 4-year-old trained by Al Stall Jr. has been turning heads since winning the Curlin Stakes at Saratoga last year. He then traveled to Louisiana Downs for the Super Derby (gr. 2) to run a very good second to a sharp Regal Ransom. Since then Blame has rattled off wins in the grade 2 Fayette at Keeneland, the grade 2 Clark Handicap at Churchill and the grade 3 William Donald Schaefer Stakes at Pimlico before taking the Foster.

Winning the Curlin Stakes at Saratoga is akin to playing on special teams in the NFL. It’s a big deal, but you just get lost in the shuffle with all the graded stakes winners at the Spa. This year, Blame has something to prove.

Haynesfield is the Rodney Dangerfield of this group from the perspective of this blogger at the very least. In blogging about his recent win over the heralded I Want Revenge in the Suburban Handicap (gr. 2) July 3, I referred to him as “Haynesworth.”

Haynesfield also has the grade 3 Discovery Handicap at Aqueduct in November in his four-race streak but the ungraded Empire Classic and an optional claiming race at Belmont are in the make up as well. He has a tendency to like to be near the lead so he’ll have to do battle with the speedy Quality Road early in the long race to make his point.

Then we have the veterans of the national wars trying to prove they can still play at this level – Mine That Bird and Musket Man. Of the two, the Derby winner has much more to prove than Musket Man.

First, Musket Man has a post Triple Crown win in the Super Stakes at Tampa Bay in February. Mine That Bird has lost six straight since taking the run for the roses including a very weak 8th place finish on the turf in the grade 2 Firecracker on the grass at Churchill July 4.

Longshot Kentucky Derby winners Giacomo (2005) and Gato Del Sol (1982) have both long been castigated for their careers after winning the run for the roses, but neither went 0-for-6 post Derby. Giacomo won his fifth race after the Derby in the San Diego Handicap but wound 1-for-7 during his career after Kentucky. Gato Del Sol won an allowance race in New York in his third start after the Derby, but had only one stakes win in the Cabrillo Handicap at Hollywood Park in 13 races after winning at Churchill on the first Saturday of May.

Mine That Bird, under the direction of Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas this year, needs to start winning to avoid the one hit wonder label.

In terms of records and labels, perhaps Tom Petty best exemplies Musket Man in his 1989 tune "I Won't Back Down."

And I’ll keep this world from draggin me down.
And I’ll stand my ground, and I won’t back down

Since winning the Illinois Derby (gr. 2) some 15 months ago, Musket Man has taken on the best his class has to offer at the grade 1 level in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Carter Handicap, Metropolitan Handicap as well as the grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes and his win in the minor Super Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. He seems to have a propensity to raise to the level of competition, but the winners’ circle has so far eluded him at that level. The words “so far” may be the operative.

Remember nobody knew Brett Favre until his second season at Green Bay.

But unlike Mr.Favre, who is staying at home during training camp this year, this group of older horses is in attendance and ready to go in August.

A Preview of The Graveyard of Champions

The opening of Saratoga is indeed a hallowed day for racing enthusiasts for two most contrasting reasons. We anticipate the 36 days of great races run by some of the best horses in some of the most prestigious races. We also somehow can not surpress our facination that the Spa is also known as the Graveyard of Champions or the Graveyard of Favorites.

For it is Saratoga that gave us one of the great sports terms of all-time as Upset became the only horse to ever defeat Man O' War in the 1919 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga. Man O' War owner Samuel D. Riddle did not collect the winner's share of the $4,900 purse for the only time in the big red colt's 21 career starts.

Another big red colt suffered one of his only defeats at Saratoga when Onion defeated Secretariat in the 1973 Whitney Handicap at .10-1 odds at Saratoga and Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox lost to Jim Dandy in the 1930 Travers Stakes at odds of .50-1.

Jim Dandy is the namesake of Saturday's grade 2 stake that will act as a local prep race for the $1 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 27. The $500,000, 1-1/8 race will feature the top three finishers from the Dwyer Stakes in Kensei, Convocation, and Warrior's Reward, pllus Peter Pan winner Charitable Man and perhaps the return of Saratoga Sinner, who is making his first start since winning the grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park in January.

Although the Jim Dandy comes up light against the $1.25 Haskell at Monmouth Park this weekend with Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra and Belmont winner Summer Bird, it will in all likely hood provide a possible "upset" in the Travers should all three Triple Crown race winners meet in the Travers as expected. Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird is also running this weekend in the $750,000 West Virginia Derby in preperation for the Travers.

Should all three run, it will be the first time since 1982 that the three winners of the American Classics have run in the Travers. That year longshot Runaway Groom defeated Preakness winner Aloma's Ruler and Belmont winner Conquistador Cielo who were second and third. Derby winner Gato Del Sol was fifth.