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00:00This is the Weekend Preview presented by Three Chimneys.
00:09We got a huge weekend coming up, obviously Traverse Day, it's the race everybody circles
00:14on their calendar most on the Saratoga summer schedule and it's got an eight-horse field.
00:20You'd like a couple more.
00:22The big story of the race going into it was the scratch of charging, which is unfortunate.
00:27It's just one of those horses that just doesn't run as frequently as you would want him to.
00:33When the horse wins a race like he won the Dwyer and there's 10 weeks or whatever it
00:38is to the Traverse, and you're like, we're just waiting for the Traverse, I'm like, okay.
00:41Something something can pop up with a horse like this over time and unfortunately that's
00:45what happened because he was the most interesting horse in the race to me with the 111 buyer
00:50and the 23 length win, so we're left with a field of eight.
00:53Epicenter is the, I thought, surprisingly heavy morning line favorite at seven to five.
00:58He drew post six.
00:59We have the derby winner in there, Rich Strike, drew post two.
01:02He's 10 to one morning line.
01:03We've got three horses for Chad Brown, early voting, obviously the Preakness winner, Arturias
01:10and Zandon.
01:11So Chad's got three of the eight still looking for his first Traverse winner.
01:14That's going to be a fun interview after the race if Chad wins the Traverse, but I will
01:20try to beat Epicenter again.
01:22I think he just is not that much better than these horses, although he looked tremendous
01:27in the Jim Dandy.
01:28That was a short field.
01:29I think it's going to be a little bit tougher to figure out in this race what the pace is
01:33going to be like.
01:34The good thing about Epicenter, and we've said this before, is that he's so versatile.
01:38He can be on the lead.
01:39He can be just off the lead.
01:40We saw in the Jim Dandy, he can drop back and make one run, so I totally respect him
01:44as the favorite.
01:45I just think this is a good enough Traverse field that you shouldn't be taking six to
01:48five or seven to five on anybody.
01:51Guys, what are your first thoughts on the Traverse?
01:53I'll take the seven to five on him, Joe.
01:54I just think he's not going to be two to five like Ness, but just like we said, I just think
02:00he's better than these horses, and I think he's proven that, particularly in the Jim
02:03Dandy.
02:04His run in the Derby and Preakness were very, very good.
02:08It's kind of a shame.
02:09This race is a good race, but he lost Bo Donegal.
02:11He lost Chargett.
02:12It could have been really a race with a lot of sizzle, but in Epicenter, again, if he
02:18wins this, does he clinch the three-year-old championship?
02:22Maybe, maybe not, because a three-year-old male could still win, of course, the Breeders'
02:25Cup Classic.
02:26It's funny, too.
02:27I mean, I wouldn't bet on Rich Strike with your money, but here we have the Kentucky
02:32Derby winner is ten to one in here, and it's hardly like he's even in the race.
02:36Nobody talks about him whatsoever, but when he didn't show much in the Belmont, you can
02:44go back to just saying the whole thing was a fluke.
02:47An interesting race.
02:48Yeah.
02:49The three Chad Brown horses.
02:50Steve asked me.
02:51He said, I know we'll get into the other races, but he could have an absolutely huge day on
02:55Saturday at Saratoga, and yeah, I'm an Epicenter guy, and maybe you're right overall.
03:03Maybe taking a six to five shot in a situation like this is not the best thing to do, but
03:07when I think he's going to win the race, I'll take the six to five.
03:10And I don't think we should lament the fact that a couple of big horses aren't in the
03:14race.
03:15I think it really depends on how good the field is.
03:17You have the Haskell winner, the Preakness winner, the Jim Dandy winner, the Bluegrass
03:21winner.
03:22Oh, and the Kentucky Derby winner also.
03:24So you have five horses that won arguably the most important three-year-old races of
03:29the country other than the Belmont, and they're going to go head to head to head to head to
03:34head.
03:35They're all going to go mano a mano, and I think that early voting who put in a clunker
03:42in the Jim Dandy, but before that, he was second choice in that race.
03:46And if they figured out why, whether he bounced or what have you, what his issue was in the
03:52Jim Dandy, he's going to be really tough, and he's morning line eight to one.
03:56And Bill, you mentioned that the Kentucky Derby winner is ten to one in the race.
04:00So it's a very good field.
04:02It's a very deep field, and it's probably as tough of a field, at least in the contenders
04:08range, since 2018 when Catholic Boy went up against Mendelsohn, Vino Rosso, Gronkowski,
04:16Good Magic, and Wonder Godot.
04:18So that was the last time, in my estimation, when we had a field of top, top three-year-olds
04:25coming in and just waging war against each other in the Travers.
04:29I dare to say I think that this is a better field overall than the Kentucky Derby was,
04:34quite frankly.
04:36And the reason being is you have all these horses that are now pointed for this race.
04:41This is going to be, like I said, a grade zero kind of race.
04:45I think that we're going to look back at this race, especially when these horses are starting
04:49to retire to become stallions, and we're going to say, boy, remember when so-and-so, fill
04:53in the blank, won the Travers.
04:55That catapulted him to the three-year-old championship.
04:59One hundred fifty-third running of the run-happy Travers.
05:01Did I say run-happy the first time?
05:03I don't want Mac to get mad at me.
05:06It's going to be a great day of racing.
05:07I'm looking at the weather right now.
05:08It looks like we're going to be okay.
05:10Let me see.
05:12Yeah, Saturday looks beautiful at Saratoga.
05:15Eighty-one degrees, partly sunny.
05:16Anybody that's going to be out there, have a great, great time.
05:20Bill brings up an interesting point about the three-year-old championship, because at
05:23the center, as much as he's done and as heavy as a favorite he's going to be, he still doesn't
05:27have a grade one win as a three-year-old.
05:29So that's important.
05:30He's got the Risen star.
05:31He's got the Louisiana Derby.
05:32He's got the Jim Dandy.
05:33He did run second, obviously, in the Derby and the Preakness.
05:36So he's definitely the leader right now.
05:38But say Cyberknife wins this race, that'll be his third grade one win of the year.
05:43He won the Arkansas Derby.
05:44He won the Haskell.
05:45If Cyberknife wins, he's the new leader in the three-year-old division.
05:48So as much as we respect Epicenter, as much as we think he's the horse to beat, and he's
05:52had a very good campaign, very consistent campaign, this is not a layup race for him
05:57at all.
05:58And it's not a layup that he's going to be three-year-old champion.
06:00Now, obviously, if he wins this race, he's going to be tough to catch.
06:03But that's the subplot in here, is that, like John says, you have a bunch of grade
06:07one winners in here who could take the lead in the three-year-old champion race.
06:11And it'd be nice, actually, to see some drama in that, because I think, like we said, Nest
06:15is basically a foregone conclusion now in the three-year-old filly division.
06:18So it's going to be interesting to see, coming out of this race, how we feel about the three-year-old
06:23class.
06:24And I think, overall, we felt like this is an above-average crop.
06:27We've lost a couple of horses here and there along the way.
06:30But it's going to be interesting, coming out of this race, to analyze how we think
06:34these horses are going to run against the elders later in the year.
06:38And I think that a lot of that depends on how Flightline does in the Pacific class,
06:42because you've got a very, very strong group of older males.
06:46So it'll be interesting to see, coming out of here, where we think that the three-year-olds
06:49stack up.
06:50Because after this, they've got to take on the older horses.
06:52And then we'll look forward to that, for sure.
06:55Joe, just because this reminds me all the time, can we at least mention Ain't Life Grand
06:59and Gilded Age?
07:00They're running, also.
07:01Just so we can say we did talk about them on the show.
07:04Ain't Life Grand won the Iowa Derby over Conagher, who came back and ran a big race.
07:08I think we might see Conagher in the H. Allen Jerkins, which we're going to talk about
07:11after this break.
07:12But yes, thank you.
07:13Thank you for the Remy reminder to mention every horse in the race, so we don't get yelled
07:19at by anybody.
07:21The TDN Writer's Room, and more specifically, this weekend preview segment is sponsored
07:25by Three Chimney Stallions.
07:26It was another week, another TDN rising star for Three Chimney's superstar sire, Gunrunner
07:31Echo, again, who we mentioned, or who John mentioned earlier, looked terrific.
07:34Winchell Homebred is the sixth rising star already for last year's freshman sire and
07:39horse of the year, Gunrunner, who was campaigned by the same connections.
07:42It's Echo again.
07:43Gunrunner had another impressive juvenile winner on Sunday, who I mentioned, with Grand
07:47Love.
07:48Homebred for Three Chimneys looks very speedy, and he's got a big weekend ahead with multiple
07:52grade one winners.
07:53Cyberknife, who has a huge chance coming up in the Travers, early voting, another good
07:58chance in the Travers, and he's got some horses on the undercard that we're going to talk
08:01about a little bit.
08:02We'll be right back after this message from Three Chimneys.
08:07Here comes Tabor.
08:08Tabor in the center of the track with good looking stride, squares off with Cyberknife.
08:13Cyberknife takes the lead.
08:14Tabor going with him.
08:15These two in a thriller.
08:17Cyberknife just in front.
08:19And Cyberknife has won the TBG.com Haskell over Tabor.
08:24Jack Christopher finished third.
08:25The running time, one minute, 46.24 seconds.
08:30Gunrunner's on top of the world.
08:32Come dream with us at Three Chimneys.
08:40And it's all Tyler's tribe to the final furlong.
08:43He's putting on another show tonight.
08:45He is eight lengths in front.
08:47Now it's 10.
08:48Now it's 12.
08:50Tyler's tribe pouring it on as they come down to the line.
08:54He's going to win by double digits.
08:56And he stops the clock in 104.
09:06So we had a bunch of other big stakes on Saturday at Saratoga and over the weekend, honestly,
09:11because they moved the ballerina this year to Sunday, which I like.
09:15I like having that big race to look forward to the day after the Travers.
09:18Like my feeling on these big mega cars is they're great, but they kind of cannibalize
09:23the rest of the racing schedule.
09:24So I'm glad they put the ballerina on Sunday.
09:26It's a nice sleepy day after the Travers.
09:28And you still have something to get excited about.
09:30But as for the Travers day undercard, we've got the Forgo.
09:33We've got the H.
09:33Allen Jerkins.
09:34We've got the Personal Enzin and the Sword Dancer.
09:37All four of those are grade ones.
09:39We also have the Ballston Spa, which is a grade two for fillies and mares on the turf.
09:42So in total, six graded stakes, five grade ones.
09:47And not to forget, we also have the Pat O'Brien on Saturday at Del Mar as well, which I think
09:52Speaker's Corner is going to is going to ship across the country and just avoid flight line
09:57by about a week or so.
09:59And I think he's probably going to be the horse to beat him there.
10:01To me, I think the most exciting race usually other than the Travers on this day is the
10:05H.
10:06Allen Jerkins, because you do get those three year olds where the trainers have finally
10:10thrown in the towel on them becoming routers and are like, let's just focus on seven furlongs
10:15to a mile or six furlongs.
10:17And that's, I think, when sometimes when you get the most brilliant performances, when
10:20horses maybe were chasing the Triple Crown Trail a little bit, cut back and are now doing
10:25what they were born to do.
10:26We saw it last year with Life is Good and Jackie's Warrior.
10:29That was the race of the year for my money.
10:32This year looks like we're going to have a pretty big field.
10:34Gunite, son of Gunrunner, who won the Amsterdam earlier in this meet is going to be in there.
10:38Conagher, who I also mentioned, a really, really nice fast horse for Mike Tomlinson
10:43is going to be in there.
10:45Jack Christopher, I think it's good.
10:47Jack Christopher is turning back for this, right, guys?
10:49He's got a problem.
10:50Yeah.
10:50Yeah.
10:50So Jack Christopher is going to be in there.
10:52Howling Time, who I read a pretty good race in the Met, when running son of a gun, who's
10:57also a Gunrunner.
10:57So Gunrunner is going to be well represented in that race.
11:00Just looking at the Sword Dancer, we have Gafoe and Channelmaker, Adamo, nice horses,
11:06Tribhuvan.
11:07I was hoping that they would run Warlight Goddess in here.
11:10Bill Mott hinted after the last race that now that the Flower Bowl is a grade two, that
11:14he might run her in the Sword Dancer.
11:16I don't see her in the Probables.
11:19Like I said, on Sunday, the Ballerina looks like a really good race with CC and Obligatory.
11:24The Forgo is going to have John's favorite horse, the Saratoga horse for the course,
11:27Baby Yoda.
11:28So I know it's going to be appointment viewing for John.
11:32Mind Control's in there.
11:33Jackie's Warrior, obviously, is appointment viewing.
11:363-2 Zone, who was pretty sharp in an allowance win earlier in the meet.
11:41Personal Enzyme looks like we're going to have a short field, but we're going to get
11:43Latruska, Malithot, Clariere, search results.
11:46So I think it's going to be a power-packed field, even if it's a short field.
11:50So we'll be looking forward to that one.
11:52So what do you guys think?
11:53Out of what I just said, or maybe something off the board, what are you looking forward
11:56to most on Saturday?
11:57Well, obviously, other than the Traverse.
12:01Forgo doesn't figure to be a competitive race because Jackie's Warrior is just so good.
12:05Is he going to go out at 1-5 and win again?
12:08But when he was so dominant in the Vanderbilt, and that was the race that we're all saying,
12:15this is the most impressive thing I've seen since fill in the blank.
12:19Is he going to go out and do that again to run a performance where you're just mesmerized
12:26by how great he was?
12:27So I'm always looking forward to that.
12:30I tell you, I'm looking forward to the Personal Enzyme as well, because I want to see if Latruska
12:34can bounce back.
12:35I mean, last time we saw her in the Ogden Fifth, she got beat 36 lengths.
12:40Now, was that just a complete fluke?
12:41Just like in the Breeders' Cup Distaff, she got beat a mile.
12:45It looks to me that if she faces any kind of pace pressure whatsoever, she's vulnerable,
12:52that she needs to get that loose on the lead trip.
12:55But I remember at this time last year, we were talking about her as a possible horse
12:58of the year contender.
13:00You know, as good as Claire Eyre is, if the real Latruska shows up, I think Latruska could
13:05beat her.
13:05But I have no idea what to expect in there.
13:07And yeah, Jack Christopher would have been nice if he won the Haskell, and then he might
13:12be back in the Travers.
13:13And we'd be talking about this great showdown with Epicenter, Jack Christopher, a couple
13:17others.
13:17But they're doing the right thing.
13:18He obviously doesn't want to go a mile and a quarter, so the Breeders' Cup Classic is
13:21out.
13:21And let's see what he can do in the Allen Jerkins.
13:25To me, this weekend really revolves around those two great ones that we've been talking
13:30about, the Travers and the H. Allen Jerkins.
13:33When you have a horse like Jack Christopher, cutting back in distance, accretive, looks
13:37like he's two for two.
13:38Or excuse me, he won first time out and then almost won the Amsterdam, just losing barely
13:44to Gennite.
13:46Then you have Conagher, which you mentioned, Gennite and Happy Jack.
13:49And these are all legitimate horses.
13:51And I'm curious to see how they can go the seven furlongs.
13:54And I'm also curious to see just how fast they run in comparison to the older boys,
13:58because this is definitely a race that they're all starting to get together and they're going
14:02to bottleneck in the Breeders' Cup Sprint.
14:05So I'm very curious to see just how the young guns, the three-year-olds, run in the Jerkins
14:11time-wise against the older horses that will be running later on that day.
14:15And you guys bring up a good point with Jackie's Warrior too, because when he's chasing horse
14:20of the year, I don't know, I think Joel might want to let him run a little bit in the stretch
14:24this time.
14:25Because this is kind of Joel's MO, and I think it's very smart in general, is just don't
14:30exert your horse any more than they need to, especially when you're on a horse who's so
14:34much the best.
14:35I don't know.
14:35I think if you want horse of the year, you want him to put on a show in this race and
14:39go win off my six, eight, ten lengths, which is going to be hard because it's a legitimate
14:43grade one field.
14:44But I think this is the day for Jackie's Warrior to really be allowed to strut his stuff if
14:49they want that horse of the year title, which I'm sure they do.
14:51And shout out to Kirk and Judy Robinson, fans and friends of the show, and we'll be
14:56rooting for them, obviously.
14:57But yeah, I think this is the day to let Jackie's Warrior do his thing.
15:01But yeah, it's going to be a tremendous, tremendous day of racing.
15:04My hope is that it won't be too chalky.
15:06It's interesting that you guys bring up about the personal ends, because who's going to
15:09go with Latruska?
15:10Like search results went with her in the Ogden Phipps, but then search results was third
15:15and was going the wrong direction.
15:17So it'll be interesting to see how that race is written, because I think you're right,
15:20that if Latruska gets loose, she still is probably the same horse and is going to run
15:25away with the race.
15:26Or not run away with the race, but it's going to be tough to reel in.
15:28But I think that there's going to be somebody who's going to put some kind of pressure on
15:32her, seeing what happened in the Ogden Phipps and seeing what happened in the Breeders'
15:36Cup this time.
15:36So plenty of subplots, plenty of grade one races on Saturday.
15:40Good luck to all the connections.
15:41We want great, safe racing.
15:42Like we said, it's going to be beautiful weather.
15:44So everybody have a great time.
15:45It's AeroTelegra on Saturday, and we'll be back next week to wrap it all up.