Travers

ARCADIA, CA - As Javier Castellano gets ready to ride three mounts on Breeders' Cup Saturday, the recently turned 46-year-old is amidst one of the best years of his career. And it almost never happened. A pair of Breeders' Cup wins at the 2019 Championships put an exclamation point on the Hall of Famer's eighth straight season with more than $20 million in earnings. But, the year 2020, like it was for so many, was more about overcoming adversity for the native of Venezuela. Castellano was the first jockey to...

ARCADIA, CA -- After missing the last three days of training with a foot issue, leading 3-year-old Arcangelo (Arrogate-Modeling, by Tapit) was withdrawn from Saturday's $6-million GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita and will be retired to begin his career at stud at Lane's End Farm in 2024. A powerful winner of this year's GI Belmont S. and GI Travers S., the gray had a warm hind foot and had a shoe pulled on Saturday. He was listed as the 7-2 second choice on the morning line for the...

Max Player (Honor Code--Fools in Love, by Not For Love), winner of the 2021 GI Jockey Club Gold Cup S., has been retired and will stand the 2024 breeding season at Annestes Farms in Middletown, New Jersey. "After an impressive career on the racetrack, we are excited about his prospects as a sire," majority owner and New Jersey resident George Hall said. Max Player's resume also includes wins in the 2021 GII Suburban S. and 2020 GIII Withers S. and third-place finishes in the 2020 GI Belmont S. and GI...

'TDN Rising Star' and MGISW Forte (Violence), off since his disappointing fourth-place finish in the GI Travers S. Aug. 26, is receiving treatment for a quarter crack. His connections, including trainer Todd Pletcher and owner Mike Repole, still believe there is time to prepare him for a start in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita Nov. 4. Per the Daily Racing Form, farrier Ian McKinlay patched the quarter crack on Forte's left front foot and the horse has been training at Churchill Downs, where he galloped Sunday morning....

In many ways, it was a 'good' problem to have. Having added a maiden success in the GI Kentucky Derby to his Hall of Fame resume at long last aboard Mage (Good Magic) in early May, jockey Javier Castellano continued a magical ride when teaming with Jena Antonucci to make history in the GI Belmont S. on the progressive Arcangelo (Arrogate), as the connections of Mage turned their collective attention to the second half of the season. Mage resumed with a very good runner-up effort when reportedly not fully fit...

It's a bit of Christmas in August Saturday at venerable Saratoga Race Course, which plays host to no fewer than five Grade I events for horses of all ages--on dirt and on turf--topped by the main event on the summer calendar, the $1.25-million GI Travers S. While the fields are short on numbers, they are long on quality, as three of the races have attracted reigning Eclipse Award winners, none of whom are anything close to a cinch in their respective heats. Champion and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence) has...

Norm Casse trainee Burning Bright (Empire Maker) crashed through the temporary rail in Wednesday's race 7 at Saratoga, the 1 5/8-mile John's Call S. on the grass, with all early reports indicating the 6-year-old gelding, who collapsed and died, sustained a probable cardiac event. The Equibase chart stated Burning Bright "suffered a fatal cardiac event on the second turn and hit the rail then fell." Jockey Luis Saez was alert and conscious following the spill, but was strapped to a backboard by attending paramedics and sent by ambulance to Albany...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - With the three winners of the Triple Crown races gathered for just the fourth time in the GI Travers S. Saturday, will history repeat itself? Will a horse that did not run in the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Preakness S. or the GI Belmont S. deliver an upset in the 154th Travers? That is how it played out in 1918 with Sun Briar, again in 1982 with Runaway Groom and six years ago when West Coast won the 2017 running of Saratoga's oldest stakes race. If...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- It turned out that a non-decision is precisely what settled who would ride GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) and GI Belmont S. winner Arcangelo (Arrogate) in the GI Travers. Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano rode both horses to their victories in the Triple Crown series and had his choice of which one to ride in the Travers on Aug. 26 at Saratoga Race Course. He holds the Travers record of six wins. Mage's trainer, Gustavo Delgado, asked Castellano on Monday to give him...

OGMA Investments, Ramiro Restrepo, Sterling Racing and CMNWLTH's GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) breezed five furlongs in 1:01.03 (5/9) at Saratoga Saturday in preparation for the GI Travers S. Aug. 26. NYRA Clockers caught the Gustavo Delgado trainee through splits of :12.58, :24.49 and :36.35 over the main track. "Very good, because it was very easy," Delgado said of the work, which was Mage's first breeze since finishing second in the GI TVG.com Haskell S. July 22. "The rider said to me, 'no complaints.' Very intelligent and concentrated....

West Will Power (Bernardini), a last-out winner of the GI Stephen Foster S., worked five furlongs in 1:02.24 (1/4) in company with the stakes-placed Tapit Shoes (Tapit) for trainer Brad Cox over Saratoga's Oklahoma training track Saturday. West Will Power, owned and bred by Gary and Mary West, is under consideration for either next Saturday's GI Whitney S. or the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Sept. 2 at the Spa. "It's a very prestigious race. It means a lot," Cox said of the Whitney. "We'll see how things unfold after...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Four days after his second-place finish in the GI Haskell S., GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) took some small, easy steps toward the GI Travers on Aug. 26, jogging Wednesday on the Oklahoma training track. Mage shipped from Monmouth Park in New Jersey to Saratoga on Monday and was given another day off on Tuesday. He made his first visit to the track on a cool, foggy morning under his regular exercise rider J.J. Delgado. Assistant trainer Gustavo Delgado held the colt while he...