Horse by horse for the 147th Travers Stakes
Check out what the connections of the entrants for Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers Stakes say about their chances in Saratoga Race Course’s signature race.
Tom Law
The Special sets record with Travers edition
The race marketed for years as the “Mid-Summer Derby” rarely resembles its 10-furlong counterpart run annually on the first Saturday in May.
2016 Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with Jimmy Toner
Jimmy Toner greets scores of passersby every day with a wave from the shedrow of his barn on the main track at Saratoga Race Course.
The last few weeks he and assistant Tiffany Webb have definitely seen an uptick in the number of visitors who stop and chat, always looking for news about the recently retired Recepta. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 13 issue of The Saratoga Special.)
2016 Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with John Terranova
John Terranova’s Saratoga string of 25 bustles with activity and movement as it sits in the midst of the madness of Saratoga Race Course.
Situated just off the main track, between the three-quarter and half-mile poles, the Terranova barn is a prime location for visitors to drop by and horses and humans to walk past. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 12 issue of The Saratoga Special.)
Matter of Time
On Leave entered Thursday’s Riskaverse Stakes without a stakes win on her resume. In fact, the $100,000 race was her first try in stakes company in her fifth start. While six others in the field came in off recent graded stakes tries – Pricedtoperfection, Thrilled, Marquee Miss, Enjoy Yourself, and Baciami Piccola and Sky My Sky – On Leave entered off a 1 3/4-length victory in an allowance-optional at Belmont Park July 17.
2016 Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with Jena Antonucci
Adjacent from the Oklahoma Training Track, nestled under trees and between the residential areas of Fifth Avenue and Caroline Street, the Oklahoma Annex easily remains concealed. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 10 issue of The Saratoga Special.)
Patient Approach
Shug McGaughey believes a little time never hurts.
McGaughey has taken his time with Stuart Janney III’s On Leave, a 3-year-old daughter of War Front entered in today’s $100,000 Riskaverse Stakes going 1 mile on the turf at Saratoga Race Course.
2016 Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with Barclay Tagg
Ever meticulous and attentive to detail, trainer Barclay Tagg runs a tight ship. Last week at his barn on the main track after training, grooms bathe horses, pick hooves, apply Bowie Mud, ice legs and scrub stall mats. Tagg picks rogue pieces of straw from stall doors as he makes his way down the barn aisle. Almost every horse leaves their hay to greet him, begging for scratches with pricked ears and cheerful expressions. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 8 issue of The Saratoga Special.)
2016 Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with Eric Guillot
Everyone at Saratoga Race Course seems to know the infamous Eric Guillot, be it for his strong Louisiana accent coupled with mind-boggling allegories, delectable gumbo or for monstrous upsets in major Saratoga stakes. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 6 issue of The Saratoga Special.)
2016 Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with Bruce Brown
Curious heads poke out of their stalls as trainer Bruce Brown zips back and forth from his barn to the Oklahoma Training Track in a red golf cart, overseeing his string of horses whose schedules he neatly organizes onto two white boards outside his tack room. (Editor’s note: Originally published in Aug. 5 issue of The Saratoga Special.)
