The Travers Stakes
The Travers Stakes is sometimes known as the midsummer’s classic, and is one of the oldest races in America, the first edition being run in 1864, before any of the Triple Crown races were ever run. The race is one of the last Grade 1 races for three year old horses and is run at 1 ¼ miles on the dirt at Saratoga Race Course. Outside of the three year old Triple Crown races, it is perhaps the most prestigious race for three year olds run after the Triple Crown series.
The race was originally run at the long marathon distance of 1 ¾ miles from 1864 to 1889, then it was shortened to 1 ½ miles from 1890 to 1892, and then the distance alternated between 1- 1/8 miles and 1 ¼ miles, until 1904 where the distance remained was fixed at 1 ¼ miles which it remains at today.
A special trophy is awarded to the winners called the Man o’ War cup which was designed by Tiffany & Co. Ever since 1961, the winning colors are painted on a canoe located on a pond in the infield. This tradition is very similar to the Preakness Stakes tradition of painting the victorious owners silks colors on the horse and rider that sit atop a weather vane at Pimlico.
Some notable running’s include General Assembly in 1979 who set the Saratoga track record for 1 ¼ miles, stopping the clock in a time of 2:00.00 flat, a record which still stands today.
Damascus ran one of the most dominating Travers Stakes ever in the summer of love, 1967, in which he drew away to win by 22 lengths in the mud.
One of the most compelling Travers came in 1978, in which Triple Crown winner Affirmed faced his arch rival Alydar. Affirmed set the pace, and after 6 furlongs had been run, Alydar made a move to get position down at the rail but found himself in too tight and checked off Affirmed and fell back several lengths in a matter of a few seconds. It was determined that the cause of this sudden loss of ground was due to Affirmed cutting off Alydar’s path down the backstretch, which turned out to be grounds for disqualification. Alydar nevertheless made another bold run at him, but the Triple Crown champion held him at bay, and ended up winning by 1 ¾ lengths over his rival.
Many great horses have won The Travers Stakes including most recently, Bernardini, 2007 Derby winner Street Sense, 2001 Preakness and Belmont winner Point Given, 1994 Horse of the Year Holy Bull, and in 1989 the legendary Easy Goer won it.
The Travers Stakes will be run this year on August 27, 2011. It is a shame that the given the long history of this most important race, that the mainstream press does not give it the promotion it deserves.
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