Travers Notes

- The Travers field is either wide open, or tepid, depending on your point of view. Sure is a great betting race, that's for sure; but that can be faint praise if the division lacks depth of quality, as the three-year old division seems to do quite often. Especially at this time of year, with the memory of the Triple Crown quickly fading. You look at the Travers over the last decade as the game has changed, and you don't see many stars. You probably have to go back to 2007 and Street Sense for the last one (arguable perhaps given that Summer Bird was coming off his second in the Haskell and his Belmont win....I didn't consider him a star, which is why I lost on the race last year, though I think history indicates I was right).....Benardini in 2006, I guess so. But you probably have to go back to Point Given in 2001 for the one before that. Some stars couldn't make it due to injuries, both temporary and permanent - Funny Cide, Empire Maker (not a star), Afleet Alex, Big Brown, Smarty Jones immediately come to mind.

The point is that this thing with racing horses so infrequently during their developmental stages, at two and in the winter and spring at age three, sure hasn't led to a betterment of the breed, has it? Perhaps horses should be doing what they were bred to do - run, not stand in the stall and watch Fox News (horses are fooled easily). Maybe one day it'll be like that scene in Sleeper, when Woody Allen wakes up in a future where cigarettes have been discovered to be healthy....and they'll race horses every other week, hell, 3-4 times a month! Because this sure isn't working.

The Travers, and all of Saturday's card - Monmouth-sized fields and not a horse for sale until the 13th race - is an example I think of what people mean when they say that, as a smaller bettor, the quality of a race or a betting card in terms of competitiveness and class is a more important consideration than takeout rates on a given individual day. I think it's fair to say that most people who hit that late pick four is not going to be disappointed about the payoff. No, please don't flame me, I am not saying that lower takeout is not crucial to the health of the industry. Just that anyone who will be playing elsewhere in search of lower rates on Saturday is a more serious player than I.

If there was exchange wagering in New York, I might want to check out the odds of none of Zito's three nor the Derby winner finishing in the money. Ice Box and Super Saver sure haven't flattered each other since the Derby, have they? I'd have drawn an large X through the both of them even if the Derby winner hadn't drawn the outside post. I just think they've both left their best form in the spring. I don't like Fly Down; his two-turn wins were slow races with slow final fractions over 1-for-9 First Dude. Formwise, I actually like Miner's Reserve the best of Zito's trio, even though he's the longest odds at 12-1. He's one horse who is on the upswing of his form, which one might expect from a son of Mineshaft as time goes on. Tough pace prospects though from the rail with the now-blinkered-though-already-speedy (though faint-hearted) First Dude three positions to the outside.

Well, I could find some more stuff to ramble on about, but I guess I should start handicapping. I intend to post a full analysis, but it might not come until Saturday morning since I'm working and then taking my mom out for her birthday. Happy Birthday, mom. (Unlike the Head Chef, she actually checks this out once in a while.)