2012 Travers: Draw a Line Through It
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One of the most commonly
used phrases in racing today is: draw a
After the Vanderbilt at
Saratoga Jerry Bossert of the New York
Daily News wrote about Shackleford’s loss. “ ‘Draw a line through it.’ That’s how
trainer Dale Romans explained the last place finish of 6-5 favorite Shackleford
in Sunday’s Grade I Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap.”
In the most recent NTRA
teleconference, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin spoke about his Travers entrant
Alpha. “He doesn't obviously like Churchill Downs. So the Churchill thing was disappointing, draw a line through it, but he could
not be doing any better today.”
If we were to draw a line
through Alpha’s two races at Churchill Downs his worst finish in six starts
would be second place. He finished second to Union Rags in the Champagne and
then he lost by a neck to the then undefeated Gemologist. So lets draw a line through it and Alpha is the
5-2 morning line favorite in the Midsummer Derby.
On
August 21st, the Daily Racing
Form had an article about Street Life’s progress since the Wood Memorial. “Entering the first turn, he was in another race
back there,” Chad Brown said. “To actually make up as much ground as he did
surprised me. I thought the horse was going to trail the whole way. I literally
drew a line through the race. That term gets thrown around a lot, but that was
a text-book situation where you draw a
line through it.”
Let’s draw
a line through that Wood Memorial and Street Life has two stakes wins, a third
place in the Peter Pan (G2), and fourth in the Belmont.
Looking
at the rest of the Travers field, the connections of Stealcase have been outspoken about how their horse has brought a
lot of trouble upon himself. In the Haskell Stealcase got really worked up when
he hit the track and heard all the crowd noise during the post parade. Then during the start he hit the gate
and broke awkwardly, and still finished a very competitive third. In March
Stealcase had two more bad gate experiences but they had to draw a line through those races, after
which he recorded a 100 BSF in the Derby Trial.
On the
heels of a fine allowance race and a strong third place run in the Belmont for Atigun, the view on his 6th
place finish on the sloppy track in the Jim Dandy had to be to draw a line through it. With that done
many view Kenny McPeek’s horse as a contender in the Travers.
Nick Zito is doing the same thing with Fast Falcon. Just forget about the
seventh place in the Jim Dandy, draw a line through it. Go back to the nice second place finishes in the
Easy Goer and the Dwyer and throw in the fine five furlong workout and we have
a long shot with a solid chance.
PICKS: It does concern me
that Alpha has never run a BSF in the 100’s, but Kiaran McLaughlin’s horses
have been running big at Saratoga and I expect a great performance from this
Godolphin horse. Nonios has never run a bad race and his second place in the
Haskell behind Paynter was as good as any horse in the field has run. Neck ‘n
Neck has had three really good races since May and figures to be in the mix.
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