Essential Quality out to prove division dominance in Travers

Before Essential Quality makes the step up to older horses for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic in November, he has one more assignment against his fellow 3-year-olds.

Saratoga’s Travers Stakes (G1) traditionally is one of the most important races on the sophomore calendar, and the gray son of Tapit looks to be the overwhelming favorite for Saturday’s feature.

It has become hard to make an argument against Essential Quality as the best horse of his generation. In eight career starts, all of which are graded stakes after breaking his maiden first time out, the Godolphin homebred has won seven times.

The only blemish on an otherwise perfect career came when he was hung out wide all the way around in the Kentucky Derby (G1). It’s an unfortunate race to have as your only loss, but the 1-length defeat, after a difficult trip, hardly takes away from his consistent excellence. Still, there are those who prefer to doubt last year’s juvenile champion.

You would have thought that his victory in the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes (G1) would have ended the uncertainty about the Brad Cox trainee. After all, it was the second fastest Belmont in the last 20 editions. But some fans were quick to jump on his narrow victory last time in Saratoga’s Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) as a sign of weakness.

He’s not the type to win his races by a pole. Much like stars of the past, such as Affirmed and Silver Charm, Essential Quality knows his way to the winner’s circle. And as far as his performance in the Jim Dandy, I thought it was first-rate.

It never is easy to cut back from 12 furlongs of the Belmont to the 9 furlongs of the Jim Dandy, but Essential Quality accomplished it with aplomb. As he so often does, he had his competition measured and was always going to get there first as the finish line approached.

Keepmeinmind might be no superstar, but he ran his race and saved all kinds of ground over Essential Quality. The extremely wide trip did not matter. Likely not fully cranked up for his Travers prep, the champion overcame the serious ground loss and beat his rival for the fifth consecutive time.

Running wider than the rest is a sign of the confidence that rider Luis Saez has in Essential Quality. Saratoga’s leading jockey would rather give up some ground than get the best horse bottled up in traffic.

So now, four weeks after the Jim Dandy victory, the winner of six graded stakes gets another furlong to exert his dominance over his competition in the Mid-Summer Derby. The Travers will feature a cast of horses that Essential Quality already has beaten. Curlin Stakes runner-up Miles D is the only Travers nominee not already defeated by the big horse.

Since the win on July 31, Essential Quality has looked like a horse sitting on a big one, turning in a bullet work at Saratoga on Aug. 14 of five furlongs in 59 2/5 seconds. He followed that up with an easy five-furlong breeze on Saturday.

It all appears to be adding up to another victory for the winner of more than $3.5 million. Still, this is Saratoga, the "graveyard of favorites," and Essential Quality will be the horse with a target on his back for the $1.25 million Travers. It also has been nine years since any horse has completed the Jim Dandy-Travers double.

Of course, that seems to be par for the course for Essential Quality. There always are reasons why he might lose, but getting another horse to the wire in front of him has been much easier said than done.

A likely Travers victory on Saturday would push his lifetime record to 8-of-9 and all but seal the deal for a second consecutive Eclipse Award. Frankly, I would be surprised if it does not happen. The real question will be whether he can defeat older horses such as Knicks Go and Maxfield in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).

Ten weeks before that big race at Del Mar, I’d have to say Essential Quality has a big shot in that one too. Doubting him certainly has not paid off to this point.