Delgado hoping to engineer Travers Day upsets with Majesto, Grand Tito
Getting a race under his belt and having it come over Saratoga's main track could make Grupo Seven C Racing Stables' Grade 1-placed Majesto a live long shot for Saturday's Grade 1 Travers.
At least that is how trainer Gustavo Delgado is feeling heading into the Mid-Summer Derby, in which the bay Tiznow ridgling is listed at 30-1 on the morning line from post 11.
"The post position is good. I think that outside is better. Anything can happen because there is no superstar in the race. I think every horse in the race has a chance," Delgado said. "Majesto is good now, very good. The last work was very good. He went along good and galloped out after the finish very good."
Majesto enters the 1 ¼-mile Travers off a sixth-place finish in the Curlin July 29 at Saratoga, where he raced four wide around both turns and came up empty in the stretch, beaten 10 ½ lengths by Connect.
Gift Box and Forever d'Oro, who ran 2-3 in the Curlin, also return in the Travers.
"I brought him to Saratoga and it's possible he needed one or two works. Now he's very good. It's possible he is in better condition for this race," Delgado said. "The track here is different but it is no problem for him. Last year he stayed all the time in Saratoga and he was breezing so he knows the track very well."
A four-time Triple Crown winner in his native Venezuela, Delgado has already engineered one huge upset at Saratoga this summer when Paola Queen shocked the Test at odds of 55-1 on August 6 for the trainer's first North American Grade 1 victory. His small Saratoga-based string has returned dividends with two wins, a second and a third from just six starters.
Delgado pointed to last year's Travers when American Pharoah, racing's first Triple Crown champion since 1978, was beaten by 16-1 long shot Keen Ice.
"In this race, anything can happen. There are no superstars," Delgado said. "Last year there was a big superstar in American Pharoah, but he lost. He lost and the horse that beat him didn't win any more, but he won the Travers. I think my horse has a chance."
Delgado is hoping that Saratoga's reputation as the "Graveyard of Favorites" also shines its good fortune on graded stakes winner Grand Tito, who takes on the globe-trotting Flintshire in the Grade 1, $1 million Longines Sword Dancer.
Grand Tito will be taking his third shot in as many races against the always-imposing Flintshire, trained by Chad Brown to 2016 victories in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Manhattan in June and the Grade 2 Bowling Green on July 30. Grand Tito kicked off his 6-year-old year with a pair of victories, including the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida, before running a close third in the Grade 2 Pan American in April. The son of Candy Ride earned triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in his first two outings against the division leader, earning a 104 for his fourth-place finish in the Manhattan and a 103 for his game runner-up effort in the Bowling Green.
"I think that [Grand Tito] has a very good chance in this race. I know that the Chad Brown horse [Flintshire] is the best on the turf right now in the United States, but the race is right," he said. "Grand Tito's last two or three races have been very good. The last race, he was only beaten by Chad Brown's horse by three-quarters [of a length]. The difference was not much.
"All you need is some luck," he added.
Source: NYRA Communications