Global Campaign may still 'take a shot' at Travers Stakes

It wasn’t according to plan that Global Campaign popped out of the Saratoga starting gate somewhere other than on the lead in last Saturday’s Jim Dandy Stakes (G2).

“When Tacitus stumbled, I don’t know if he reacted to that or what,” said Hunter Rankin, president of Sagamore Farm, which campaigns the colt in partnership with WinStar Farm.

A son of Curlin, Global Campaign wound up running from off the pace to finish third behind Tax and Tacitus.

“We thought he might get a little tired, which he did,” Rankin said after the horse leveled off in the stretch when making his first start since winning Belmont Park’s Peter Pan (G3) back on May 11.

The good news for connections: Global Campaign, who remains lightly raced due to a lingering foot problem, is said to have exited the race as well as he went into it. And that hasn’t been the case previously in his career.

Saratoga’s Aug. 24 Travers Stakes (G1) remains in play.

“If he trains well and we think he can improve from that effort, we might just take a shot,” Rankin said. “Whether those other horses get better or not, I don’t know, but I think we can find a way to make up 4 1/2 lengths on those horses given what we went through.

“He’s going to have his day. He’s a nice horse.”

Global Campaign proved that early on, breaking his maiden Jan. 5 at Gulfstream Park by 5 3/4 lengths. He returned to defeat winners on Feb. 9 by 2 1/2 lengths, wrapped up in the end.

Stepped up to graded company, Global Campaign complicated his foot issues when grabbing a quarter on his way to a fifth-place finish in the Fountain of Youth (G2). Two-plus months later, he returned to defeat eventual Belmont Stakes winner Sir Winston in the Peter Pan.

Global Campaign missed some training after that, scratching from the Ohio Derby (G3) in June when a quarter crack needed patching the week of the race. He entered the Jim Dandy off a trio of solo morning workouts.

“We believe he’s in a position to move forward,” Rankin said. “I think he needed the race. It was a lot to ask of him to go into a race against seasoned horses like that with the raining regimen that we had in him.”

Moving forward, Global Campaign could pick up an able workmate in fellow Sagamore Farm 3-year-old Scars Are Cool, who broke his maiden July 21 at Saratoga in a 1 1/8-mile flight. Rankin called the son of Malibu Moon “a really talented horse who’s just starting to figure it out.”

Aside from the Travers, Parx Racing’s Sept. 2 Smarty Jones (G3), a local prep for the Sept. 21 Pennsylvania Derby (G1), will be considered for Global Campaign.

“We’ll be able to train him and decide what’s best for him,” Rankin said. “Obviously when you run in the Travers you want to have a good shot. We still think at his best, he’s a top horse. There’s something to be said about taking a shot at it.”