Cox: Haskell winner Cyberknife could target Travers next

Trainer Brad Cox reported that Cyberknife, winner of Saturday’s Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park, will be a likely candidate for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 27 at Saratoga.

Owned by Al Gold’s Gold Square, Cyberknife registered a career-best 102 Beyer Speed Figure for his ground-saving trip under Florent Geroux, where he skimmed the rail in the stretch drive and outfinished a wavering Jack Christopher and a wide-charging Taiba to win by a head.

The Haskell was the second Grade 1 victory for the son of second-crop sire Gun Runner after a 2 3/4-length win in the Arkansas Derby on April 2 at Oaklawn Park for trainer Brad Cox. Cyberknife arrived in Saratoga from Monmouth Park late Sunday morning.

“It’s on the table,” said Cox, who won last year’s Travers with eventual champion 3-year-old Essential Quality. “We’ll see how he comes out of it and get him back up here and work him a few times and see how it goes. He’s always had talent. We’ve just been trying to get him to put it all together in the afternoon and Florent did a good job of getting him a good trip and he responded well.”

Cyberknife, a five-time winner of nine lifetime starts, finished an uncharacteristic 18th of 20 in the Kentucky Derby on May 7 at Churchill Downs after his Arkansas Debry victory, but he made amends six weeks later when capturing the Matt Winn (G3) over the same surface. He has banked earnings of nearly $1.6 million.

Cox said he believes Cyberknife’s Haskell victory propelled him to the cream of the 3-year-old crop.

“It definitely puts him in the mix,” Cox said. “Obviously, he has two Grade 1 wins this year and that’s huge. He just needs to continue to improve and move forward, and if we’re able to win the Travers and have a good effort in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, I think we’ll be in the mix bottom line. We've got a ways to go, but we’ll see how it plays out.

“I think it’s a good crop,” Cox added. “I think earlier in the year there may have been some question as to how good they were, but they’ve come around. It seems to be a good group. No one has jumped up, but it’s a deep group for sure.”

Cyberknife, a $400,000 purchase from the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Select Sale, is out of the multiple stakes-winning and graded stakes placed Flower Alley mare Awesome Flower.

Cox breezed Godolphin’s Grade 1 winner Matareya over the Saratoga main track Sunday morning in company with graded-stakes winner Tawny Port.

Matareya, a daughter of Pioneerof the Nile, drilled through five furlongs in 1:00 flat – the fastest of 27 recorded works at the distance – while Tawny Port completed his move in 1:00.60.

A winner of three straight graded stakes events, including the last out Acorn (G1), Matareya is targeting the $500,000 Test (G1) on Aug. 6 at the Spa. Peachtree Stable's Tawny Port, who won the Ohio Derby (G3) at Thistledown last out, will run in Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy.

“She breezed really, really well," Cox said of Matareya. I’m super pleased with how she’s doing and how she’s done since arriving here at Saratoga. I’m looking forward to the Test.”