Maximum Security skips Travers, points to Pennsylvania Derby

Trainer Jason Servis said Thursday that multiple Grade 1 winner Maximum Security will skip the Travers Stakes (G1) on Aug. 24 at Saratoga to point to the Sept. 21 Pennsylvania Derby (G1) at Parx Racing because the colt is “still is not 100 percent.”

“I don’t like where he’s at. He’s not eating the way I want him to eat and he’s not carrying the weight I’d like to see him carry,” Servis told Monmouth Park publicity of the recent Haskell Invitational (G1) winner. “I just want to make sure he’s 100 percent for his next race and he’s not there right now.

“The best thing is to wait until he is 100 percent and point to the Pennsylvania Derby.”

Maximum Security, the first horse disqualified from first place in the Kentucky Derby due to interference, has been stabled at New Jersey's Monmouth Park since returning from Louisville in early May.

The absence of the Gary and Mary West-owned colt from the Grade 1 Travers follows on the heels of news that Game Winner, also owned by the Wests, will bypass the Travers after spiking a temperature.

“With Game Winner out, if Maximum Security was 100 percent I’d go to the Travers,” Servis said. “But he’s just not back to where he was. I’ll probably give him a week off and that still gives me more than four weeks until the Pennsylvania Derby.

“I’m fortunate to have patient owners in the Wests who will allow me to take a step back if I don’t feel the horse is 100 percent. It’s easy to run. But if I ran him when he wasn’t 100 percent, you come out of the race saying to yourself `What was I thinking?’"

The 1 1/8-mile Pennsylvania Derby is expected to include, among others, the streaking Grade 3 winner Mr. Money and Preakness Stakes hero War of Will.

As for the Travers, the following horses are known to be under consideration...