Super Screener preview: Upsets are brewing on Travers undercard

The biggest card of the summer is Saturday at Saratoga, which plays host to a quintet of Grade 1 races, including the Travers Stakes as the anchor leg of an all-Grade 1 Pick 4.

Mike Shutty has all that covered and more in this week's Super Screener, and it is the Sword Dancer Stakes that caught our eye, as Shutty lists none of the morning-line favorites among his "top win contenders", "most reliable board hitter" or "top value" plays in the 1 1/2-mile turf test.

"Of the five Grade 1s carded on Travers day at Saratoga, the Sword Dancer offers the best wagering opportunity," Shutty writes.

Shutty leads his analysis with likely pace setter Channel Maker coming off a win in the Bowling Green Stakes last out, but it is the runner-up that day that caught his attention for a play on this day.

"Finishing a game second (to Channel Maker in the Bowling Green), Verstappen tracked an abysmally slow pace," Shutty writes. "Form-cycle analysis is projecting a very strong move forward in this third race off the 60-day layoff."

From a wagering perspective, Shutty plans to lean on Verstappen most with another Bowling Green also-ran in Soldier Rising being a part of the exotic mix. In that aforementioned all-Grade 1 Pick 4, Shutty has Verstappen in a little more than half his plays with Soldier Rising through about 22 percent.

Check out the video below about playing all of the Travers Stakes card with reports from Horse Racing Nation.