Tenfold may 'check all the boxes' for owner in Travers 2018

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Gun Runner came to Saratoga last summer and firmly established his Horse of the Year credentials with back-to-back Grade 1 victories in the Whitney and Woodward, two of racing's most prestigious races for older horses.

On Saturday, Ron Winchell will take aim at Saratoga's premiere prize for 3-year-olds, the Grade 1 Travers Stakes, with homebred Tenfold. It will be Winchell's third try at the Mid-Summer Derby; he was third with another homebred, Pyro, in 2008 and Gun Runner in 2016.

Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen trained both Pyro and Gun Runner, his best finishes in four Travers tries. Tenfold will break from post 10 in a field of 11 under regular rider Ricardo Santana, Jr.

"For me right now, after winning the Whitney and the Woodward, the Travers is right up there as far as Saratoga goes. It's something I'd really like to check off. It's a race everybody chases. It's the Mid-Summer Derby," Winchell said. "Talking with Steve, I get his reaction after every work and he's gotten a little happier and a little more excited with every work since his last race. I'm excited to see what that equates to in a race."

Tenfold enters the Travers having won its traditional local prep, the Grade 2, 1 1/8-mile Jim Dandy, on July 28. Co-fourth choice on the morning line at 8-1 with Grade 1 winner Catholic Boy, he is attempting to become the 11th horse to complete the Jim Dandy-Travers double and first since Alpha dead-heated for the win with Golden Ticket in 2012.

"He's definitely completely overlooked, but sometimes that's good. I'm not going to complain about that," Winchell said. "He's the opposite of Gun Runner at this point."

Gun Runner had won five of eight starts, three of them in graded-stakes, entering the Travers. Sent off at 9-1, he ran into Arrogate's record-setting performance that day but went on to win seven of his final eight races, six of them Grade 1, including the 2017 Breeders' Cup Classic and the world's richest race, the $16 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, January 27 at Gulfstream Park before being retired to stud.

"They're a little different story, but at this stage of Gun Runner's 3-year-old career people thought he was not the best of the crop. Some others had done a little more at that point," Winchell said. "It took a little while for him to come into himself, and I feel like that's where you can draw a similarity. [Tenfold] has taken a little longer to come into himself and hopefully he continues on. You never know how far that continuation will be, but it's a good position to be in."

A Travers victory by Tenfold would also be special given his bloodlines. He is one of four horses in the Travers sired by Curlin, a two-time Horse of the Year and 2014 Hall of Famer trained by Asmussen. So, too, was Tenfold's dam, the Tapit mare Temptress, a winner of two of 10 starts from 2012-14 for Winchell.

The Winchell family also campaigned and retains a 50 percent ownership in Tapit, winner of the Grade 1 Wood Memorial in 2004 and Grade 3 Laurel Futurity in 2003 who has gone on to become one of the world's most influential sires, standing at Gainesway for a $300,000 fee.

"My connection with Tapit and his being out of a Tapit mare, and Steve's connection with Curlin ... it kind of checks all the boxes, if you will," Winchell said. "Homebred, Tapit written all over him, we raced the mare - it's a feel-good type of thing for the whole operation."

Added Asmussen: "It would be huge, because of who this horse is. He's a first foal out of a homebred of Winchell's out of a good Tapit mare by Curlin - it would be more than significant to win this caliber of a race. It would be the perfect storm."

Unraced at 2, Tenfold won his first two starts over the winter at Oaklawn Park, where he was fifth in his stakes debut, the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, April 14. From there he finished third by less than a length in the Grade 1 Preakness at odds of 26-1 - beaten a neck for second by Bravazo and a neck ahead of Good Magic, both of whom return in the Travers - and was fifth in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes prior to the Jim Dandy.

"Last year before he'd ever run, physically, pedigree-wise, ability-wise [we knew] he's capable and I thought, we were off track or just not there yet," Asmussen said. "I think the part about the Preakness that made me so happy is that I still know he's going to get better and he's not that far off. I think he'll run well Saturday and I still think he'll be a better older horse. It's just who he is physically. He's got an elite talent level, and [hopefully] he can turn that into something."

Asmussen has a second Travers contender in WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and SF Racing's Meistermind, a maiden winner over older horses going the Travers distance of 1 ¼ miles June 30 at Churchill. Listed at 30-1 on the morning line, he will be ridden by Manny Franco from post 6.