2009 Travers (G1)

Agree. Quality Road has nothing to be ashamed of. He did not have the best trip and came up a tad short in Travers show finish. Another prep and he likely wins the midsummer Derby.

Track at Saratoga (10am) is sloppy and the rain is still coming down. Quality Road should clear the field and stay out of trouble. Have serious reservation with Summer Bird in these conditions. So my second pick would be Kensei who ran a very nice race earlier in the meet. He should be flying at the end.

Agree. The Super Derby seems like the best alternative to the Travers for Mine That Bird.

The sport's oldest stakes race is finally poised for a showdown of the best. With exception of the West Coast Filly, Zenyatta, we're assured that a "Big Brown" dodging of competition is not in the cards at the spa this year! The field is loaded with talent, challenging, and poised to provide opportunity for handicappers. Quality Road and crew will keep the adored filly from going off at 1-9 and running away at the turn. Enjoy this one! I'll be there to.

The sport's oldest stakes race is finally poised for a showdown of the best. With exception of the West Coast Filly, Zenyatta, we're assured that a "Big Brown" dodging of competition is not in the cards at the spa this year! The field is loaded with talent, challenging, and poised to provide opportunity for handicappers. Quality Road and crew will keep the adored filly from going off at 1-9 and running away at the turn. Enjoy this one! I'll be there to.

Quality Road still needs to be tested in my opinion. Granted, not much left in the three year old division to provide that test. The Amsterdam was impressive for sure, however, the jump to 10 furlongs will be interesting. As for his best race, the Florida Derby, let's keep in mind that he was lone speed in a short field on a track that was very biased to early speed that day. He'll find very different conditions come Travers Day.

Looks like Quality Road is going to the Travers after record-setting Amsterdam return. Interested to see how he will handle the 10f test after a lone 6.5f prep.

This is the race, to me anyway, that has the potential to be the best race of the summer providing all the real quality horses who's owners and trainers keep mentioning this race as their goal to get to, show up. There's a real possibility that there could be a lot of extremely talented horses in this field.