In the days leading up to the $1.25 million Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday, the team at usracing.com is publishing profiles of the 3-year-olds in the field.
An uncontested leader is always dangerous, and Magnitude shapes up as the lone speed in Saturday's 156th Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga.
Bill Mott, who trains heavy favorite Sovereignty, expects Magnitude to go to the front. So does Chad Brown, who entered stalker Strategic Focus.
“Our horse should have a good target to run at in (Magnitude), one he very well might not even get by,” Brown said. “It's not like he's going to make the lead early on that horse -- that's a good horse.”
Magnitude dominated the Risen Star Stakes (G2) by 9 3/4 lengths Feb. 25 before an ankle chip forced him off the Triple Crown trail. He returned in early July with another front-end runaway, a 9 1/4-length romp in the Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows.
“We thought that was the perfect race back,” said Scott Blasi, longtime assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen. “We have to run against a (potential) champion, and that is never an easy task, but hopefully he is doing as well as he can physically and can get the job done.”
Deserves to be the second favorite, but 2-1 morning line is an underlay for a colt making his Grade 1 debut. Use underneath Sovereignty for what would be a very small exacta payoff.
Post position: 1
Odds: 2-1
Jockey: Ben Curtis
Trainer: Steve Asmussen
Owner: Winchell Thoroughbreds
Career record: 8-4-1-0
Career earnings: $596,165
Last race: Iowa Derby, July 5, 1st
Top Equibase speed figure: 111
Pedigree: Not This Time-Rockadelic, by Bernardini
Color: Bay
Running style: Frontrunner
Notes: Curtis, who grew up in Ireland, moved his tack to the United States in late 2023. He's compiled impressive stats this year riding in New Orleans, the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic. He's won with 17% of his mounts and shows a small pari-mutuel profit ... Asmussen's 10,955 wins are the most by a trainer in North American history. In 2022 Epicenter gave him his only Travers victory ... Magnitude breezed 4 furlongs in 50.22 seconds Sunday over Saratoga's training track.
