The 155th running of the $1.25 million Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday (Aug. 24), aka the “Midsummer Derby,” is considered the marquee race of the summer. A field of eight 3-year-olds was entered on Sunday. usracing.com is publishing profiles of the contenders.
Batten Down is at his best freewheeling on a lonesome lead, which is how he broke his maiden and took the Grade 3 Ohio Derby. He couldn’t get to the front early in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes, where he did put up a fight chasing winner Fierceness and finished 6¾ lengths behind in third.
Batten Down. NYRA Photo.
His chances of making an uncontested lead in the Travers Stakes seem infinitesimal, which is why he’s 20-1 on the morning line. He seems to be in way over his head in his Grade 1 debut, where besides Fierceness he’ll be facing other high-quality speed in Belmont Stakes/Haskell Stakes hero Dornoch, the leading 3-year-old colt, and Kentucky Oaks heroine Thorpedo Anna, queen of the 3-year-old fillies.
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott knows he’s asking a lot from the son of top sire Tapit.
“Well, the Travers Stakes will be tougher than the Jim Dandy Stakes,” Mott told thotoughbreddailynews.com. “I am not making any predictions. I mean, he would have had to move up to win the Jim Dandy Stakes. He sure has to move up to win the Travers Stakes.”
Betting advice: Batten Down will win more stakes, but not this loaded edition of the Travers. Throw him out.
Post position: 5
Odds: 20-1
Jockey: Junior Alvarado
Trainer: Bill Mott
Owner: Juddmonte
Career record: 6-2-1-2
Career earnings: $454,850
Last race: Jim Dandy Stakes (3rd)
Top Equibase Speed Figure: 98
Pedigree: Tapit-Close Hatches, by First Defence
Color: Gray/roan
Running style: Frontrunner
Notes: Batten Down, a Juddmonte homebred, is a full brother to multiple graded-stakes winner Tacitus … Mott, a 71-year-old native of South Dakota, is a four-time winner of the Eclipse Award for leading trainer. The Travers is one of the few major races he hasn’t won … Batten Down’s dam is Close Hatches, and his name plays off hers. “Batten down the hatches” is a nautical command to close all openings on a ship to prepare for rough weather.
The writing team at US Racing is comprised of both full-time and part-time contributors with expertise in various aspects of the Sport of Kings.
