Travers Stakes (Grade 1)

BRAD Cox rolled up his programme like a whip and took a long, slow deep breath before the Travers Stakes, the highlight of a star-studded card at Saratoga last Saturday.

The trainer of the favourite, Essential Quality, didn’t need the whip.

“Wow,” Cox said walking away from the television. “That was a battle.”

Owned and bred by Godolphin, Essential Quality and jockey Luis Saez won another battle, a 10-furlong chess match that turned into a match race between front-runner Midnight Bourbon and Essential Quality.

The Godolphin homebred gradually wore down the gallant pacesetter to score by a neck. Only Essential Quality, a once-beaten son of Tapit, can make a neck decision in the Travers seem routine.

At least routine when it’s over, another stakes win delivered with a relentless, never-waver style. Flash? Look somewhere else. Reliability? Look no further.

“This one was easier to watch for sure, a little better trip here,” Cox said referring to a wide voyage in the Jim Dandy a month ago.

“Today, he’s riding him, he’s asking him, you’re wondering, but he keeps coming.

“When he engages with the other horse, he’s like ‘okay, I’m going to get in front of you but I’m not going to put you away,’ but I’m going to stay in front of you.

“That’s how it looks to me.”

Looks like his eighth win in his ninth start. The Kentucky-bred colt won his debut at Churchill Downs in September, won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity, the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to finish his championship juvenile season.

This year, he won the Grade 3 Southwest, the Grade 2 Blue Grass, the Grade 1 Belmont, the Grade 2 Jim Dandy and the Grade 1 Travers for $4,215,144.

Let that sink in for a moment.

His only blemish – and it’s hardly a blemish – was a hard-luck fourth, beaten a length in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby.

“A roughed-up fourth in the Derby, really a better trip he wins it,” Cox said. “If he wins the Derby, would we have went to the Preakness, would we have went to the Belmont?

Proud

“Listen, if we did all that, we may not have gone to the Jim Dandy and we may not be here. It’s the way it’s supposed to be and I’m proud of what he’s accomplished.”

In a race devoid of speed, Midnight Bourbon took control from the inside post. Coming off a fall in the Haskell, the Preakness runner-up broke sharply and was encouraged with a loose rein from Ricardo Santana Jr Saez allowed Essential Quality to recover from a misstep as the gates opened and set up on Midnight Bourbon’s flank.

The second choice and the first choice had quickly taken control of the $1.25 million stakes.

They kept it.

Midway on the turn, Miles D moved to the outside and triggered counter moves. Saez pumped – knees, hands, elbows and shoulders moving in unison – as Essential Quality treaded water for a sixteenth of a mile. He wasn’t losing ground, but he certainly wasn’t gaining ground.

By the quarter pole, that had changed as Essential Quality ignited his relentless closing kick, ranging to the outside of Midnight Bourbon.

Saez, the meet’s leading jockey stood up at the wire, did the sign of the cross and pumped fists with Santana as they galloped out around the turn. Essential Quality finished a mile and a quarter in 2m01.96secs.

“He makes it interesting, there is no doubt, he makes it interesting. Last time in the Jim Dandy, we were last and kind of scrubbing at the three eighths pole and kind of questioning if we were going to get up or not, he got there, with a lot of ground lost,” Cox said.

“Today was probably a little better trip, lack of pace up front, he’s adaptable. He kind of puts himself where he needs to be. He’s a champion and he does what champions do, they win.”