SARATOGA SPRINGS – The beat goes on for Essential Quality.
Since his fourth-place effort in the Kentucky Derby, last year’s 2-year-old champion has produced a three-race win streak that has him sitting on top of the 3-year-old colt division.
On a cool, overcast day in front of a hearty crowd at Saratoga Race Course, Essential Quality edged a game Midnight Bourbon by a neck at the wire to capture the $1.25 million Runhappy Travers.
With Gov. Kathy Hochul looking on, Essential Quality became the 29th horse to pull off the Belmont-Travers double. In addition, Essential Quality is the 10th Juvenile champion to win the Travers, with Street Sense being the last in 2007.
The son of Tapit completed the mile-and-a-quarter trip in 2:01.96 and went off as the 2-5 favorite in the 152nd edition of the Travers. The winner paid his backers $2.90 for the win, $2.30 for place and $2.10 to show.
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Trainer Brad Cox was the third conditioner in history to complete a Whitney-Travers double during the Saratoga meeting and was jubilant after the race.
“He was very good today, he’s been touting himself the last 10 days, two weeks. He certainly seemed like he had his game face on and he showed up and ran big,” Cox said.
Midnight Bourbon paid $4 for second and $3.30 for third. He completed a $2 exacta of $11.80. Miles D finished third and paid $4.90 to show and rounded out a $2 trifecta that paid $97.48. Keepmeinmind rounded out the superfecta.
The gray colt’s connections collected $670,000 for the win, giving him career earnings of over $4.2 million for Godolphin LLC.
With Midnight Bourbon setting modest early fractions, the son of Tiznow nearly wired the field before being caught by the champ in the final sixteenth of a mile.
Essential Quality had the leader measured throughout, never letting the Steve Asmussen-trainee to get too far out of sight. Like he’s done in many of his previous races, the versatile colt kept his eye on the target and jockey Luis Saez had enough horse to get by Midnight Bourbon when it counted.
“He ran a tremendous race,” Cox said. “For a horse to close into a soft pace like that and run down a very, very good horse, who’s also a part of that good juvenile crop that’s transferred his from at three, it took a lot.”
Meet-leading jockey Luis Saez was sure not to let the front-running Midnight Bourbon out of his sight.
“Right from the gate I was on him because I knew he was the speed horse,” Saez said. “And that horse, when he takes the lead, he keeps going. So, I got on him right from there. That was the plan, but I always feel like I have so much horse that I can make my move and get going.”
It was the colt’s second straight ding-dong finish after dueling with Keepmeinmind in the Jim Dandy, the Travers prep race in late July at Saratoga.
“He knows how to battle, he really does,” Cox said. “He likes to have his head in front.”
Godolphin racing manager Jimmy Bell lauded his horse’s ability to always come out on top.
“He’s never had a bad race,” said Bell. “When you look back over the whole two years of his races, he’s never had a bad race and every race he’s always closing. Even though it might be close, he seems to thrive on that down the lane, more so than we do. He has that innate ability to finish.”
Hall of Fame trainer Asmussen couldn’t ask for more from Midnight Bourbon, who ran a heroic race after the debacle at the Haskell in July, when he clipped heels and lost his jockey.
“We got the racetrack, the setup, the chance we wanted,” Asmussen said. “Ricardo (Santana Jr.) gave him the right trip. I’m very proud of the horse. He kept running, what a constitution he’s got. We weren’t sure how he would respond.”
Asmussen thinks his colt’s effort showed he can be heard from later in the season.
“He’s getting better. I hate what happened at Monmouth, but we’re blessed that he’s still in good physical shape to do this,” Asmussen said. “We didn’t get what we wanted or needed out of the Haskell, and then to run a mile-and-a-quarter in the Travers basically with works off of the Preakness against the champion is pretty demanding.”
Hochul presented the Travers trophy to Essential Quality’s connections and talked to The News immediately after the race.
“It was fabulous,” Hochul said of the exciting finish. “This is an important industry for the state of New York, nearly 20,000 jobs and it’s a big economic driver for this part of our state.”
She lauded the energy that was pumping through the Spa during the big race as she watched from the Governor’s box above the winner’s circle.
“I loved being here. It’s a great sport bringing people together,” Hochul said. “There was so much energy, this is what we want all over the state of New York. People energized to come out and be together, but do it in a smart way.”
There was certainly plenty of energy in the old Spa on Saturday afternoon with Essential Quality delivering the goods once again to solidify the 3-year-old colt division.
Gene Kershner, a Buffalo-based turf writer, is a member of the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association, and tweets @EquiSpace.