Travers Hopeful Tale of Verve Drills at Spa
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Tale of Verve, runner-up in the Xpressbet.com Preakness Stakes (gr. I) May 16, put in his first work over the main track at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 16 in preparation for the $1.25 million Travers (gr. I) Aug. 29.
Going out after the renovation break with exercise rider and apprentice jockey Cortez Walker, the son of Tale of Ekati breezed four furlongs in :48.09, eighth-fastest of 59 horses at the distance.
"He galloped out in 1:02," trainer Dallas Stewart said. "He worked good and cooled out good, and came back sound and healthy. He's doing very well."
The workout was the first for Tale of Verve since finishing sixth, beaten 5 1/4 lengths by Travers candidate Madefromlucky, in the West Virginia Derby (gr. II) Aug. 1 under Robby Albarado, his sixth different rider in nine starts.
"It was a good work for him. He's not like a super-fast work horse, but he did well this morning," Stewart said. "And, he came back good. I'm excited about him. We're working on a rider right now, so we'll see where we're at."
A Charles Fipke homebred, Tale of Verve has one win—a maiden triumph in April at Keeneland. He has faced Triple Crown champion American Pharoah in both the Preakness and Belmont Stakes Presented by DraftKings (gr. I), in which he finished seventh June 6.
"We'll work again next week, another nice half, and then we'll run," Stewart said. "It looks like we're going to have a good field. Everyone wants to run."
Curlin Stakes winner Smart Transition also breezed Sunday morning toward a possible start in the Travers for trainer John Shirreffs and owner Arnold Zetcher.
With Junior Alvarado aboard, the bay colt breezed five furlongs in a bullet 1:00.34 over the Saratoga main track. The move was the fastest of 24 at the distance.
"He looked really good," said Shirreffs. "He worked well and Junior said he felt great. He came out of the (Curlin) well and he's continued in his regular training routine."
Coming off a fourth-place finish in the Dwyer (gr. III) at Belmont Park, Smart Transition rebounded to win the 1 1/8-mile Curlin Stakes at Saratoga, getting around two turns for the first time since he broke his maiden in April. The son of Smart Strike tracked the early pace before drawing off to a 4 3/4-length victory.
According to Shirreffs, the decision to run in the Travers will be weighed "mostly" by how Smart Transition is doing and not American Pharoah's status for the race.
"I'll talk to Mr. Zetcher a little closer to the race. He's looking forward to the Travers, so I think if everything goes according to the way we hope it will, we should run there," said Shirreffs.