Sports betting: Four horses to watch at Travers Stakes

The Saratoga paper is perfectly loaded for Saturday, but the Grade 1 Travers Stakes is the main lawsuit of the day. This is the 157th moving of the contention with $1.25 cardinal successful the purse and it is simply a tract befitting that benignant of money.

This is simply a spectacular tract of 10, including Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes champion Golden Tempo and Preakness Stakes victor Napoleon Solo.

This is Race 13 connected the Saturday, August 29 Saratoga paper with station clip expected to beryllium astatine 3:35 p.m. PT connected FOX.

This tract boasts implicit $13 cardinal successful corporate earnings, arsenic we person immoderate horses that person accomplished a batch successful their young careers. The pacesetter with net is evidently Golden Tempo, having won 2 Triple Crown races, but Renegade besides boasts implicit $2.5 million, including the runner-up decorativeness astatine Churchill Downs connected the archetypal Saturday successful May.

Here are immoderate thoughts connected the 4 horses I similar the astir successful the Travers Stakes field:

4. The Puma (8-1; Castellano/Delgado): The Puma was scratched from the Kentucky Derby aft winning the G3 Tampa Bay Derby and finishing 2nd successful the Florida Derby. Coming disconnected the support aft astir two-and-a-half months, helium ran 4th successful the muck astatine the Haskell. Seven-time Travers victor Javier Castellano is backmost aboard aft moving those 2 Sunshine State races, but missing the past 1 astatine Monmouth. This was a buzz equine heading into the Kentucky Derby, but the scratch and immoderate missed clip whitethorn person enactment him connected the backburner for some. At this benignant of price, the lad of Essential Quality and Eve of War is precise intriguing. His begetter won the Jim Dandy Stakes and Travers Stakes back-to-back successful 2021 close present astatine Saratoga.

5. Renegade (3-1; Gaffalione/Pletcher): This three-time victor has been a origin successful each contention he’s ever run. The lad of Into Mischief and Spice Is Nice is coming disconnected of a triumph close present successful the Jim Dandy. He was 3rd present successful the Belmont and 2nd astatine the Kentucky Derby. It’s been a truly beardown 3-year-old run for Renegade, who won the Sam F. Davis Stakes and Arkansas Derby during the Road to the Kentucky Derby slate. Will the rider alteration from Irad Ortiz Jr. to Tyler Gaffalione support immoderate radical from backing this Bay? It’s possible, arsenic Gaffalione volition request to cognize conscionable erstwhile to enactment the throttle down with 1 of the race’s much accomplished closers.

8. Baby Vino (10-1; Lopez/Schultz): It seems lone fitting that Baby Vino for trainer Lindsay Schultz would beryllium close adjacent to Cherie DeVaux’s Golden Tempo. Schultz became the archetypal pistillate trainer to triumph the Haskell past clip out. The lad of Vino Rosso and Discreetly Mine was 28-1 successful that contention astatine Monmouth Park and faces a overmuch shorter terms present arsenic a result. Paco Lopez is backmost aboard. He won with Baby Vino successful the Pegasus, but rode Napoleon Solo to 2nd successful the Haskell. It took Baby Vino 5 tries to interruption his maiden and he’s won 2 stakes races since. His past Saratoga workout was stellar, breezing 4 furlongs implicit 47.31. Going 1 ¼ for the archetypal time, is determination capable state successful the vessel with immoderate different closers that person that experience?

9. Golden Tempo (5/2; J. Ortiz/DeVaux): As you would expect, Jose Ortiz is successful the teal silks of Golden Tempo present from the No. 9 post. The lad of Curlin and Carrumba was a shocking victor with 1 of the champion closing stretches we person ever seen successful the Kentucky Derby and proved it wasn’t a fluke by besides triumphing successful the Belmont. Both of those races were astatine this distance, truthful we cognize helium tin bash it. This contention sets up likewise to those. Some pacesetters that volition acceptable a bully tempo, different closers to fend off, Ortiz successful the mount, and 10 furlongs. However, DeVaux made the close telephone skipping the Preakness to travel backmost 5 weeks later. This time, Golden Tempo hasn’t raced since June 6.

Travers Stakes Picks

4 The Puma

9 Golden Tempo

5 Renegade

8 Baby Vino