yeah you don't get that unbeatable feel with Street Sense, yes he's a fantastic horse but not like what you felt with Point Given or a Bernardini last year. I don't think they are in fear of Street Sense.


It's time for The Travers to adapt to this new day of age. It's time to either increase the purse in the Jim Dandy to lure horses away from The Haskell or move The Travers to the last weekend. The BC has just taken over and no one cares anymore about the prestige of these races. They want 4 to 6 weeks between races and if The Travers doesnt' adapt it's only going to get worse. The Haskell has caught up in a big way and for the past few years has had better fields.

Now Zito isn't 100% about CP West, says it's a maybe now. This is going to be a huge bust for Travers Day. Well they only thing we can do is enjoy the public workout from Street Sense.

Yup besides the Triple Crown every race is now a prep race and with every honky tonk track waving a million plus dollars the options are wide open. Just look at the JCGC last year, arguably THE most prestigious handicap race, had 4 entries, We might see the same for The Travers this year But hey the following week I bet we see 10 for the PA Derby. It's disgusting.
Time to suck it up swallow the pride and be proactive, If NYRA or whoever thinks the The Travers is still going to attract all the top 3 yr olds based on its name and reputation, is making a huge mistake.
In fact the past few years The Whitney has been a much much better race competitve wise in terms of the Big races for The Saratog Meet.
Times have changed and it's time to adapt.

Doesnt' matter after the TC races prestige is being thrown out the window. Now all the trainers want is the easiest route to BC. I love and HATE the Breeders Cup.

Nope, he's blatantly said that he simply feels the Brooklyn fits better with the BC goal. He said the same thing with Rags, that she would be ready to go in the Alabama but he would rather just have one prep going into the BC. His emphasis (along with others) on bringing "fresh" horses into the BC is really ruining the fall racing calendar. I hope it backfires and he gets shut out at the BC again. This sport desperately needs a points system to stop this "BC or bust" mentality.

its not about which race is more important than another, or being somehow afraid of Street Sense. I'm pretty sure he is simply looking for the best timing to lead up to the BC. AGS ran with Street Sense way back at Tampa, and has improved a bunch since that time. my guess is that right at this moment Pletcher feels confident he has the better horse.

l like the idea of raising the purse of either the Jim Dandy to $750,00 or The Travers to $1,500,000. If the Travers had that purse all of a sudden that 3 weeks wouldn't seem so short.

unfortunately there are very few really interesting races at the top level anymore.

What about an appearance fee? $100,000 to the winner of the Dandy for running in the Travers and $200,000 to the winner of the Haskell for running in the Travers. That way they wouldn't get totally burnt with paying out an extra $500,000 in purse money and still not drawing the winner of the Haskell.

Ditto