3 of 4 top Travers finishers will train up to BC Classic

Photo:

Dan Heary / Eclipse Sportswire

Three of the four top finishers in Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers will train up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Trainer Todd Pletcher told the New York Racing Association media team that winner Fierceness will head to the $7 million race at Del Mar, and Chad Brown said the same of third-place finisher Sierra Leone.

Trainer Danny Gargan told Daily Racing Form that Dornoch, winner of the Belmont Stakes and Haskell (G1) before finishing fourth in the Travers, also will go to the Classic.

Thorpedo Anna, second by a head in the Travers after starting the year 4-for-4, will point to the Cotillion (G1) on Sept. 21 at Parx and then to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, where she would face elders for the first time.

Fierceness was rested after a 15th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby before returning in the Jim Dandy. Pletcher said the colt’s affinity for time between races gives him confidence in training the son of City of Light up to the $7 million route.

“He ran so well in the Jim Dandy with plenty of time in between races, so I think we feel like we can probably have him ready to run his best,” Pletcher said.

Brown said he expected more pace in the Travers. “On paper, with that many speed horses signed on and nobody going, it was a bit disappointing. But that’s horse racing,” Brown said. “We’ll just march on to the Classic hoping to get a race with more pace.”

McPeek told the NYRA media team that Thorpedo Anna’s heroic effort in the Travers “was a great run.”

If she wins the Cotillion and Distaff, he said, she should be a candidate for horse of the year honors.

“She was dominant over the fillies. She sniffed at greatness, and I think she’s still great,” McPeek said. “Look at the colts she beat. Sierra Leone, Dornoch and the ones behind those aren’t chopped liver. Fierceness had to run the race of his life to beat her.”

Now it comes down to spacing.

“The Cotillion is a no-brainer as long as she handles the four weeks (spacing) and that gives her six weeks to the Breeders’ Cup. She was six weeks between races for this one, so it shouldn’t be too tough on her.”