Travers Day

The Travers has lived up to its billing as the Mid-Summer Derby or the Fourth Leg of the Triple Crown. With the exception of Big Brown, the who's who of the 3yo crop has shown up for the race.
I love Mambo in Seattle, but he figures to attract too much action at the windows. In this evenly matched field, Tale of Ekati and Cool Coal Man offer the most value, and I will play both.

Victory Ride: Porte Bonheur.

Baruch: Shakis.

King's Bishop: Visionaire.

Selections for Saturday, August 16

Sword Dancer-Grand Courtier.

Iselin-Honest Man.

Gardenia Hcp (Ellis)-Unforgotten.

Evangeline Mile-Ide Like a Double.

Prelude (LaD)-Star Production.

Honeymoon (LaD)-Perfect Motion.

Arlington Million Day

Beverly D-Meribel. I'm looking for a speed duel to develop between Dreaming of Anna and Rosinka, with Meribel using her potent late kick to win the race in the final strides. In her last start, Rosinka lost a rich turf stakes at Delaware as a 1-5 favorite after Cornelio Velasquez allowed Rosinka to be pressed through fast splits. While that loss could cause Corenelio to be a little shy about engaging Dreaming of Anna early, Rosinka breaks right outside of Anna and Cornelio knows he can't let Anna and Garrett Gomez get away through soft fractions.

Arlington Million-Einstein and Stream Cat. The scratch of Sudan works in Einstein's favor, as no remaining runner likes to run on the lead. Albarado will either send Einstein to the front or have him sit off the flank of the pacesetter through very slow fractions. Einstein stayed reasonably close to the lead in the Donn and Stephen Foster Handicaps, so what he experiences early in the Million will be a stroll in the park. The distance will be no problem as Einstein is even capable at the longer distance of 11 furlongs, with a win in the 2008 GP Park Turf and close third in the 2007 edition of that race behind Jambalya and Honey Ryder. Stream Cat just missed in last year's Million, and enters this race off an impressive win in the Arlington Handicap.