Scotland returns from the July 21 Curlin a winner (Susie Raisher)
NYRA Press Office
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.— LNJ Foxwoods’ Kentucky homebred Scotland will have history on his side when he tackles Grade 1 Kentucky Derby winner Mage, Grade 1 Preakness hero National Treasure and Grade 1 Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets victor Arcangelo in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers at Saratoga Race Course.
This will be just the fourth time in its 154-year history that the three Triple Crown race winners will meet in the Travers. In each of the three previous instances, they were beaten by a horse that was not on the Triple Crown trail.
Sun Briar (1918), Runaway Groom (1982) and West Coast (2017) all delivered upsets in the Travers. To add his name to the list, Scotland will also have to defeat Grade 1-winning stablemates Forte, the Champion 2-Year-Old Colt of 2022 that is the Travers program favorite, and Tapit Trice; as well as graded stakes-winner Disarm.
Scotland will be making just his fifth start and first against graded company in the Travers, but is coming in off back-to-back wins including a 3 1/4-length triumph in the July 21 Curlin, both his Saratoga and two-turn debut.
“Well, we couldn’t have picked a tougher spot,” Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said. “I think it’s a great race. You’ve got the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont winner plus the Champion 2-year-old and another one that’s coming off a couple good races. It’s a good field. You can’t ask for much more than that. They’re all here.
“By this time of year with your 3-year-olds, the ones that have made it and are tough enough to make it this far are usually a pretty high-quality type of horses,” he added. “A lot of horses [got] eliminated in the Derby or the Preakness or the Belmont and people discovered, ‘Well, we don’t need to be running against Forte or the group that’s in there.’ They sometimes go to different spots. It becomes a really good, usually a seasoned, quality group of horses.”
Such is the case in the Travers, where Scotland and Tapit Trice are the longest shots on the board at morning-line odds of 12-1. By Good Magic, who ran ninth in the 2018 Travers, Scotland went unraced at 2 before graduating at first asking in a seven-furlong maiden sprint March 4 at Gulfstream Park.
Scotland was beaten a nose when second to subsequent Ellis Park Derby winner Tumbarumba in an open seven-furlong allowance April 23 at Keeneland, and returned with a one-mile optional claiming victory June 3 at Churchill Downs in his Curlin prep.
“We think he’s a good horse and he’s been training well and he’s shown us that he deserves an opportunity,” Mott said. “So, he’ll get his chance.”
Mott dominated the Saratoga trainer standings winning or sharing eight titles in 10 years between 1992 and 2001. He has had 11 starters in 10 Travers, running both Vision and Verse (second) and Unbridled Jet (eighth) in 1999. Mott also finished second with Hold Me Back in 2009 and Tacitus in 2019, and puts the Travers near the top of his bucket list.
“Absolutely,” he said. “There wasn’t many there that I really wanted and hadn’t won. I wanted to win the Met Mile and we got that taken care of [with Cody’s Wish]. I’ve always been fascinated by that race and even if I didn’t have horses in it, I’d want to watch because I think it’s a great race.
“We’ve finished second in the Travers a few times,” he added. “I’d love to win it.”
Mott will have starters in three stakes on the Travers undercard. He entered both reigning Champion Male Sprinter Elite Power, riding an eight-race win streak, and High Oak in the Grade 1, $500,000 Forego; will give Grade 1-winning multi-millionaire Channel Maker a sixth straight start in the Grade 1, $750,000 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer, and Caramel Swirl in the Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina.
The Sword Dancer and Ballerina are ‘Win and You’re In’ qualifying races for the Grade 1, $4 million Longines Turf and Grade 1, $1 million Filly & Mare Sprint, respectively, November 4 at Santa Anita.
Channel Maker earned his way back to the 1 1/2-mile Sword Dancer, a race he won in 2020, with a front-running two-length triumph in the Grade 2 Bowling Green July 30 at Saratoga. All 10 of the 9-year-old gelding’s wins have come in stakes, seven graded, including other Grade 1 triumphs in the 2018 and 2020 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic and 2019 Man o’ War. He is approaching $4 million in purse earnings.
“I can’t say enough. What can you say? He just sort of seems like an oddity in this day and age that he’s able to stay around and still be in somewhat close to top form,” Mott said. “There were plans that if he hadn’t have run well last time that he’d be retired, but as long as he’s doing well [he’ll run]. I don’t think any of us want to see his form go five races beaten double digits or something like that. That’s not going to happen.”
