Travers Stakes at Saratoga : Java Gold Will Take On Triple Crown Winners

It’s almost blasphemous that Mack Miller, born and reared in the heart of Kentucky blue grass country, should think so little of the Kentucky Derby.

Given the choice of caring for the horse or running in the Kentucky Derby, Miller has chosen the horse every time but once. That’s why, in 38 years of training, the 65-year-old Miller has sent only one horse to the Derby.

Java Gold, one of the best 3-year-olds in training, didn’t make the Derby this year, and Crusader Sword, winner of the Saratoga Special for 2-year-olds earlier this month, isn’t going to Churchill Downs next year, either. Asked if the decision regarding Crusader Sword was written in stone, Miller said: “Yes, it is.”

Miller is not a trainer to renege on long-range plans. Last November, minutes after Java Gold had won the Remsen, a major race for 2-year-olds, Miller and his owner, Paul Mellon, sat down for a drink at Aqueduct.

“If we’re going to think about going to the Kentucky Derby next year, we’d better make up our minds today,” Miller said. “I’m not much in favor of it, but I want you to know the options.”

Mellon said: “That’s fine with me. Go to Aiken (S.C.) and get him ready to run in the Belmont.”

This year, Miller didn’t bring Java Gold to the races until April. The son of Key to the Mint and Javamine won his first two starts easily, but then he caught a virus and started coughing--the same ailment that kept Temperate Sil out of this year’s Derby--and missed about two weeks of training that eliminated the Belmont from his schedule.

But if Java Gold should run the kind of race Saturday that he turned in two weeks ago at Saratoga, it will all be for the best, because he’s running in the $1-million Travers, which has perhaps the toughest field in its 118-year history.

“It’s remarkable that all these horses from the Triple Crown races (Derby and Preakness winner Alysheba, Belmont winner Bet Twice, plus Cryptoclearance and Gulch) have made it this far,” Miller said. “It’s the best bunch I’ve ever seen running in one race.”

Miller ran Jig Time in the 1968 Derby, and the colt finished up the track. The next 19 Derbies were run without any of Miller’s horses, even though he had some important 2-year-olds.

“I’m a Kentuckian,” the New York-based Miller said. “I’ll live and die there, and I still have a home there. When I was young, anybody in racing from Kentucky wanted to win the Derby, but I feel differently now.

“It’s not the end of the world if a horse doesn’t run as a 2-year-old. The important thing is to have a horse ready to race later on.”

Java Gold was foaled April 17, which means he was barely a chronological 3-year-old when the Derby was run. Crusader Sword was also an April foal, which is a late birthday for a horse if he’s trying to run 1 miles in the Derby in early May.

“Maybe all of our horses ought to be foaled in April, as good as these two have turned out,” Miller said.

The virus gone, Java Gold returned to action in late June, finishing second by a nose against older horses. Then he ran farther than a mile for the second time in his life, winning at Belmont Park by six lengths, and on Aug. 8, again facing older horses, he became the first 3-year-old to win the Whitney Handicap here since Alydar in 1978.

To prepare Java Gold for the 1-mile Travers, Miller either had to run him in the 1 1/8-mile Whitney or start him against 3-year-olds in the Jim Dandy, also at 1 1/8 miles and scheduled the following day.

“The Whitney was a Grade I race and the Jim Dandy is only Grade II,” Miller said. “Also, we were getting a lot of weight in the Whitney (113 pounds to Broad Brush’s 127). And then I had the feeling that maybe Broad Brush, who’s carried a lot of weight and done a lot of traveling this year, wasn’t the same (tough) horse.

“We got away with murder, and winning the Grade I will mean a lot when this horse is syndicated for breeding.”

Winning the Travers would mean even more.

“I’d rather win one race at Saratoga than 10 anyplace else,” Miller said last week, when he was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame across the street from the historic track.

What did he mean by that?

“This is the 34th straight year I’ve had horses here,” Miller said. “Coming here has been the greatest joy of my life. The month up here, you see friends that you don’t see the rest of the year, you play a lot of golf and you train horses in the best conditions possible.”

For 10 years, Miller has been with Mellon, the banker and art collector who lets his trainer run the operation.

“I work for a wonderful man,” Miller said. “His philosophy about horses and mine are primarily the same. He never pressures you, and he doesn’t know what a condition book is. I have a lot of freedom. If an owner can read a condition book, it defeats the purpose of having a trainer.”

A condition book is issued several times a season by the racing secretary at a track, listing the daily schedule of races and eligibility requirements.

This year, Miller and Mellon have three horses that appear good enough to be running in the Breeders’ Cup races at Hollywood Park Nov. 21. Besides Java Gold, the stable has Dance of Life, one of the country’s best grass performers, and Crusader Sword.

It’s likely, however, that only Java Gold and Dance of Life will be California-bound. Crusader Sword will run some more in New York, then will be sent to South Carolina for the winter. Miller has to get him ready for next year’s big races--all the big ones, that is, except the Kentucky Derby.

Horse Racing Notes As expected, nine horses were entered for the Travers. The field, in post position order, will line up this way: Polish Navy, with Randy Romero riding; Cryptoclearance, Angel Cordero; Java Gold, Pat Day; Gulch, Jose Santos; Fortunate Moment, Earlie Fires; Alysheba, Chris McCarron; Temperate Sil, Bill Shoemaker; Bet Twice, Craig Perret, and Gorky, Tony Graell. . . . Alysheba has been made the 2-1 morning-line favorite, followed by Java Gold at 5-2, Bet Twice at 3-1 and Temperate Sil at 8-1. The others are 10-1 or higher. . . . Gulch and Gorky will run as an entry since both are owned by Peter Brant and trained by LeRoy Jolley. . . . Key to the Mint, Java Gold’s sire, won the Travers in 1972. Other starters whose sires won the stake are Temperate Sil (Temperence Hill, 1980) and Alysheba (Alydar, on a foul, in 1978).

Four of the Travers trainers are in the Hall of Fame--Charlie Whittingham with Temperate Sil, Jack Van Berg with Alysheba, Mack Miller with Bet Twice and Jolley. Jolley was voted into the hall along with Miller this year. . . . The 73-year-old Whittingham, who didn’t win the Kentucky Derby until last year when Ferdinand was first, has never started a horse in the Travers and has had only three runners in the Derby. “I don’t need the money, but the horse needs the prestige,” Whittingham said. . . . Shoemaker turned 56 Wednesday. . . . Fortunate Moment is undefeated in six starts, all this year. The Illinois-bred has run all his races at Arlington Park, including the last three in a 16-day stretch that ended Aug. 1. . . . Trainer Harvey Vanier, who has Fortunate Moment, says that he is better than Play Fellow, who won the Travers in 1983.