Big Bucks Draw a Crowd to the Travers

The second-best horse in the Manalapan Handicap at Calder Race Course is here for Saturday’s 121st running of the $1-million Travers Stakes. But why?

Nothing attracts a crowd like a million dollars in the wind.

“The owner has been lucky in this business, and he wanted to take a shot,” trainer Kent Stirling said when asked what may have prompted such a long journey to a major race with a colt who has provided no evidence that he is capable of earning a cent Saturday.

But Rowdy Regal, whom Stirling trains for New Hampshire real estate developer Peter A. Thompson, will not be alone among the pretenders hoping to get rich quickly at Saratoga Race Course.

The Travers field will include a number of other 3-year-olds whose presence amounts to little more than taking a shot at a million-dollar purse and a prestigious title based only on the knowledge that anything can happen in a horse race.

A week ago, the prospect of Go for Wand and Charon, leaders of the 3-year-old filly division, both being present for the Alabama Stakes resulted in a field of three. But the Alabama is run for a purse almost $800,000 smaller than that of the Travers, and the leading figures--Belmont Stakes winner Go and Go, Gotham Stakes and Wood Memorial winner Thirty Six Red and Haskell Invitational winner Restless Con--are far less daunting figures than were their female contemporaries in the Alabama.

“It’s a big field and anything can happen,” said Chicago-based Eddie Bonnafon, who trains Shot Gun Scott. His horse has failed to finish better than fourth since early March, when he won the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream at odds of more than 25-1. His connections, however, can count to a million.

Sir Richard Lewis never has won an open stakes, let alone a 10-furlong Grade I, but “we decided to enter him,” trainer Jeff Lukas said. “It’s a wide-open race, and it’s a million dollars.”

If the first line of Travers contenders is thin, the second wave at least is composed of horses who have performed well enough to run in the race known as the Midsummer Derby.

The Lukas Stable’s other entrant, Profit Key, ran poorly in the Haskell Invitational and may be hurt by the Travers’ distance, but he has won the Peter Pan and Dwyer this season.

Rhythm has struggled through a disappointing campaign since winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the 2-year-old championship, but won the Colin Stakes at Belmont in June and has earned portions of the Dwyer and Haskell purses.

Baron de Vaux has hit the board in three straight stakes, including the Belmont and Haskell, and appears capable of doing so again simply because he outstays most of the opposition.

Home at Last has won stakes in Florida and Kentucky for trainer Carl Nafzger. Solar Splendor will be entered but may not run, said trainer Pat Kelly. Solar Splendor has won four consecutive races, including the Hill Prince and Lexington at Belmont. Three of those races were on turf, however.

Expected to join Rowdy Regal, Shot Gun Scott and Sir Richard Lewis on the other side of the coin: the seldom-seen Le Prince, who has started only once, winning by more than 12 lengths in fast time; Secret Hello, never competitive outside the Midwest; Tee’s Prospect, who is far more comfortable in allowance company but has a minor stakes victory over Sir Richard Lewis, and Yonder, a plodder who has built a career around a victory in the 1-mile Jersey Derby.