Travers Win Puts Lemon Drop Kid in Contention for 3-Year-Old Honor

Another colt became a contender to win an Eclipse Award as the top 3-year-old Saturday when Lemon Drop Kid, the Belmont Stakes winner, outfinished Vision And Verse to win the $1-million Travers by three-quarters of a length before 51,371 at Saratoga in New York.

Charismatic, so to speak, is the leader in the clubhouse, having won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, but his career ended when he was injured in the Belmont. Menifee missed a chance to move up in the division Saturday when he finished third, 1 3/4 lengths behind Vision And Verse. Menifee’s stablemate, Ecton Park, was fourth.

Trainer Scotty Schulhofer said that Lemon Drop Kid would move on to races against older horses, either in the Woodward on Sept. 18 or the Jockey Club Gold Cup on Oct. 10. Both races are at Belmont Park.

Lemon Drop Kid and Vision And Verse were also 1-2 in the Belmont. In the Travers, Vision And Verse dueled with Cat Thief for the lead through slow fractions, before putting him away at the top of the stretch. Jose Santos had Lemon Drop Kid in contention down the backside and they outlasted Vision And Verse in the last sixteenth of a mile.

Lemon Drop Kid ran the 1 1/4 miles in 2:02 and paid $9.30 to win.

Also at Saratoga, Forestry set a stakes record, winning the $200,000 King’s Bishop by 1 1/2 lengths over Five Star Day. Forestry, ridden by Chris Antley, ran seven furlongs in 1:21 and paid $5.50. Trainer Bob Baffert said that Forestry might be pointed for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Gulfstream Park on Nov. 6.

Baffert’s Joe Who, winner of the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar, ran fourth in the $150,000 Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga. Pat Day rode Comic Strip, a 6-1 shot, to a 2 1/2-length win over Divide And Conquer.