LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Golden Tempo left Saratoga in June having won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and made a fairly persuasive argument that he was the best 3-year-old racehorse in America.
Then he got sick.
And while he was getting better, everybody else got better.
That's what makes Saturday's $1.25 million Travers Stakes considerably more interesting than a coronation.
Golden Tempo is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in a field of 10 for the 1 1/4-mile "Mid-Summer Derby" at Saratoga Race Course. He has already beaten several of them.
The question is whether they're still the same horses he beat.
"I have always said this race is a bit different than the other races because horses do a lot of maturing throughout the summer, colts especially," Golden Tempo’s trainer, Cherie DeVaux, said. "So it will be interesting to see how they both perform. And we have new horses in the race, too, and they weren't part of the conversation during Belmont week."
That's the Travers in a paragraph.
Golden Tempo beat Renegade by a neck in the Kentucky Derby, with Ocelli third and Emerging Market 10th. He beat Renegade and Emerging Market again in the Belmont.
But that was June 6.
The calendar has moved. So has the competition. Renegade has since won the Jim Dandy. Baby Vino has won three straight, including an upset of Preakness winner Napoleon Solo in the Haskell. Sea Strike has raced only three times but comes off an 8 1/4-length victory in the Curlin that earned a field-best 102 Beyer Speed Figure. Leading Change has raced only twice and won both, including the Indiana Derby.
And Napoleon Solo?
Golden Tempo has never raced him. That alone makes him one of the harder horses in this field to dismiss, a Preakness winner nobody can measure against the favorite except on paper.
"This is the deepest Travers we've seen in a long time," Napoleon Solo’s trainer, Chad Summers, said. "Obviously, Golden Tempo is the favorite for the 3-year-old championship, but he's never run against us before. So, we'll see what happens in the race."
Golden Tempo has done nothing wrong. Quite the opposite. He has won four of six starts, and his two defeats were third-place finishes. He came from 17 lengths back in the Kentucky Derby, passing 17 horses to beat Renegade by a neck. Five weeks later, he went from last to first again in the Belmont, beating Commandment by 1 1/4 lengths.
"He is so classy, he is so professional," DeVaux said. "He's been like that his entire life. He's a horse who just continues to improve and continues to mature and change."
There is, however, one complication. Golden Tempo hasn't raced in 12 weeks.
He became ill a few weeks after the Belmont, missed some training and had to skip his intended Travers prep in the Jim Dandy. DeVaux doesn't believe the interruption was significant enough to compromise his fitness, and Golden Tempo has worked five times over the Saratoga main track since returning to training.
Jose Ortiz has been aboard for all five.
"I think he's been working steady, I think he's been working great," Ortiz told Daily Racing Form. "Every work has been like we wanted. He's been feeling very healthy underneath me. But did I wish he had run in the Dandy? Maybe."
Who might have improved enough to catch the favorite over the past 12 weeks?
Renegade is the most obvious candidate. He came within a neck of winning the Kentucky Derby, finished third in the Belmont and then won the Jim Dandy. Trainer Todd Pletcher believes the colt has settled into the running style that suits him best.
"I think he's kind of got his running style figured out — settle and make that explosive move late," Pletcher said.
Renegade is 3-1, the clear second choice.
At 5-1 sits Sea Strike, who has made only three career starts but owns the best number in the field — an 8 1/4-length win in the Curlin for a field-best 102 Beyer. Now comes another furlong.
"We'll see if we can get another eighth of a mile out of him at the mile and a quarter and see how he does," trainer Chad Brown said. "On figures, it looks like he fits."
Leading Change didn't debut until June, won that race at Churchill Downs by 6 1/2 lengths, then won the Indiana Derby in his second start. Now Brad Cox is putting him in the Travers off two career starts.
"We think he's a big-time horse," Cox said. "Obviously, he lacks seasoning, but is a very talented horse with a great mind. Big-time pedigree."
At the other end of the experience spectrum is Ocelli, who has run 10 times, is still a maiden, and finished third in the Kentucky Derby.
Baby Vino, at 10-1, rides a three-race winning streak that includes his Haskell upset of a Triple Crown winner. Silent Tactic, another 10-1 shot, was only 2 1/2 lengths behind Renegade in the Jim Dandy off a four-month layoff.
"He breezes like a $25,000 claimer, he always has," Silent Tact trainer Mark Casse said, "but he runs like a Grade 1 horse."
All of them eventually come back to Golden Tempo. He is the horse with the Derby. He is the horse with the Belmont. He is the horse everybody has to beat to have any serious conversation about the 3-year-old championship.
And he will break from post 9 with another Saratoga storyline sitting on his back.
Ortiz has ridden Golden Tempo in all six of his races. He entered the week closing in on Ramon Dominguez's Saratoga record of 68 victories in a single meet.
There isn't much Ortiz hasn't accomplished at Saratoga. But he's 0-for-10 in the Travers.
Golden Tempo has already given him a Kentucky Derby and a Belmont Stakes. Saturday, after 12 weeks away, he can give him something else. A Travers. And perhaps leave Saratoga with the 3-year-old championship all but locked away.
Everybody else had the summer to catch him.
Now we find out whether anybody did.
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