Bowman’s Causeway had a sharp work on Saturday, and appeared to have come out of it in good shape, so trainer Chad Brown will send him to Saturday’s Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
Bowman’s Causeway will by the first Travers entry for the Mechanicville native, a former assistant to the late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, who won the 2002 Travers with Medaglia d’Oro.
“We’re going to go ahead and run,” Brown said on Sunday. “The horse worked well. As long as he comes out of the work in good shape. So far, he looks OK. We’ll go into entry day and see how he’s doing. Right now, I’d say he’ll run.”
Bowman’s Causeway is an Ontario-bred who was fourth to the filly Inglorious in the Queen’s Plate at Woodbine, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.
He followed that up with a hard-closing second to Pender Harbour on conventional dirt in the second leg, the Prince of Wales at Fort Erie.
“I’m not going to enter unless I think I have a shot in the race,” Brown said. “There’s definitely going to be a strong group in there. I definitely think this horse will get the distance. Whether he’s fast enough or not, I just don’t know that, but I think he’s a true two-turn dirt horse, so I’m going to try him.”
Bowman’s Causeway breezed on Saturday, covering five furlongs on the main track in 1:00.05, the third-fastest of 37 at that distance.
According to the New York Racing Association, the Travers probables, besides Bowman’s Causeway, are Preakness winner Shackleford; Haskell winner Coil; the top three finishers from the Jim Dandy — Stay Thirsty, Moonshine Mullin and Dominus; Arthur’s Tale, who hasn’t raced since a runner-up in the Wood Memorial in April; Curlin runner-up Raison d’Etat; Long Branch winner Rattlesnake Bridge; Prayer for Relief, winner of the West Virgina and Iowa derbies; and J W Blue.
Stay Thirsty and stablemate Uncle Mo, the 2010 2-year-old champion who is scheduled to make his comeback to the races in the King’s Bishop on the Travers card, worked on Sunday.
Stay Thirsty went 1:01.49 in company with Super Espresso, and Uncle Mo covered five furlongs in 1:00.34 in company with Curlin winner Turbo Compressor.
“Based on the work this morning, I would say he is as good as he was [going into the Jim Dandy], if not better,” trainer Todd Pletcher said of Stay Thirsty.
Uncle Mo, who was knocked out of the Kentucky Derby by a liver ailment, hasn’t missed a beat since getting back on the track for published workouts at the beginning of the meet.
“We are right on schedule,” Pletcher said. “I don’t think he could be training any better.”
The highly regarded but lightly raced Raison d’Etat breezed five furlongs in 1:01.16 on the Oklahoma training track for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.
He just broke his maiden in June, but has impeccable breeding, by A.P. Indy and out of Sightseek.
“Early in the year, he just wasn’t far enough along to point to the Derby or Preakness,” Mott said, “but we’re hoping he’s had enough experience to point him toward the Travers.”
Rattlesnake Bridge breezed five furlongs in 1:00.68 on Friday.
In the Travers, he’ll be tackling a mile and a quarter after only having run longer than a mile just once, in the mile-and-a-sixteenth Long Branch.
“It’s just his style,” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said. “It indicates he’ll get a mile and a quarter because he comes from well back. If you worried about pedigree, you would worry about it in the Long Branch. All the figures show he fits with these horses, and we have Johnny V [Velazquez].”
Ruler On Ice breezed four furlongs under jockey Jose Valdivia Jr. in 48.60 at Monmouth Park on Saturday.
Ruler On Ice worked in company with stablemate Pants On Fire.
“Everything was great, and he’s right on schedule for the Travers,” trainer Kelly Breen said.
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