Saratoga pick for Travers Day (8/28)

Saratoga - Race 2

#7 STEINBECK (8/1 ml)

2yo firster from the Pletcher barn (the longer half of an uncoupled entry) worked heads-up on Aug. 14 with MY PRANKSTER, who came out of that drill to win by 10 lengths in the faster of two maiden sprints last Saturday (and I thought STEINBECK looked roughly equal in that drill; possibly best). That says an awful lot, with MY PRANKSTER possibly being the best 2yo I've seen so far this year. By coincidence, the winner of the other maiden sprint was MAJOR GENERAL, whom STEINBECK also worked with back in late June. Going further, both of those winners were ridden by Luis Saez, who gets the call here as well. STEINBECK also worked in late July with both STREET VENDOR and JESTER CALLS NOJOY, each of whom emerged from those drills to run second here the previous Saturday. Additionally, I was able to find video of several of STEINBECK's drills, and he is clearly a very talented colt, no question about it. Big value here with STEINBECK at the listed price, as he's extremely likely to run well. The only problem here is his competition, as this may be the strongest maiden race of the meet (not a huge surprise considering it's Travers Day).

Consider these other contenders in exactas/trifectas:

JACK CHRISTOPHER (9/5 ml) is the morning line favorite out of the Chad Brown barn, and has looked extremely sharp in what video I've seen of him, Also of great interest is the fact that his last 3 drills have all come with older 3yo barnmates, which is very positive sign for an unraced 2yo. Most notable is the most recent, which came with multiple winner SUBSIDIZE, who last seen winning a $40k claimer at Belmont on June. JACK CRISTOPHER actually outworked that one (along with the other two). Looks legit.

DR. PERRY (7/2 ml) is the Asmussen trainee here, and all he did was work heads-up inside of AMERICAN XPERIMENT, who won by 5 lengths at Saratoga just 8 days earlier. I actually thought the striking grey DR. PERRY might've been slightly best there, which says a ton considering the competition (especially with DR. PERRY inside along the rail).

BE BETTER (3/1 ml) worked with the above-mentioned STREET VENDOR on July 15, then came back with a pair of works vs. POWER AGENDA, who emerged from those drills to win at Saratoga on Aug. 14. I suspect he's 4th-best of the bunch, but we'll see.



2021 Saratoga meet:
Win record: 4-for-26 (15%)
Total mutuels: $40.20 ($10.05 avg)

2020 Saratoga meet:
Win record: 8-for-25 (32%)
Total mutuels: $60.70 ($7.59 avg)