Another Travers is in the record books, and the outcome was hardly surprising. It certainly wasn’t surprising that Street Sense won, and it wasn’t surprising that it wasn’t a cakewalk for this horse either. Trainer Ken McPeek said this weekend, “Street Sense is a great horse, no ifs, ands, or buts.” Is he? Sorry we are not ready to anoint him the second coming of Secretariat yet, or even Seattle Slew. He did what he was supposed to do this weekend, just as he did in the Jim Dandy. He beat easy fields, but lightly regarded Grasshopper almost got the best of him, and with a little more seasoning on his part, he just might.

This two year old champ, used his ten length romp in the Juvenile to secure end of year honors (although that is another article) even though he didn’t do much else last year. Should one race make a horse an Eclipse award winner? That seems to be the trend, and it isn’t a good one.

At three he won a tough Tampa Bay Derby over a maturing Any Given Saturday. Then he got beat by a horse that seems to have fallen off the map, Dominican. He won the Derby with a dream trip, and that was a good thing because Naftzger’s entire training plan revolved around winning this one race. Still Curlin impressed many with his third place finish, since his training wasn’t designed to win the Derby. He had the measure of Street Sense in the Preakness and nipped him at the wire. Rags to Riches and Curlin made the Belmont memorable, and then Street Sense beat up some second rate horses at Saratoga. Are we ready for a coronation?

The race for Horse of the Year is still wide open, and if Street Sense wins the Classic he will deserve the title. Of course, that can be said for several horses including Curlin, Any Given Saturday and let’s not forget, Lawyer Ron. The star filly will likely run in the Distaff, and if she wins there, and none of the top four win the Classic, she would be a deserving Horse of the Year. She may be the top horse this year anyway, with no one being able to beat her thus far.

In other news Russel Baze may be in some trouble because he continued to ride a horse like he was in a race, even though the horse had broken down. One could argue and say that if Baze didn’t realize his steed was running on three legs instead of four, maybe he is in the wrong vocation, but there probably is a bigger issue here. If the horse wasn’t pumped with some anti pain medication of some sort (and they all are nowadays), it may have been easier for the horse and rider to tell they were injured.

Rising star, Julien Leparoux had another good weekend, finishing third in the Travers Stakes on Helsinski. Any trainer with a longshot, would be smart to drop them in a big race, and put Leparoux on them. He usually surprises and finishes in the money with them. Last week he almost took the Del Mar BC Mile with Isipingo, before getting narrowly beat at the wire and finishing third. He also finished third aboard Soul City Slew in the Pat O’Brien BC Cap. And let’s not forget how in his first Kentucky Derby he got Sedgefield (a horse that had never run on dirt) to finish fifth, and ahead of horses like Any Given Saturday, Dominican, Zanjero, and Circular Quay.

It must also be noted that Hard Spun ran a tough race this weekend, deep in talent and got his well deserved first Grade I race. Many criticize Larry Jones for still wanting Hard Spun in the Classic, but if not for the dream trip received by Street Sense, Hard Spun would have worn the roses at Churchill over that same distance that the Classic is run. Burned by my Derby picks, I will not be fool enough to leave Hard Spun off any of my exoctics ever again.