Saratoga Exacta Picks & Plays | Travers Stakes 2024

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Trainer Whit Beckman will saddle Honor Marie in search of his first Grade 1 win in Saturday’s $1.25 million DraftKings Travers, a 10-furlong test for sophomores, at Saratoga Race Course.

Owned by Ribble Farms, Michael Eiserman, Earl Silver, Kenneth Fishbein and Dave Fishbein, the Honor Code colt will add blinkers and a new jockey in Tyler Gaffalione as he looks to improve upon a deep-closing fourth-place finish last out in the 10-furlong Grade 1 Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets on June 8 here at Saratoga.

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“Tyler has worked him the last four works. The horse breezes well for him and Tyler has a good feel for him now,” Beckman said. “We know that Tyler is pretty adept at carving out the kind of trip that this horse is going to need.”

Honor Marie made the grade rallying last-to-first in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club in November at Churchill Downs to close out a 3-2-1-0 juvenile campaign. He made his first two sophomore starts in Grade 2 events at Fair Grounds with typical late runs to finish fifth in the nine-furlong Risen Star and second in the 1 3/16-mile Louisiana Derby.

The $40,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase was bumped hard early in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby in May and trailed 15 lengths behind the field while last of 20, but still showed grit and determination to pick up the pieces and finish eighth.

Last out, with Florent Geroux up in the Belmont, Honor Marie was again bumped early and last-of-10 through the first two points of call while 13 lengths off the pace before closing to finish fourth – 5 1/2-lengths back of victorious returning rival Dornoch.

Beckman knows his charge cannot afford to give up that much ground when he exits post 6-of-8 on Saturday against a star-studded field that includes Dornoch and the reigning Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Fierceness to his immediate outside, as well as the talented filly Thorpedo Anna leaving the inside post to the inside of Sierra Leone.

“I started thinking about blinkers for him when he was two. His running style can give you that heart attack feel,” Beckman said of the addition of the French cup headgear. “After the Belmont, I put blinkers on him and it doesn’t change his disposition, he’s just a little more responsive. When you ask him, he pops a little quicker where before you had to gear him up for it and get him into that, ‘it’s time to go’ mentality.

“I think they’ll keep him a little closer,” Beckman added. “I just don’t want him to be 14 [lengths] back going into the far turn. I need him within seven or eight.”

In 2019, Code of Honor closed to win the Travers from ninth, but just 5 3/4-lengths off the pace, thanks in part to an honest pace set by Mucho Gusto, who reached the mile in 1:35.49 under pressure from Hall of Famer Bill Mott’s Tacitus and the Danny Gargan-trained Tax. This year, it could be the Gargan-conditioned Dornoch setting the tempo under pressure from Tacitus’ full-brother Batten Down.

“It looks on paper like there’ll be enough pace that there will be something to run at,” Beckman said. “An epic pace collapse would be a great thing – a mile in 1:35 and change would be super. But we just want to get out of the gate clean and have a nice trip and see what we’ve got.

“He’ll leave the gate quietly,” Beckman added. “It looks like there are two pretty fast horses outside of us – and inside of us, just let them clear and get into a nice, easy trip.”

Honor Marie, listed at 20-1 on the morning line, will arrive at the Travers as the freshest horse in the field with 11 weeks between starts. He has trained regularly over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga, including a half-mile work in 50.50 seconds Saturday in company with Stowaway.

“He trained over the Oklahoma this morning. I’m just keeping him fresh,” Beckman said. “We always go out early – early mornings, cooler weather, fresh track has always been his game. The Oklahoma is as good as any track I’ve ever trained on. I’ve spent a lot of years up here and I’m happy with how he’s doing on it.”

Although Beckman, who went out on his own in 2021, is in search of his first Grade 1-winner, the 42-year-old conditioner has plenty of experience at the top flight having previously worked for Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, Eoin Harty and four-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown. In fact, he was on the Pletcher team the day Stay Thirsty won the 2011 Travers.

“Uncle Mo ran that day and was second to Caleb’s Posse in the King’s Bishop – he threw a shoe and was second by a nose,” recalled Beckman. “Stay Thirsty won the Travers later that day. I was with those horses the whole time through.”

But the talented conditioner would love the opportunity to saddle a Grade 1-winner of his own and he believes Honor Marie has the ability to compete against this Saratoga group.

“For me, it would be a testament to how we’ve always felt about this horse. This horse has put himself in that category as a legitimate Grade 1 type animal,” Beckman said. “Personally, I don’t need the validation, but it is nice when you lead a horse into this kind of race that the horse can follow up and hopefully have him do what I know he can do. For me, the biggest thrill comes from seeing how happy the owners and everyone else can be.

“I got into this not to train claiming horses. I want to train Grade 1 horses,” added Beckman. “Training him is a privilege and I’ve been blessed to have him.”

Beckman said he has been pleased with what he’s seen from Honor Marie the past several weeks leading into this race, including a feisty version of the colt paddock schooling here at Saratoga on Wednesday.

“When he gets the saddle on, he’ll start to buck up and get a little bit intense,” Beckman said. “He’s a pure fighter. He gets his adrenaline up and he knows it’s time to go to war.”

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