Arrogate Wins Travers Stakes In A Shocking Upset

Posted Under: News by Jim Murphy on 27th August 2016

There’s a reason that they run the races and the favorites don’t always win. That’s an time honored reality in horse racing and one that was proven once again on Saturday with 11-1 shot Arrogate’s win in the Grade 1 $1.25 Million Travers Stakes at Saratoga. Arrogate had a big name trainer in Bob Baffert but was otherwise overlooked in a field of Grade 1 veterans. He wasn’t even the most highly touted of Baffert’s horses in the race (his other horse–American Freedom–finished second). The most amazing thing about Arrogate’s win wasn’t the fact that he did it but how he did it. Arrogate won the Travers by a margin of 13.5 lengths setting a race record time of 1:59.36. Trainer Bob Baffert could only respond: “That was ridiculous.”

Jockey Mike Smith was very impressed with his mount: “So smooth, so strong. He would look around a lot because he’s so immature. Every time he looked too much I’d say, ‘Hey,’ and, man, he would jump to it.” Arrogate’s racing career began in April of this year. He finished third is his debut race but followed that with three straight wins in an optional claimer and two allowance races. The Travers was his stakes race debut and might be the first of many. Jockey Rafael Bejerano was aboard Baffert’s other horse, American Freedom and he also praised Arrogate: “I wanted to ride [Arrogate], but there was nothing I could do because the owner wanted me to ride that other horse. He was much better than the other horses and he loved the distance.”

The biggest question of the race was the 11th place finish of post time favorite Exaggerator. Trainer Keith Desormeaux: “I’m not going to scratch my head, I’m going to accept it as racing and I’ll figure out what happened in the ensuing days. I can assure you there’s nothing physically wrong with him. It kind of mimicked his Belmont race. It’s hard for me to accept that it’s all about the track.”