James Tafel’s Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense walked around the track this morning for trainer Carl Nafzger, as he prepared for Saturday’s 138th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Travers Stakes, presented by New York Lottery. The 1 ¼-mile “Mid-Summer Derby” for three-year-olds has attracted a field of seven.

Street Sense, who won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy here on July 29, will be on the track tomorrow morning between 6:30 and 7 for a gallop with exercise rider Danielle Wilkes, the wife of Ian Wilkes, Nafzger’s assistant.

Seven years ago, Nafzger won his first Travers with Unshaded, also owned by Tafel. From that experience, Nafzger said he learned one thing.

“When you run in the Travers, you have to run hard because they don’t give away Grade 1 races,” he said. “You don’t do anything different than you would have done. Otherwise, he’s doing fine and he’ll be back on the track tomorrow morning for a gallop.”

Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito will have a busy day on Travers Day and that is just how he likes it.

Zito will saddle C P West and Helsinki in the Travers; Most Distinguished in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop and Debbie Got Even in the Grade 3, $100,000 Victory Ride Stakes.

All of Zito’s stakes contenders were on the track to gallop this morning and he was pleased with their efforts.

CP West, who is the second choice on the Travers morning line at 5-1, is coming off a second-place finish in the Jim Dandy, where he was beaten a length and a half by Street Sense, the 3-5 morning-line favorite in the Travers. Zito has been impressed with C P West’s progress since the Jim Dandy, and was also pleased with the way Helsinki, 20-1 on the morning line, has been training.

“C P West galloped today and it was very good,” Zito said. “Everything is going good. He went to the paddock yesterday and it’s the same thing with Helsinki. They both went to the paddock, so let’s hope for a couple of good days. Everything has been good the last couple of days and I’m hoping everything works. Helsinki looked good out there today, too.”

Helsinki’s last start came at Saratoga on August 5 in the Lemon Drop Kid Stakes, named after the 1999 Travers winner. That day Helsinki took fourth, beaten six and a half lengths by Loose Leaf, also entered in the Travers. He will race without blinkers in the Travers.

Zito will also send out Most Distinguished in the King’s Bishop. The son of Dixie Union is coming off a two-length victory in the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga on July 30.

“He is doing extremely well,” Zito said. “The King’s Bishop is an extremely tough race, but we should be fine with him.”

The last of Zito’s stakes horses will be Debbie Got Even. The daughter of Stephen Got Even is 15-1 on the Victory Ride morning line. She made her last start in the Grade 1 Darley Test Stakes at Saratoga on August 4 where she took seventh, bested by seven lengths.

“You just hope for the best,” Zito said of Debbie Got Even. “We just hope that she’ll be able to close off a fast pace. She’s ready, so we’ll see what happens.”

Travers-bound Sightseeing galloped this morning for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.

“So far, so good,” McGaughey said. “We galloped him out a mile and a quarter today. He came back good and everything looks good.”

The son of Pulpit is the third choice at 6-1 on the morning line and will break from post 7. Sightseeing is coming off a third-place finish in the Jim Dandy behind Street Sense and C P West. Prior to that start, Sightseeing finished third in the Grade 2 Dwyer Stakes, beaten nine lengths by Grade 1 Haskell Invitational winner Any Given Saturday and Grade 1 Wood Memorial winner Nobiz Like Shobiz.

“The Dwyer was a bit of a discouraging race on the Fourth of July but everything has been good since then,” McGaughey said. “The Jim Dandy was an encouraging race and we’ve been encouraged with what’s happened and how he has looked since then.”

Sightseeing schooled in the paddock on Wednesday morning and McGaughey plans to gallop him again Friday morning.

William S. Farish’s Grasshopper, with exercise rider Danielle Rosier, galloped two miles over the main track this morning for trainer Neil Howard. Since Grasshopper won by six lengths going two turns for the first time in an allowance race at Saratoga, Howard has been working on the colt’s endurance in preparation for the Travers.

“We’ve worked on his stamina and going a mile and a quarter,” Howard said. “He loves the long stuff. We want to make sure that he has enough stamina, but we don’t want him so strung out where he thinks he’s running two and three-eighths miles when they are loping along.”

This will be the first graded stakes attempt for Grasshopper, who has finished no worse than third in five career races. Howard knows Grasshopper will be tested for his class in the Travers.

“It’s all a matter if any of us are good enough to match strides with Street Sense; everybody knows that,” Howard said. “We really think we have an improving three-year-old. At the same time, we are realistic about the task at hand. Still, he’s doing well and he’s ready to step up.”

John West, assistant to Ken McPeek, had every reason to feel confident this morning after he galloped Steve Kaplan’s Loose Leaf 1½ miles over the main track for the Travers.

“I get goose bumps each time when I’m on him and think about him,” West said. “I feel really confident. Kenny asked me two days ago about what I thought. I told him that I think we have the best shot of them all. He’s been walking around here with his neck bowed and chest sticking out. He’s acting like the man and proud of himself.”

Loose Leaf, who won the Lemon Drop Kid Stakes here at Saratoga three weeks ago, is looking for his first graded stakes win. McPeek’s last Travers appearance was in 2002, when Repent was beaten a head by Medaglia d’Oro.

Trainer Larry Jones said Fox Hill Farm’s Hard Spun, second in the Kentucky Derby and third in the Preakness, continues to handle the Saratoga main track well for Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 King’s Bishop Stakes for three-year-olds going seven furlongs.

“I’m pleased with the way he has handled the track,” Jones said. “We feel like he doesn’t need any more days to get ready. If the race was tomorrow, I’d be happy. He’s pretty sharp. He’s anxious to get out there and run. Now, we just want to keep him from doing something wrong.”

Hard Spun is coming out of a second-place finish to Any Given Saturday in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational. Hard Spun, who became a Triple Crown candidate earlier this year after winning the Grade 2 Lanes End Stakes at Turfway Park, comes into the King’s Bishop as the morning line favorite against 10 other sprinters.

Teuflesberg, the 7-2 second choice on the morning line for the King’s Bishop, worked three furlongs in :37.02 this morning on the fast main track for trainer Jamie Sanders.

“I just blew him out for a sharpener,” said Sanders, a former exercise rider for Zito. “I just wanted to take a little edge off him so he isn’t so wiry on Saturday. I am very pleased with him.”

The son of Johannesburg, who won the Grade 2 Woody Stephens Stakes at Belmont Park on Belmont Stakes Day, will break from post 7, and Sanders is confident heading into the race.

“He is coming into this race awesome, and I love the post,” Sanders said. “I love the speed that is inside me. King of the Roxy, who has speed, is on the far outside (post 11) and the 7-hole sets up good for us. I was also glad to see Hard Spun on the inside of us.”

In today’s first race, jockey F. Bruce “Chip” Miller Jr. became the eighth jockey in history to win 200 American steeplechase races when he came late with Fox Ridge Farm’s Planets Aligned to win the $70,000 Michael G. Walsh Novice Stakes at two and three-eighths miles over national fences. The winner completed the course in 4:40.78 and returned $17.

“Unfortunately, I’ve been thinking about it all summer,” said 37-year-old Miller, who had been stuck on 199 wins since May. “I don’t count wins, but it makes me think about all the times I’ve done it. This makes you look back on it all.

Miller began riding in 1991, and is the son of trainer F. Bruce Miller and brother of retired steeplechase jockey Blythe Miller.

Here are the eight jockeys to have won at least 200 American steeplechase races. Only Chip Miller is active.

Joe Aitcheson Jr. (440)

Alfred “Paddy” Smithwick (398)

Frank D. Adams (301)

Jerry Fishback (301)

Thomas Walsh (253)

Jeff Teter (231)

Blythe Miller (202)

F. Bruce “Chip” Miller Jr. (200)