Facts Worth Knowing About the Travers

Trainers often start pointing their top three-year-olds toward the Travers by running them in the early weeks of the Saratoga meet. The Travers is the highlight in a Summer full of highlights at Saratoga Race Course. Here are some fun facts to get excited about the Travers!

The race is named for William Travers, a wealthy lawyer and investor who was the first president of the Saratoga Race Course and one of the prime movers behind its founding and construction. When Travers died in 1887, a newspaper hailed him as “the most popular man in New York.”
The first running of the Travers was in 1864, predating the Belmont Stakes by three years and the first Kentucky Derby by more than a decade. Today, it is the oldest 3-year-old stakes race in the U.S. Fittingly, the first winner of the Travers, in 1864, was Travers’ horse, Kentucky.
Fillies won three of the first five Travers Stakes. The 1867 winner, Ruthless, the second filly to win the Travers, also won the inaugural running of the Belmont Stakes earlier that summer. And yet, a filly hasn’t won the Travers in more than a century; the last filly to win the Travers was Lady Rotha in 1915.
Hindoo, arguably the greatest horse of the 19th century, won the 1881 Travers as part of an 18-race win streak that was compiled from May through August. It was also the first of what would be four wins in the Travers for jockey James McLaughlin. Hindoo was trained by James Rowe, Sr., who won the race as a jockey in 1872. Rowe went on to win the Travers twice more as a trainer.
The Travers was not run in 1896, 1898, 1899 and 1900 because of financial reasons and it was also shut down in 1911 and 1912 because anti-gambling forces put a halt to New York racing.
Going to the starting line for the 1918 were all three of the year’s individual Triple Crown winners. And the unexpected champion: Sun Briar, who defeated Belmont Stakes’ winner Johren, Preakness winner War Cloud and Kentucky Derby winner Exterminator.
As if he were avenging the only loss of his career, Man o’ War won the 1920 Travers in 2:01⅘, a record time that stood until bested by Jaipur 42 years later. In doing so, he beat Upset, who had beat him in the 1919 Sanford Stakes. The Man o’ War Cup, which Man o’ War originally won by defeating 1919 Triple Crown winner Sir Barton in a match race, is now presented each year to the winner of the Travers.
In 1930, the 100-1 Jim Dandy defeated Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox on a muddy track in a result that still ranks among the biggest upsets in racing history.
Affirmed, American Pharoah, Whirlaway, and Gallant Fox are the only Triple Crown winners to race in the Travers. Of the four, Whirlaway became the only Triple Crown legend to win the Travers, in 1941.
Starting in 1961, the colors of the Travers’ winner have been painted onto a canoe which sits on a pond in the infield for a year. The canoe itself has been a fixture at the track since 1926.
In 1962 in arguably the greatest Travers in history, Jaipur won by a nose in track record time over Ridan after a long, head-to-head battle.
In 1967, Horse of the Year Damascus turned in arguably the most brilliant performance of his Hall of Fame career with a 22-length romp in the Travers.
In 1969, future Hall of Famer Arts and Letters easily won the 100th running of the Travers to give Paul Mellon’s Rokeby Stable its second of five Travers wins.
Continuing one of the sport’s all-time greatest rivalries, Affirmed crossed the finish line ahead of Alydar in the 1978 Travers, but Affirmed is taken down for interference and Alydar is declared the winner.
In 1979, a year after winning the Saratoga Special and Hopeful, General Assembly, a son of Secretariat, set the track record in the Travers of 2:00.00, which still stands.
Canadian-bred Runaway Groom won the 1982 Travers at odds of 13-1, defeating Kentucky Derby winner Gato Del Sol, Preakness winner Aloma’s Ruler, and Belmont Stakes’ winner Conquistador Cielo.
In 1992, Thunder Rumble followed up a victory in the Jim Dandy to become the first New York-bred to win the Travers since 1867.
In 2001, future Hall of Famer Point Given delivers a blistering performance to become the first horse to ever win four consecutive $1 million races with a victory in the Travers. He previously won the Preakness, Belmont, and Haskell.
In 2004, Hall of Famer trainer Nick Zito and Hall of Fame rider Edgar Prado team up with Marylou Whitney’s Birdstone to win a memorable running of the Travers as a powerful thunderstorm descends upon Saratoga and the race is contested in near darkness.
On August 25, 2012, two horses, Alpha and Golden Ticket, tied for first place, making the race a dead heat. Following the race, two jockey statues were painted and placed in the Paddock—with two canoes put in the pond.
The 2015 Travers Stakes reaffirmed Saratoga’s status as the "Graveyard of Champions” as Keen Ice, ridden by Javier Castellano, defeated Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. So great was the excitement surrounding the race that NYRA capped attendance at 50,000. It was Castellano’s fifth victory in the Travers, the all-time record for a rider.
Just like the 1918, 1982, and 2017 Travers, the 2023 Travers drew all three of the year’s individual Triple Crown winners—in this case, Kentucky Derby victor Mage, Preakness Stakes winner National Treasure, and Belmont Stakes champion and eventual winner Arcangelo.