This 154th running of the Travers has become the dagger point of the season in one way: It’s a rare enough event for any Travers to convene that season’s Belmont, Preakness and Derby winners. That’s happened exactly twice in the last forty years. It is not rare for a Triple Crown veteran to be beaten at the Spa — for instance, most famously, Triple Crown winner Secretariat — which is why the track and its splendid late-summer meeting is known far and wide under the cliche “graveyard of champions.”
But this afternoon’s feature is rarer still than those other Travers: Neither Derby winner Mage, Preakness winner National Treasure nor Belmont winner Arcangelo are the favorite. What this means for the still-amazingly-favored Forte is that the NYRA oddsmakers, still, believe that the man is the superior athlete.
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