2004 Travers Stakes

Birdstone up for the lead!!

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Travers
• birdstone
• horse

[BE109]

Birdstone(as good as he was) wouldn't have had a snow balls chance in hell if smarty jones would have been in that race. Birdstone was a grinding type,Smarty would have opened them all up like sardine cans,and cantered home with ease. Frankel told Zito after the Belmont that he got real lucky in the Belmont. He said you could run against him 50 more times and you'd never beat him again! As far as I know they don't speak to each other anymore.

[nobodynosme]

this was a better race than most people think,especially because of the wierd pre-storm darkness,i have lived in saratoga all of my life,and about 5 minutes after the finish of this race was one of the worst thunderstorms i have ever seen

[BettorOffSingle]

@merlinmerry It's like the 1982 Travers, where Runaway Groom "upset" $36 million syndicated Conquistador Ceilo, who produced little, while Runaway Groom yielded Cherokee Run, among others, and remains a strong pedigree influence to this day.

[BettorOffSingle]

@BE109 Smarty Jones's hooves were shot by the Belmont. It's also worth noting that Birdstone has proven quite the sire, having spit out Mine That Bird and Summer Bird, among others.

[robynchoochoo]

at the end he said Belmont Stakes???

[Arps103]

I live up the street from the track and i remember it the sky let loose like ive never seen before. It was 100% sunshine and warm at noon, but thats Saratoga Springs in August, always bring an umbrella.

[merlinmerry]

Little Birdstone is still beating them all - including Smarty Jones. He's had 2 classic winners in his first crop of babies - you have to go back the the 1940s and the legendary, triple crown winning Count Fleet to match that accomplishment.

[BigBrown2332]

Many horses use the Haskell as a prep for the Travers...alot are this year of course i guess there wasnt any last year but i think thats changing from now on. I think its a good prep i would make the decision whether my horse would run a week before the travers if i ran haskell, to see if the horse was training well and if the horse was up to it.

[smadonna]

Unusual for a horse to run both the Haskell and the Travers, but Lionheart tried. I consdier him the 3rd best three year old that year, behind Smarty and Birdstone.

[MikePike5]

Birdstone was my favorite horse.

[BE109]

The pace in this race was to say the least sedate, Smarty would have won by many lengths with his incredible burst of speed. It probably would have looked like the Preakness.