Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna will try to become the first filly in more than a century to win when she leaves the starting gate in the 2024 Travers Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course. The last filly to win the race known as the Midsummer Derby was Lady Rotha in 1915. Since then, just four fillies have even run in the Travers. Thorpedo Anna is second in the 2024 Travers Stakes odds at 3-1 and drew the rail. Belmont and Haskell Stakes winner Dornoch is the 5-2 morning-line favorite among the eight 2024 Travers Stakes horses and will run from the No. 7 post. The latest 2024 Travers Stakes forecast is calling for partly cloudy skies and highs in the 70s. Post time is 6:10 p.m. ET.
With several accomplished horses set to enter the starting gate on Saturday, you'll want to see what Santa Anita Park-based racing reporter and analyst Michelle Yu has to say before making any 2024 Travers Stakes picks.
Few people in racing are as well-connected as Yu. An on-air host and reporter who has provided racing analysis for TVG, HRTV and the Breeders' Cup, Yu has spent a lifetime in racing. Prior to her television career, she worked for trainers Steve Asmussen and Ron Moquett. She also is married to Santa Anita-based trainer Ryan Hanson.
Yu also has tremendous handicapping chops. In a wide-open Kentucky Derby in 2021, she gave out Medina Spirit, who crossed the finish line first, as the winner at 12-1. In Pool 5 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager two years ago, she suggested a play on All Other 3-Year-Olds, which cashed at a whopping 18-1 when Rich Strike won the Derby.
She enters the Travers Stakes on a roll. This year she correctly called National Treasure to win the Pegasus World Cup, predicted Stronghold's upset win in the Santa Anita Derby and smashed the exacta in the Apple Blossom Handicap. On the Belmont Stakes undercard, she nailed National Treasure's win in the Met Mile and had the winner and exacta in the Woody Stephens Stakes. Anyone who has followed her is way up.
For the 2024 Travers Stakes, Yu has made her picks and constructed her bets. Join SportsLine here to see them.
One surprise: Yu is completely fading Fierceness, even though he's one of the top favorites at 3-1. "I am just not sure he is going to be able to dictate the race this time," Yu told SportsLine. She is not using Fierceness in any of her 2024 Travers Stakes bets.
Moreover, Yu's top pick is a horse who has still has plenty of naysayers, but Yu isn't deterred! She is including this horse in her 2024 Travers bets, and so should you. You ABSOLUTELY need to see her picks before locking in any of your own.
So who wins the Travers Stakes? And how has Yu constructed her wagers? ... Join SportsLine right now to get Michelle Yu's 2024 Travers Stakes picks, all from the racing insider who has been red-hot all year!
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