You could have heard a pin drop ........ that was the sound after Keen Ice went past Triple Crown winner; American Pharoah at the wire in the Travers Stakes one week ago. The air was let out of the balloon, as many of the media pundits stated. The built up excitement of having a Triple Crown champion race at Saratoga, lived up to the hype. But, the result had the masses a bit upset.
Indeed, the crowd reaction and television coverage after the race, was a little bit to be desired. It was clearly put out there that, American Pharoah wasn't going to lose this race. I myself, anointed him Travers champion in this column last week. I also stated in my graded selections that, Keen Ice would "shock me" in he won. Well guess what, we all were wrong!
The "graveyard of favorites" was now being dubbed; "the graveyard of champions". American Pharoah was finally tested by Frosted and it was enough to put a chink in his armor. We've seen this before though. The greatest thoroughbred of all time; Secretariat tasted defeat in the Whitney Stakes (against older horses) to Onion. Affirmed crossed the wire first in the 1978 edition of the Travers, only to be disqualified. So, the last two Triple Crown winners, both lost at Saratoga. These two became all time greats in their career. American Pharoah, as I said before is a great three year old runner. But, the jury is still out whether he'll be an all time great like the other Triple Crown winners.
As I thought, the reaction from the people in attendance was unhappy and rightful so. After all, they wanted to see their Triple Crown hero win. But, you would have thought he did, with the coverage NBC had shortly after the race. Instead of focusing on the winner; Keen Ice, all the attention was on American Pharoah, his jock and trainer. Plain and simple, American Pharoah got beat. He was tested by Frosted and shrugged him off. But, just didn't have enough to hold off the late closing Keen Ice. It was surprising that in their previous races together, American Pharoah had dusted Keen Ice. But thoroughbreds are not machines and American Pharoah had finally met his match. Gallant in defeat, American Pharoah ran a good race. It was just not good enough today.
Lost in the shuffle, was the winning jockey aboard Keen Ice; Javier Castellano. It was his fifth career Travers Stakes victory (an all time record for this race) and he has won at this meet; the Whitney Stakes, Alabama Stakes and now the Travers. A feat that made history and only got in focus after Saturday evening's results. We always here about the "great" jockeys that have race at the Spa; Angel Cordero Jr. , Jerry Bailey and John Velazquez. None of them accomplished what Javier has done this meet! He's my pick for top jockey of 2015 and now can he added to that list of great riders of Saratoga.
It was announced Saturday morning that local media great; Ed Lewi had past away at the age of 81. He was the creator of Ed Lewi Associates, a public relations firm who was key with many events in this area for years. From media director of the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, to lead agency for the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and Saratoga Race Course. That's where I met Ed back in 1998 when I started covering Saratoga for the Recorder. All the new press people got a first hand look at Saratoga by Mr. Lewi. He took the new reporters under his wing and showed them the in's and out's of the track and guided us around the facility. He was a face at the track and coordinated all the events that NYRA had at Saratoga. Ed had a saying; "If it's not fun, don't do it". Well, Ed made working during the meet, fun and if I needed information during the 40 days, I got it from Ed Lewi Associates. He'll be dearly missed on the Saratoga scene.
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