Travers Nominations Announced

Flower Alley, winner of the Grade 2 Jim Dandy, and Grade 1 Haskell Invitational winner Roman Ruler head a list of 16 nominations for the 136th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Travers - the 10-furlong "Mid-Summer Derby" for three-year-olds on Saturday, August 27th at Saratoga Racetrack.

Other probable starters for the Travers are the second and third-place finishers in the Jim Dandy - Reverberate and Andromeda's Hero - as well as Don't Get Mad and Chekhov. Questionable include A.P. Arrow and Closing Argument.

Nick Zito's failed Triple Crown hopeful, Bellamy Road, will also run on the 27th after fully recovering from a splint bone injury. Sun King and Indy Storm are other possible starters trained by Zito who was recently inducted to racing's Hall of Fame.

Initial nominations for the Travers Stakes released by NYRA are thefollowing:

A. P. Arrow (D. Wayne Lukas)
Andromeda's Hero (Nicholas P. Zito)
Bellamy Road (Nicholas P. Zito
Chekhov (Patrick L. Biancone)
Closing Argument (Kiaran P. McLaughlin)
Don't Get Mad (Ronald W. Ellis)
Flower Alley (Todd A. Pletcher)
Freedom Isnt Free (Dominic G. Galluscio)
Golden Man (Richard E. Dutrow, Jr.)
Indy Storm (Nicholas P. Zito)
Magna Graduate (Todd A. Pletcher)
Park Avenue Ball (James T. Ryerson)
Reverberate (Sal Russo)
Roman Ruler (Bob Baffert)
Smokescreen (Benjamin W. Perkins, Jr.)
Sun King (Nicholas P. Zito)

But Freedom is Free has withdrawn the nomination due to a foot bruise that caused the colt valuable training time. Freedom Isnt Free is a three-year-old colt by Fly So Free and has two wins in his three career starts.

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Travers Stakes, Horse Racing, Saratoga Springs, Saratoga 2005