SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Saturday will be a big day for horses being prepared for the $1.24 million GI Travers Stakes.

Two key horses for the race –Dornoch (Good Magic) and Wildness (City of Light) – have postponed their final theses from Friday to Saturday. They will Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna), Sierra Leone (arms dealer), Honor Mary (Code of Honor) and Fasten the battens (Tapit), all of whom will make their final appearance in the Midsummer Derby on Saturday.

It rained heavily at Saratoga on Thursday, but the track appeared to be fine on Friday morning. Danny Gargan, trainer of GI Belmont Stakes and GI Haskell Stakes champion Dornoch, didn’t like what he saw.

“We have one more day (Saturday) and the weather looks beautiful,” Gargan said Friday morning outside his barn on the Saratoga backstretch. “We just decided to wait one more day.”

Dornoch, who could become favourite for the Travers when the field is drawn on Sunday, will run four furlongs accompanied, Gargan said.

“Maybe Ringy Dingy (Dialed In),” Gargan said. “She (the three-year-old mare) has worked him many, many times and has out-worked him several times. We’ll try to do :48, :49. He worked fast last week; we don’t need another :47.”

Two Travers horses completed their final tests on Friday. Chad Brown had been undefeated Unsurpassed wisdom (Cairo Prince) ran five furlongs in 1:00.41 (3/6) on the main track. In his last start he won the Curlin Stakes at Saratoga on July 24, improving his record to three from three races.

Brown, who also trains Sierra Leone, knows that the Travers is a big challenge for Unmatched Wisdom, but is also convinced that the colt has a lot of potential.

“He’s a beautiful horse with great expectations,” Brown said from his stable on the Oklahoma training track. “It’s a huge step to move up to Grade I and compete against really experienced 3-year-olds who are at the top of the division. He’s got a really big task ahead of him. But I love bringing an undefeated horse to a race like this. He definitely hasn’t learned how to lose.”

Unmatched Wisdom won his first race on May 10 at Aqueduct by 6 1/4 lengths and then an allowance race on June 24, also at Big A, by 5 3/4 lengths.

Then he took part in the Curlin and ran from start to finish. However, Brown says he doesn’t need to stay in the lead.

“He won the Curlin because he was in the lead because the race wasn’t very fast,” he said. “I think if he has a target he will be much more effective and he should have that in this race. I think he has a good chance of a big race and he has to because this race is a big one.”

The other Travers horse that worked on Friday was Corporate power (Curlin) for Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey. The runner-up in Curlin ran four furlongs in :47.44 (1/45) at the Oklahoma Training Track.

A Cinderella story for Carl Spackler and Chad Brown

Of course, the name immediately catches your eye. Especially if you are a fan of the 1980 film “Caddyshack”.

Carl Spackler was the hapless groundskeeper of the Bushwood Country Club in the cult film and was played by Bill Murray.

And it is the name of a racehorse trained by Chad Brown and owned by Five Racing Thoroughbreds. The 4-year-old Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) has won three of four starts this year, most recently the GI Fourstardave Handicap last Sunday.

Carl Spackler on his way to the winner’s podium on Sunday | Sarah Andrew

To quote Carl from Caddyshack, it was definitely a Cinderella story.

Carl’s popularity rose after this race, partly because of his name, but mainly because of his ability. The Fourstardave was his first Grade I win.

“He’s a fan favorite because of his name and his big white face,” Brown said outside his stable on the Oklahoma training track. “He’s a great horse and a great story.”

His jockey, Tyler Gaffalione, is married to the former Cassidy Edwards, daughter of Bob and Kristine Edwards of e Five Racing.

Carl Spackler has won three of his four career starts at Saratoga Race Course, all in graded stakes races. He won the GII National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes last year, competed in the GIII Kelso earlier in the meet and then won the Fourstardave.

Overall, Carl Spackler has achieved six victories in nine career starts.

It was Brown’s first-ever Fourstardave win. He grew up in nearby Mechanicville and remembers sitting outside in the picnic area with his parents and betting on the legendary Fourstardave, which won at least one race at Saratoga every year from 1987 to 1994.

“Growing up and betting on Fourstardave with my parents, it was a really cool experience,” Brown said. “One of the sure bets of the meet was that this horse was going to win. They weren’t big (bets), I was just a kid. I probably shouldn’t have bet, but they were winners.”

Casse, the last trainer to race a filly in Travers, comments on Thorpedo Anna

In 2018, a mare named Wonder Gadot (Medaglia d’Oro) captured the imagination of the GI Travers Stakes when she competed in the Midsummer Derby.

Mark Casse with Wonder Gadot | Sarah Andrew

Before the race, buttons were produced depicting the mare as Wonder Woman, like Gal Gadot, the actress who played the Amazon superhero. Wonder Gadot failed to live up to the hype, finishing tenth – and last – in the Travers, which was won by Catholic Boy (More Than Ready). Wonder Gadot started at odds of 11-1 and was the sixth choice in the betting.

Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) will be the first mare since then to attempt to beat the boys in the Travers when she takes a place in the starting gate next Saturday.

“She’s pretty impressive,” Casse said of Thorpedo Anna, who has won six of seven career starts by a total of 36 1/4 lengths.

Casse’s thoughts wandered back to that day in 2018 when Wonder Gadot took her chance against the Colts.

“She didn’t run very well,” said Casse. “We’ve had a lot of luck with mares against stallions, but we didn’t have any luck in this race. Stormy beat stallions twice, Tepin did that all the time. Of course, those were races on grass.”

Wonder Gadot had beaten the boys twice in Canada, winning the prestigious Queen’s Plate by 4 3/4 lengths and the Prince of Wales Stakes by 5 3/4 lengths, giving Casse the confidence to try his hand at the Travers.

It didn’t work.

“You can’t make horses do things they can’t do,” Casse said. “The most important thing in training horses is keeping them happy and knowing how to keep them happy. Good horses win when things go their way; great horses win when they don’t.”