Happy Travers Day 2012

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Logo Courtesy NYRA

Happy Travers Day, everyone. It's a beautiful day here at the Spa and a big 13-race card highlighted by a late guaranteed $1 million all-graded stakes Pick-4 should make for a great day in racing.

It's been a light on the posting side this month due to family and work commitments, but we've still been plugging away at our Buffalo News gig, so I'll share a few links to my latest over there.

I took a run at the late Pick-4 in Friday's Sports, Ink weekly column, where I decided to go fairly deep in the King's Bishop and the Ballston Spa (first leg).

I went with Alpha in the Travers and my advance on Kiaran McLaughlin's attempt at the self-coined "Toga Slam" in this morning's paper. I am also favoring Nonios who ran a superb race in the Haskell late last month after a less than superb ride (in my humble opinion) by Corey Nakatani. Hall-of-Famer Johnny V gets the ride today, so he is a win threat.  Neck 'n Neck is getting a little buzz in the press box this morning, but I'm not entirely sold on him. There seems to be a lack of pace in the race and I think Alpha appears to be the best of the bunch. But, as you know, they don't run the race on paper.

Had a fun day yesterday hanging with my dad, we've somehow made this an annual event (our third straight Travers together).  We sat on the Porch (a great place to watch the races at the Spa) and enjoyed Friday's card, which included the $500K Grade 1 Ballerina. We made a big comeback late in the day around Turbulent Descent in some late Pick-3's to avoid disaster.

This morning's highlight was driving up the Northway listening to HRRN who had the Times-Union and friend Tim Wilkin on. He was explaining how he was encouraged to join twitter to Jude Feld, the host, and that his first tweet was "Tweeting is for morons" and went on to explain that he didn't realize his tweets were simultaneously posted on the T-U home sports page. He went on to say his editors weren't exactly pleased.  If you get a chance, check out the podcast of this morning's Equine Forum at the HRRN site. We laughed all the way to the track.

It's a big Toga Party contest day with three available points. Last week, Mike Mac, They're in the Gate and yours truly hit Alabama glory with Questing. The selections are up for today's Travers Stakes and the earlier selections for the $2 trifecta and today's attendance.

We should have a picture essay up early next week, have a great day at the races. Good luck at the windows!