The Travers turned out to be quite the race this year. We have The Derby winner, The Preakness winner, and The Belmont winner. The others are not exactly slouches either. It is an exciting race and will go a long way to determining the best three-year-old in the land.

Let’s get right to it.

Forte breaks from the rail after his hard-fought Jim-Dandy win many thought he was lucky to keep. He is steady, solid, fast, and reliable. That said he is not a machine and has run his share of hard races this year, and towards the end of last year. He will be a short- priced favorite who can obviously win but I will try and beat him.

Arcangelo hasn’t run since his Belmont win. It will not be east to pair up The Belmont Stakes and The Travers with no starts in between. Yes, it has been done, but it is still a big ask. Personally, while I think this horse has plenty of talent, I think The Belmont was not as good as it looked, and nobody was really running that good at the finish. I’ll pass.

Tapit Trice looked like a serious horse to me earlier this year. He never reached the potential I thought he had, at least not yet. Will he, that remains to be seen but his last two races were subpar and not good enough to win this. Another pass for me.

Mage looks scary good in here. If I had one knock it would be he is facing a few who have won over the track, and he hasn’t. That said it is really nitpicking as he has performed well at multiple tracks. I think he will sit the perfect trip and his best race in my opinion beats these. I think he is sitting on a peak effort, and I’ll land here. Prat taking over for the injured Saez is fine.

National Treasure is another I thought would be good but thus far has not broken through. I think he will likely set or force the pace, but I don’t think he can hold these off late.

Disarm is improving and that is dangerous in these races. He will be running late and can make some noise provided he takes another step forward. He puts blinkers on hoping that helps with the forward move.

Scotland is very interesting. He is fast, versatile, likes the track and is on the improve. If he can handle the class hike, and it looks like he should, I view him as a serious upset player. I like Mage, but this one has my attention.

We should see a great edition of a great race. Enjoy it as this is not an everyday affair.

For more on The Travers check out Saratoga Saturday, Travers day on Past the Wire TV