Sea Hero, who lost three races in a row after winning the Kentucky Derby last spring, made a smashing comeback Saturday when he won the $1 million Travers Stakes by two lengths over Kissin Kris and reclaimed the leadership of racing's 3-year-old division.
It was sweet success for the colt, who touched racing people across the country when he won the Derby for his 85-year-old owner, Paul Mellon, and his 71-year-old trainer, MacKenzie Miller.He survived a brushing incident with Miner's Mark, who finished third, and charged through the homestretch on the outside to win under a driving ride by Jerry Bailey. He ran the mile and a quarter in 2:01.8.
This was the 124th running of the Travers, a race that is five years older than the Kentucky Derby and a race that has become renowned in this century as "the summertime Derby." And it served again Sunday as the return match for many of the horses who competed in the Triple Crown series but emerged from it with no dominant 3-year-old nor even any clear leader.
It was an evenly matched cast, and the balance of power was symbolized by Sea Hero, who won the Derby on May 1 but then ran out of the money the next three times. There was Cherokee Run, second in the Preakness to the ill-fated Prairie Bayou, who fractured a leg and did not survive the Belmont Stakes.
There was Colonial Affair, who skipped the Derby and the Preakness but won the Belmont Stakes in June and was rated the favorite today. There was Miner's Mark, who missed all three classics but meanwhile ran first in the Colin, second in the Dwyer and first in the Jim Dandy.
There was Kissin Kris, the nervous horse who wore orange earmuffs in the paddock to block out crowd noise and came to symbolize the scattered class of 1993. He ran seventh in the Derby, skipped the Preakness, came back to chase Colonial Affair home in the Belmont and then won the Haskell at Monmouth Park just three weeks ago. He had raced at five different tracks this year before trying his luck at Saratoga, and he seemed poised to assert himself, two and a half months before the Breeders' Cup, the World Series of racing.
Would somebody come out of the pack and take charge of the division?