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Published

4 years ago

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7:32 PM ET

  • Associated Press

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Essential Quality just keeps on winning, displaying a grit that his handlers simply marvel at.

The Belmont Stakes winner added the $1.25 million Travers Stakes to his resume Saturday, holding off Midnight Bourbon in a stirring stretch duel at Saratoga Race Course for his eighth victory in nine career starts for trainer Brad Cox and Godolphin Stable.

“He ran a tremendous race. He was very good today,” Cox said. “He certainly seemed like he had his game face on. He knows how to battle, he really does. He likes to have his head in front. He’s a tremendous horse.”

The 152nd running of the so-called Mid-Summer Derby had a field of seven 3-year-olds, and only Midnight Bourbon, the runner-up in the Preakness, offered a challenge for the reigning 2-year-old champion. The two led the field from the gate, with Midnight Bourbon setting the pace. He was ahead by as much as 3 1/2 lengths down the back stretch before Essential Quality began to close.

Jockey Luis Saez pulled Essential Quality even at the top of the stretch and the two battled side by side to the wire, with Essential Quality winning by a neck over Midnight Bourbon and jockey Ricardo Santana Jr.

“He’s very smart,” said Saez, the leading jockey at Saratoga. “He does his job. He knows how to do it. He always does it.”

The sleek gray son of Tapit covered the 1 1/4 miles in 2 minutes, 1.96 seconds on a track that was labeled as fast despite an intermittent drizzle. He paid $2.90 to win, $2.30 to place, and $2.10 to show. Midnight Bourbon returned $4 and $3.30. Miles D, with jockey Flavien Prat aboard, was third and paid $4.90.

Essential Quality has never had a bad race. His wide trip in the Kentucky Derby in May – he finished fourth – is the only blemish on that sterling record. Just like Saturday, Essential Quality displayed grit in winning the Jim Dandy four weeks ago, storming from behind at the top of the stretch in the five-horse field and holding off Keepmeinmind by a neck in the traditional prep race at Saratoga for the Travers.

“To have a horse in contention for the Derby, it didn’t go out the way we hoped. That’s horse racing. You move on,” said Jimmy Bell, racing manager at Godolphin Stable. “There was really no redemption. Every race he’s always closing. Even though it might be close, it just seems he sort of thrives on that down the lane, more so than we do. He has that innate ability to always finish. He’s always coming. He’s just a joy.”

Cox won one of the most prestigious races for older horses at the Saratoga meeting when Knicks Go won the Grade 1 Whitney earlier this month. He became just the third trainer – and the first since John M. Gaver Sr. in 1942 – to win the Travers and Whitney in the same year with different horses. Gaver won the 1942 Travers with Shut Out and the Whitney with Swing and Sway. James G. Rowe, Jr. was the first, winning the Travers with Twenty Grand and the Whitney with St. Brideaux in 1931.

Essential Quality is the first horse to complete the Jim Dandy-Travers sweep in nearly a decade, since Alpha dead-heated with Golden Ticket in 2012. He’s also the 29th horse to pull off the Belmont-Travers double, the 10th Juvenile champion to win the Travers, and first since Street Sense in 2007.

Nine of the past 13 Travers winners, including the last six in a row, entered the Travers coming off a victory.

The Travers was sixth and final Grade I stakes race Saturday. The others: in the 43rd running of the $500,000 Ballerina for fillies and mares 3 years old and up, heavily favored Gamine, trained by Bob Baffert, won for the ninth time in 10 starts, leading wire-to-wire and easily holding off Lake Avenue by 1 3/4 lengths in a light, steady drizzle; Yaupon edged Firenze Fire by a head to win the 42nd running of the $600,000 Forego for 4-year-olds and up; Jackie’s Warrior edged Life Is Good by a neck to capture the 37th running $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial for 3-year-olds; Letruska held off Bonny South, Royal Flag and Dunbar Road in a stretch duel to capture the 74th running of the $600,000 Personal Ensign for fillies and mares 4 years old and up; and Gufo outran Japan by a head to win the 47th running of the $750,000 Sword Dancer, a 1.5-mile race on the turf for 4-year-olds and up.

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Springer’s 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

Published

6 hours ago

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July 2, 2025

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Springer's 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

  • ESPN News Services

Jul 1, 2025, 07:23 PM ET

George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.

The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.

Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.

Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.

Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.

New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.

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Astros’ Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

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6 hours ago

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July 2, 2025

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Astros' Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

  • Associated Press

Jul 1, 2025, 08:23 PM ET

DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.

He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.

“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”

Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.

The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.

“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”

Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.

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Ohtani’s 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

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6 hours ago

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July 2, 2025

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Ohtani's 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

  • ESPN News Services

Jul 2, 2025, 01:38 AM ET

Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.

Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.

Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).

As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).

During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.

Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.

Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.

Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.

White Sox rookie Shane Smith (3-6) got two quick outs in the first before walking Will Smith and Max Muncy back-to-back. Teoscar Hernández followed with an RBI single, Andy Pages hit a run-scoring double and Michael Conforto had a two-run single.

Chicago’s lone run came on Lenyn Sosa‘s RBI single in the third.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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