Stay Thirsty moves to the top with Travers win

"It's a roller-coaster game, it's a bi-polar game," Repole said. "What we

just saw in the last half hour for Todd Pletcher and Mike Repole, the low, the

highest high, all within 30 minutes. It's a tough loss with Uncle Mo and

probably the best win of my life here with the Travers."

Stay Thirsty was a slight 2-1 Travers favorite over Haskell Invitational (G1)

winner Coil (Point Given), who never got seriously involved in the running and

weakened badly in the stretch to last.

Breaking from post 9 in the 10-horse field, Stay Thirsty sped to a short lead

after the gates opened and showed the way into the first turn with jockey Javier

Castellano, passing the quarter-pole in :23 2/5 with a half-length advantage

over Shackleford (Forestry) to his outside. Castellano took his mount in hand

rounding the bend, allowing Shackleford to edge forward into a short lead, and

Stay Thirsty raced in second near the rail entering the backside.

"The first turn was a little more complicated than we expected," Pletcher

said. "He broke really well and we thought Shackleford might take a little more

initiative than he did, and we kind of got jammed up in between horses. Finally,

Javier got him back off the pace to where we wanted, stalking Shackleford, and

as soon as we did that another wave of horses came."

"I had a lot of horse. At some point, he was going to respond to me,"

Castellano said. "He ran huge today. He showed he's the best three-year-old in

the country and I'm so happy with the way he did it."

Stay Thirsty completed 1 1/4 miles in 2:03 over the fast track.

"I thought it was a huge effort, considering he ran every step of the 1 1/4

miles," Pletcher said. "At the eighth pole, I could see he was finding more and

I could see Rattlesnake Bridge revving up. I wasn't counting on anything until

they got to the wire, but I felt pretty good at the sixteenth pole."

Castellano, who was also the regular rider on sire Bernardini, became the

first jockey since Eddie Maple in 1980-81 to win back-to-back Travers.

"It means a lot to me," Castellano exclaimed. "I am so excited and happy

because it's not easy to win races at Saratoga, especially races like the

Travers. I am very lucky, blessed, and thankful.

"(Stay Thirsty)'s a late-developing horse. He's a more mature horse. He's

like his father (Bernardini). I am very lucky to able to ride his son."

"The trip was OK. I just don't think my horse liked the track," Martin Garcia

said of Coil. "He broke really good, and I tried to get him in the clear, so I

put him outside of horses. Last time, he settled really good, but today he lost

interest at the half mile (pole)."

From the first crop of Bernardini (A.P. Indy), Stay Thirsty hails from the

winning Storm Bird mare Marozia, who also has produced Grade 3 winner and 2005

Belmont S. (G1) runner-up Andromeda's Hero and stakes victor Superfly, both by

Fusaichi Pegasus. Marozia has also produced an unnamed juvenile colt by Mr.

Greeley and a 2011 filly by Smart Strike.

Marozia is closely related to Grade 1 winners Whywhywhy (Mr. Greeley) and

Crisp (El Corredor), and, further back, this female family includes 1946 Horse

of the Year and Triple Crown winner Assault; and Prove Out (Graustark), who

famously defeated Secretariat in the 1973 Woodward S. (G1) and also captured the

Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1).

Stay Thirsty, who was bred in Kentucky by John D. Gunther and John Darren

Gunther, and was a $500,000 Fasig-Tipton February two-year-old in training

purchase.

With the $600,000 payday, the dark bay colt became Thoroughbred racing's

newest millionaire, improving his bankroll to $1,400,000 from a 10-4-3-0 line.

Stay Thirsty finished second when making his stakes debut in last year's Hopeful

S. (G1) at Saratoga and concluded his two-year-old campaign with a fifth in the

Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) at Churchill Downs. He opened 2011 with a victory in

the Gotham S. (G3) at Aqueduct, but recorded a seventh in the Florida Derby (G1)

and a 12th in the Kentucky Derby (G1) in his next two starts. Stay Thirsty

turned things around with a good second, beaten less than a length, in the

Belmont S. prior to the Jim Dandy.

"Stay Thirsty separates himself from every other three-year-old by far right

now," Repole stated. "The other three horses you could say were the best

three-year-olds in the country were in this race. To me, he won the

three-year-old championship right here, unless somebody steps up and wins the

(Breeders' Cup) Classic."

His next start will come at Belmont Park in the October 1 Jockey Club Gold

Cup (G1), a race his sire also won five years ago, and the ultimate goal is the

$5 million Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) on November 5 at Churchill Downs.

"We know he likes Belmont and he likes 1 1/4 miles," Pletcher added. "We need

a bridge between here and the Breeders' Cup and that's the most likely one."