Saratoga Race Course Picks: Best Bets on Travers Day, 8/23/2025

Key takeaways:

• Lake Placid (G2): Eponine could steal it on the front end, but Play With Fire has the connections and tactical style to break through in graded company.
• Personal Ensign (G1): Leslie’s Rose thrives at this distance and should get the right pace setup; Raging Sea is a danger if she returns to her more tactical running style.
• Race 14 Maiden Claimer: Sky Low Low offers upside at long odds with key changes, while Catholic Edition should improve with blinkers and a rider switch.

Saturday, August 23, 2025, is Travers Day: the flagship card of the entire summer horse racing meet at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. The central race on that card is the Travers Stakes, a Grade 1, $1.25 million race. Dubbed the Midsummer Derby, that 1 ¼-mile dirt race is the most important three-year-old dirt race on the calendar outside the Triple Crown.

As exciting as the showdown between Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Sovereignty and Risen Star (G2) winner Magnitude will be for the honors of winning the oldest stakes race for three-year-old dirt horses in America, the Travers trophy, and the winner’s silks on the Travers canoe, that race is not the only major one on Saturday’s card in Saratoga Springs.

The Travers festival features five other graded-stakes races on the card: the Forego (G1) for older sprinters, the Ballerina (G1) for filly and mare sprinters, the Personal Ensign (G1) for older filly and mare dirt routers, the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial (G1) for sophomore sprinters, and the Lake Placid (G2) for sophomore turf mile fillies. The mammoth 14-race card gets underway at 11:10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, and you can watch, wager, and get all the latest news on the horses through FanDuel TV and FanDuel Racing.

Make sure to check the scratches and the weather before placing your wagers on Saturday’s card. The weather is expected to be warm and clear, though that can change if Sunday’s rain comes in earlier, and scratches can happen for any reason. Those can change the pace and class balances in each race, so by checking scratches, you can ensure that the race you handicapped is the same race you are betting.

These are three best picks for Travers Day undercard races at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday, August 23:

Saratoga Race Course Best Bets for Travers Day

Race 7 - Lake Placid (G2), one mile on the turf - Eponine, Play With Fire

FanDuel odds: 7-2 and 2-1

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Eponine (7-2) is the new face in the Lake Placid, and she found a good spot to start the American phase of her career. She is still trained by Philippe Sogorb, at least for the time being, but is now owned by prominent New York owner Repole Stable. She is a little speculative in the sense that her two victories have come on the all-weather at Pau, and she has yet to win on the grass. However, she came close in a handicap at Chantilly and then was second in a Group 2 at the same track, both at a mile on the lawn. Chantilly is a metropolitan track, meaning the classiest level of tracks in France. And, in that second-place finish in the Prix de Sandringham (G2) there, she showed speed—and now, in her American debut, catches a short field without much pace—really only Scarlet Sands, who needs a huge step forward to be a threat. High-percentage rider Irad Ortiz could use that pace advantage to good effect, and carry her all the way to the winner’s circle.

Play With Fire (2-1) steps into graded-stakes company for the first time, and finds a good spot for it. Pace is a bit of a question for this daughter of Oscar Performance, who makes her second start for Chad Brown. But, even though she has been a come-from-behind type in her recent starts, she showed tactical speed in her debut at Fair Grounds. And, last out, she even sat third of six behind a quick pace, suggesting she can still tap into that more tactical gear. She couldn’t have more potent connections behind her—trainer Chad Brown and jockey Flavien Prat—and if Eponine can’t steal it then this could be her graded-stakes breakthrough.

Race 9 - Personal Ensign (G1), 1 ⅛ miles on the dirt - Leslie’s Rose, Raging Sea

FanDuel odds: 9-2 and 5-1

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Leslie’s Rose (9-2) is all grown up. She still hates the slop, as her outings in the Kentucky Oaks last year and the Ogden Phipps (G1) this year made clear … but over a dry track, she is much better at age four than she was at age three, and she showed it in both her 6 ½-furlong warm-up in the Vagrancy three back and then her score in the Shuvee (G2) last out. She returns to the same course and distance as the Shuvee for this. And, as a horse who can settle a few lengths off the pace, she should get a great pace setup. Randomized, Dazzling Move, and Bernietakescharge all have a lot of early speed, even Thorpedo Anna and Dorth Vader tend to be close up—Leslie’s Rose should be just back in that next flight, and stands to make a furious run at them in the lane. And, she’ll even be a price, thanks to the presence of Thorpedo Anna.

Another one who should be a force in the lane—though she is unlikely to get the jump on Leslie’s Rose—is Raging Sea (5-1). She hasn’t won since her upset score over a field including Thorpedo Anna three back in the La Troienne (G1) at Churchill Downs. And, she was no match for Leslie’s Rose in the Shuvee last out, so she has some serious tables to turn. But, she has been much further back off the pace than usual for her in her last two starts. If Flavien Prat can tap back into the more midpack style Raging Sea has shown previously, instead of dropping too far back early? This is a horse who is five-for-10 at 1 ⅛ miles, with money finishes in nine of those ten outings, and who should be able to take advantage of a plum pace setup.

Race 14 - $50,000 New York-bred maiden claiming, fillies and mares, one mile on the turf - Sky Low Low, Catholic Edition

FanDuel odds: 12-1 and 5-1

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The get-out race is an overflow field of Empire-bred maiden claimers on the lawn, just the right kind of race in which to catch a price. Sky Low Low (12-1) is making all the right changes, and should fly right under the radar. She has raced just once, and though she was seventh on that debut, she was beaten just 3 ¼ lengths for the whole thing, debuting at two turns against maiden special weight company. Now she drops into a claimer for the first time, adds Lasix for the first time, and makes her debut for rising trainer Adrienne DeVaux. DeVaux has done well with horses coming off of long layoffs, winning two of her four such starts so far with a nice positive ROI. She has been working regularly for a month and a half toward the return, and even a modest move forward from her debut makes her a serious contender against this field.

Even though Catholic Edition (5-1) has raced at this level in both starts to date, she ran credibly in both of her races to date, and now makes some positive changes. She has been well off the pace in her first two starts, and now strong local trainer Linda Rice straps on the blinkers for the first time. That should get her closer up in a race that, despite the large field size, does not have a ton of early pace. The jockey change is also a positive—Jose Ortiz, a 21% rider going into the race week, takes the reins for the first time. She also cuts back to a flat mile—she tried 1 ⅛ miles last out, and though her pedigree suggests she may want to go longer eventually, her effort at the mile at this early point was better, and the fitness from trying longer last out could push her along.

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