SARATOGA – Unless you entered a horse of your own in a stakes race at Saratoga, hit the pick six, or stole the canoe that floats in the infield, the Travers is the event of the year. Run for the 135th time this year, the $1 million Grade I will be the 11th race of 12 on Saturday and will be run over 1 1 /4 miles. The approximate post time is 6:25 p.m. What happens tomorrow at the oldest stakes race in America will shape fall racing. John Morrisey, a pugilist, gambler, and eventual congressman first held his wildly successful “Trotting Carnival” in 1863 at Horse Haven on Union Avenue, which is now the backside of Saratoga Race Course. Horseracing was still illegal in New York state, but a loophole allowed demonstrations for the advancement of the breed. The swells were registered at the Union States Hotel by the hundreds, and they gathered in the basement, where Dr. Robert Underwood made the book. The meet was a great success. The next year, Morrisey gathered William R. Travers and John Hunter, both respected men who lent their names to the foundation of a bigger track. They built the first-ever racing grandstand, and Saratoga was born. They say it doesn’t feel all that different today from when the brilliant colt named Kentucky (coincidentally owned by Travers and Hunter) won the first Travers. He was the foal of Lexington, and lost only once, in the Jersey Derby, to another son of Lexington, the undefeated Norfolk. We won’t have horses like that tomorrow, but they aren’t slouches, either. Here’s a look at the field:

POST HORSE TRAINER JOCKEY ODDS

1 Eddington Mark Hennig Richard Migliore 15-1

This Mark Hennig-trained colt lugged in so hard in the Jim Dandy last time out that he was disqualified and placed fourth. Jockey Richard Migliore has said that he’s a better horse now. But that’s what his connections said before the Belmont. One day, he’ll blow the doors off. It might be tomorrow, or it might be next year. Is he better than his 15-1 morning line? You bet.

2 Lion Heart Patrick Biancone Joe Bravo 3-1

According to trainer Patrick Biancone, Lion Heart is a whole new horse. “He has matured,” said Biancone. “Not only mentally but physically in ’04. His way of running, he needs to be very strong. And he has put on 30 pounds of muscle, and he’s stronger than he was in the spring.” Biancone is right to say that he needs to be very strong, but 30 pounds of muscle isn’t going to get him through 1 1 /4 miles the way he won the Haskell on August 4. He’s running 11 1 /2 – second furlongs – very fast for a 10-furlong race – but at the Haskell, there was no one to challenge him and there was no real pressure on that pace.

3 Purge Todd Pletcher John Velazquez 2-1

The favorite will be breathing down Lion Heart’s neck. The Jim Dandy was certainly his race, but Medallist ran like he’d robbed a liquor store that day, and Purge’s impressive move to take control was furthered by Medallist’s exhaustion. Running against Lion Heart, however, he’ll have a tougher ride. It’s easy to imagine that the two of them will hook up and duel. It’s also worth remembering that Todd Pletcher attributed Purge’s poor performance in the Belmont to not having enough time between races. He had run in the Peter Pan on May 22, then in the Belmont on June 5. He got nine weeks off before winning in the Jim Dandy, and here we are again, with only three weeks of rest.

4 Sir Shackleton Nick Zito Rafael Bejarano 10-1

The first of three entries for Nick Zito, Sir Shackleton is coming off a win at the West Virginia Derby on August 4, where he ran a perfect race against a weak field. Though he has never won a Grade I race, this horse is looking good. He knows how to improve his position in the race and close.

5 Birdstone Nick Zito Edgar Prado 3-1

The local favorite Birdstone is the only horse in the field that beat Smarty Jones. He is also the only horse in the field that has won at a distance. But to win the Belmont Stakes and then lay off until the Travers is tough. Birdstone romped here to break his maiden in a $45 Maiden Special weight, August 2 of last year.

6 The Cliff’s Edge Nick Zito Shane Sellers 7-2

Blue Grass winner The Cliff’s Edge broke his maiden here, too. He hasn’t won his last two races, but a look at his moves in those races (both of which were 1 1 /8 miles) makes you think he was getting somewhere. He finds his stride very late in the race. He’ll make a move around the half-mile pole, where he’ll be about 10 lengths off of the lead. The question is: How far can he get?

7 Suave Paul J. McGee Pat Day 20-1

Like Eddington, Suave is better than the odds would have you think. His past two performances have been very impressive. In the Swaps on July 4 at Hollywood Park, he gained a lot of ground to place well behind Rock Hard Ten; June 12 he rated and won the Northern Dancer at Churchill Downs. Nonetheless, I’m not sure he’s got the pace to run with these horses over a mile and a quarter.

This race comes down to time, distance, and pace. Purge has not had enough time to get back to his race. None of these horses but Birdstone have won at longer than 1 1 /8.The pace set by Lion Heart and Purge will be hot. Eddington (some version of him anyway) can make some very good ground. But The Cliff’s Edge and Birdstone both will love this distance. It’s just a matter of how far they can get when they make their move, and how far back they’ve fallen in the early splits. The winner of this race might well present a real challenge to Smarty Jones’s presupposed Three-Year-Old of the Year title. If Lion Heart were to win he’d look awfully good. If Birdstone were to take this one, he’d look like a champion.