Arch Traveler Wins Ziggy’s Boy Stakes

By Dave Grening – Courtesy of DRF

Arch Traveler has the pedigree and the body type to suggest that he will go a distance of ground, but the 3-year-old colt demonstrated again on Thursday that shorter races may be his forte.

Under Jose Lezcano, Arch Traveler slipped through an opening along the rail in mid-stretch, then spurted clear to win Thursday’s $60,000 Ziggy’s Boy Stakes by three lengths. Glickman, who set the pace under Eddie Castro, finished second by three-quarters of a length over the late-running Rocking Out. Free Entry and The Fed Eased completed the order of finish.

Arch Traveler raced a close-up fourth while rating on the inside behind fractions of seconds and 45.58 seconds set by Glickman. Coming to the top of the stretch, Lezcano got into a brief wrestling match with Arch Traveler before guiding him through a narrow opening along the rail. It took a few strides before Arch Traveler would go through the opening, but once he did he closed in a solid 12.48 seconds for the final furlong.

Arch Traveler, a son of Sky Mesa owned by Centennial Farms, covered the seven furlongs in 1:21.87 and returned $3.80 to win.

“He doesn’t accelerate right away,” Jerkens said, adding that Lezcano told him “you feel like you turn the reins loose he’s going to surge, but he doesn’t, he stays there. You got to ask him, then he’ll go.”

Arch Traveler was making his first start since finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on April 3. Before that, he won a first-level allowance race going 1 1/8 miles after winning a seven-furlong maiden race. Those efforts came three weeks apart at Gulfstream.

“He probably prefers this, but I think he could win at a route in the right spot,” trainer Jimmy Jerkens said.

Jerkens said that the Grade 2, $250,000 Woody Stephens here on June 11 is a logical next start for Arch Traveler.