Typically, the Travers Stakes has some marquee horses, but this running of the event at Saratoga Race Course doesn't exactly have any marquee names.
For the first time since 2005, no winners of Triple Crown races are entered in the Stakes: I'll Have Another, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, is already retired, as is Belmont Stakes winner Union Rag, as well as Bodemeister, who came second in both the Derby and Preakness.
All that leaves Alpha, a 5-2 favorite, the most prominent horse in the Midsummer Derby. Alpha is coming off a win in the Jim Dandy. Alpha, the sire of Bernardini - who also won the Jim Dandy and went on to win the Travers - has won four races in his career.
The only horse to have won a Grade 1 event in the field is Liaison, who hasn't won since the CashCall Futurity in December, and did not even place in its first four races of the year. That horse finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby.
Stay tuned to SB Nation New York for more on the 2012 Travers Stakes. For all your horse racing news, visit SB Nation's And Down The Stretch They Come.