Travers Stakes Horse Racing

Stakes: Grade I For 3-year-old thoroughbreds; 1 mile and ¼

Purse: $1,000,000

The Travers Stakes, held yearly at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York, is America's oldest stakes race in continuous existence. First run in 1864, it was named so in honor of William Travers, who had the Saratoga race track built the year before, along with Leonard Jerome and John Hunter.

The race was inaugurated in 1864 at Saratoga Race Course and has been run in all but five years since, and with all but three runnings at Saratoga. Due to war-time restrictions on travel, the 1943, 1944 and 1945 Saratoga meetings were conducted at Belmont Park.

Travers was a prominent businessman in New York City for most of his life, and for many years, bred and owned some of the period's better horses.

The inaugural meeting at Saratoga was short and sweet. The Travers Stakes was the highlight of the meeting, being named, of course, for one of the track's founders and its first president.

That Travers and Hunter co-owned the first winner, a colt named Kentucky, of the race named for Travers is not unusual during those times. In the 1800s, the men who built racetracks were often the ones who bred and owned many of the best horses at these meetings. They built tracks to showcase their horses more than to make money.

Free Horse Racing Picks

Horse racing is the ultimate showcase of champion horses, having called the world's attention to thoroughbred legends the likes of Seabiscuit, Secretariat, Affirmed, and Smarty Jones. Free horse racing picks are perfect icing on the cake, adding more nonstop excitement to fans of horse racing as well as horse betting and handicapping.

Our growing team of horse handicapping experts offers free horse betting odds, picks, bets, tips, news, and selections to Triple Crown horse racing's Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes, the Breeders' Cup, and more free picks on major horse race tracks. Two or three year olds, colts or geldings, fillies or mares, we have it all covered, providing the convenience of a one-stop free picks site for online horse wagering.

Horse racing free picks and odds are risk-free 24/7! To maximize your wager in major thoroughbred stakes races and events, take advantage of our free odds and picks now. Bet horses smartly. Get all your free horse racing picks and odds from a single online horse betting and handicapping source—Free-Picks.org.