2024 Travers Stakes Spotlight - Honor Marie

[Music] hi everyone Matthew to sanas here with Nets here with another Traverse Spotlight preview and this one is on honor Marie but before we get to this very intriguing horse want to make sure to encourage you to press that like button and subscribe to the netts YouTube channel we have a lot of great content in addition to these Travers spotlights videos we also have ACAA clemont joining me for a preview of The Sword Dancer and the personal enen this week David aragona from the Daily Racing Form is going to be my guest on capping the card and we have so much more content for you coming this week it's going to be a lot of fun for travers's day and well beyond that we got you covered with all sorts of great stuff for tracks across the country all right well listen let's dive into honor Marie who I think is an interesting horse and let me just stay off the Top If I say she here I apologize the name honor Marie gives me fits just like Jackie's Warrior would always give me fits for some reason so if I miss identify honor Marie as a mayor no offense I apologize for that now listen let's talk about this Colt all right uh and a very special one and I think a very intriguing one a horse that I think you can make a comparison to with regards to Sierra Leon and I think he is in some ways Sierra Leon light in that he is deep closer but I don't know if he has the dynamic move that a horse like sier Leon does he's more of a grinder but he does come from off the pace he's going to need a little bit of a setup but he's been a little bit of a hard luck horse as well it's just not really kind of come together for him in some different spots so I think that's something to keep in mind if he gets the right type of trip he might get the right type of setup here he's an interesting horse to be looking at in this race certainly an intriguing one from a value standpoint in terms of your vertical Wagers so listen let's dive in and talk a little bit more about honor Marie trained by Whit Beckman not a common household name for the Casual horse racing fan but wit has a lot of experience in big races why well he was an assistant to Todd Pletcher he was an assistant to Chad Brown he has been in big spots preparing horses for those big spots and we've seen him have success obviously in a limited amount of time here that he's been out on his own real special horse here with Marie the jockey had been floron jeru now is going to be Tyler gleon so that was a little bit of a shift and a recent change The Sire you got honor Cod you got Dame Marie as the dam hence honor Marie but this is one who should appreciate the distance should not have issues with going a mile and a quarter I don't think as a distance limited horse in the same way that maybe I talked a little bit about that with a horse like fierceness uh maybe even a horse like unmatched wisdom though I think there is good pedigree there certainly but but I think he's a horse that is going to appreciate every step of ground now one of the reasons you're going to be getting a price on this horse is because well quite frankly he's not won as a three-year-old yet his last victory was in November of 2023 at Church Hill Downs in that Kentucky Jockey Club which is a grade two now in the past we've seen that race be a highly productive Kentucky Derby prep race we saw a year where white aario came out of that race and smile happy came out of that race we've seen years where we've had a lot of Derby Runners and really impressive Colts and eventually horses move into uh you know come out of that race and be graduates of it this year not so much in fact it took almost six months for any horse exiting that race to get a subsequent win I'm not talking about a next out win I'm just talking about a win at all it actually took place with a horse that switched surfaces and went on the grass so this was the opposite of a key race in many ways but nevertheless got the win there it has a grade two Victory I think one of the reasons why people are high on this horse maybe as a long shot of the wise guy horse is the effort you saw in both the lisiana Derby and the Belmont Stakes in the Louisiana Derby coming in second to catching Freedom who I was personally very high on in the Kentucky Derby uh and you know ran a fine race but was not quite up to snuff with the top three that day of sier Leone Forever Young and of course Mystic Dan but ran second in that Louisiana Derby and ran I thought a very very good race after a fifth I believe in the Risen star where he kind of had a sneaky bad trip and and it was actually kind of a sneaky good effort in a lot of ways and so that was one where came back with a runner-up finish and he was training lights out coming into the Kentucky Derby and it was very much so Kentucky Derby Wise Guy Horse I believe he went 59 and one in that final work leading up to the Kentucky Derby and you really saw a lot of promise with him and it seemed like wit was pressing all the right buttons the starting gates open and he gets ping ponged around the first 150 yards and quite frankly the race is over before it starts now he's a deep closer and he had a lot of pace to run into that day he was able to move up from last place finish respectively but still not really the effort not really the uh race that you wanted to see comes back in the Belmont same song second verse a little bit you know fin is dead last even behind Sierra Leon makes a run to finish fourth you know shows the ability to make up ground we mentioned it during the Sierra Leon video that was a very speed favoring track that weekend that was just the reality now we saw horses close but we didn't see a lot of horses closed to win and I think that was an important distinction to make we saw a lot of horses make a move and make up ground and then we saw them kind of flatten out that was kind of the typical Mo that entire weekend so something to keep in mind when looking at him but there's there's definitely Talent there and there is Intrigue and I think he's going to get the right sort of setup so again when you look at the past performances one of the things that you do note is the buyer speed figures are not overwhelming okay we talk a lot about how thorpedo Anna needs to get faster honor Marie needs to get a lot faster too I mean honor Marie uh you know the best was a 96 and that Louisiana Derby that's not going to cut it on Saturday at the Travers going to need probably a 100 plus fire so there's going to need to be some improvement but you see that effort in the Belmont Stakes again sitting last 12 lengths back and closes to finish fourth there is some ability there even in the Kentucky Derby as I mentioned sitting dead last 20th by almost 20 lengths and ends up finishing e so an interesting horse I think in this spot and one who should get the right sort of setup and I think that's an important thing to talk about because there's a going to be a good amount of speed in this race you know Doric is going to go and fierceness is going to go those two drew the outside post positions post seven and eight because of that there's G to be a strong Pace early on in the race you have torpedo Anna on the inside she wants to get away well and be part of that early Pace Dynamic some people believe Brian Hernandez is going to try to gun it to the front front with her and try to control the pace up front others myself included probably think she sits more of a pocket trip behind dorick and fierceness but either way those three are going to be up front and I'd imagine they're going to be going at least a very honest clip going a mile in a quarter then you have two horses batten down and unmatched wisdom are those two horses faster than fierceness and dornic probably not and I know my colleague at naira Andy Sterling kind of dismissed those two as being potentially on the lead in this race and and I agree with that General sentiment I think you know even if you watch my early Travers preview I the very first thing I said was dorick and Fess are gonna try to cross and clear the entire field that said I don't think you can discount those two horses because intentionality has a lot to do with any race and Baton down has only ever won up on the front end and unmatched wisdom has largely only ever won up on the front end and now you're going to ask two horses that have not had success doing anything else to suddenly have success in the toughest race of their career doing something different than they've done before so while I I'm not saying that they those two if you just line them up in a straight line are faster than Doric and fierceness but I would not be shocked if at least one of those two jockeys on those two horses whether it be junior Alvarado uh or I junor I believe on unmatched wisdom either of those two really go out and be aggressive out of the gate uh does that mean they can get to the first turn ahead of fierceness and dornick maybe maybe not but those two horses are going to press a pace and because they press a pace and you have torpedo Ana on the inside you have five horses that want to be forward in this race there's only eight horses overall so you know maybe the horse that we're not talking about which we'll do a spotlight on tomorrow is Corporate power a horse that might be able to kind of sit the perfect trip in some ways but sier Leon and Anor Marie they're gonna get the pace they're gonna get the distance they're gonna get the setup the question is does it all align and can Anna Marie get the right type of trip in this spot and I think that's a legitimate question to ask uh and she you know he see almost did it there he's not gotten the right type of setup to this point in terms of the right trip he's gotten the pace but you know he needs to be able to get either safe ground or so forth here's the thing and and I think this is kind of maybe where I want to kind of wrap things up with honor Marie is to say how does honor Marie differentiate himself from Sierra Leon because here's the thing if you just say Matthew uh the two closers in the race rank them you know who's the better closer well CER Leon's the better closer between the two honor Marie like I said more of a grinder now that that running style at a mile and a quarter is not a bad running style to have but I still think cerly own's the more Dynamic closer certainly between the two so then how does honor Marie if they both are G to benefit from the same Pace setup how does honor Marie end up ahead of Sierra Leon and I think one of those is maybe the trip in terms of does sier Leon want to kick outside now last time out Flav and Pratt kept the horse inside on the rail that seemed to really do a good job at keeping that horse straight but we just have to wait to see how the Dynamics of the race go sier Leon and uh honor Marie both are going to be towards the back so they're both going to be on the rail you know in that regard they're not going to be wide they'll be on the rail down the backstretch around the turn and the question is does something open up inside or do they have to kick outside and give up ground and the other one is does Marine need to get the jump in some ways on sier Leone sier Leone's so much more dynamic in some ways that he can wait a little bit longer to make the move whereas when you're a grinder you got to start moving around that third turn and you got to start clipping off horses and then you just have to have a long sustained run down the home stretch I think honor Marie's that type of horse I think I think he can put that type of thing together but I think it requires him like I said to really get the jump and put some more pressure on those on on SAR Leon perhaps to make a earlier move than maybe he would otherwise want to so again there's got to be some tactics here with regards to how this is all going to play out but I think an interesting horse and and a horse that in an eight horse field who has faced so much trouble before I know the horse can get the distance because of what you saw in the Belmont I know that won't be a detriment he's got the right pace set up there are still questions about how good is he what is his ultimate ceiling he needs to get faster he's a horse I've including in my verticals though I I I can absolutely see honor marray finishing third in this race maybe even better I think an intriguing long shot just because of the way the pace scenario sets up all right well thanks so much for tuning in to this Travers Stakes Spotlight series on honor Marie like I said make sure to press that like button and subscribe to the Net's YouTube channel to get all of our race previews full card analyses racing live streams handicapping and venting tutorials and so much more all right friends my name is Matthew to sanis wishing you a great and prosperous day at the races and reminding you that it's now post time