Ain't Life Grand Arrives in Saratoga for Travers
Not This Time colt comes off a seven-length romp in the July 23 Iowa Stallion Stakes.
Iowa Derby winner Ain't Life Grand has arrived at Saratoga Race Course, where he will target the $1.25 million Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1).
The Iowa-bred son of Not This Time comes off a seven-length romp in the July 23 Iowa Stallion Stakes at Prairie Meadows going a mile and 70 yards. He won the 1 1/16-mile Iowa Derby by 1 1/2 lengths with a strong late rally for trainer Kelly Von Hemel, who believes the 1 1/4-mile distance of the Aug. 27 Travers is right up the colt's alley.
"We like our colt and we want to take a shot at the Travers," Von Hemel said Aug. 8. "I've always thought all along he's a true mile and a quarter horse, and his numbers have come back really strong. I hate to call anything easy, but we knew going into the Iowa Stallion Stakes that he wasn't going to have to run very hard, and he's still got five weeks until the Travers."
Ain't Life Grand will represent the first graded stakes starter for owner Ray Shattuck, who breeds and races under the RPM Thoroughbreds banner. The majority of the RPM horses run in Iowa, where Shattuck and his wife Peggy are members of the Prairie Meadows Hall of Fame.