Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. has been down the Triple Crown road before.
Just not our Triple Crown, the one with red roses in Kentucky, black-eyed Susans in Baltimore and white carnations on Long Island.
The 33-year-old Joseph was the Bob Baffert of his homeland in Barbados 11 years ago when he won the Triple Crown in that country in the Caribbean. If you're wondering, he won it with a horse named Areyoutalkintome and he swept through the Barbados Guineas, the Midsummer Creole Classic and the Barbados Derby. Baffert, of course, owns two American Triple Crowns, winning in 2015 with American Pharoah and 2018 with Justify.
Fast forward 11 years and here is Joseph looking to make a dent in the biggest race in the land.
In one week, he will be at Churchill Downs in Louisville and saddling a horse in the Kentucky Derby for the first time. Joseph is pinning his hopes on a gray colt named Ny Traffic. As the name would suggest, the horse is a New York-bred, but has to take a back seat to the other Derby horse born in the Empire State.
That, of course, is Tiz the Law. The popular, Tiz the Law, owned by Saratoga Springs' Jack Knowlton's Sackatoga Stable group, will be the favorite when Derby entries are drawn on Tuesday. Everyone knows that. Joseph knows it.
"Hopefully, (Ny Traffic) goes on and wins it," Joseph said Friday morning outside his barn on the Saratoga backstretch, which, incidentally, is right next door to the barn of Barclay Tagg, home of Tiz the Law. "If we can't win it, as a fan of the game, I would like (Tiz the Law) to win it. Who better to win it than him, if I can't?"
Joseph has always been a student of the game. In 2003, when Tagg was winning the Derby with Funny Cide, Joseph was in a hotel room with his parents (his father, Saffie Sr., is an accomplished trainer in Barbados) at Universal in Orlando.
Saffie Jr. got his name on the national horse racing landscape last September when he took 31-1 long shot to Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa., and won the Pennsylvania Derby. That horse, Math Wizard, ran in the Charles Town Classic in West Virginia on Friday night. Joseph jumped in his SUV after training Friday morning and headed for West Virginia.
Joseph also sent Tonalist's Shape, the beaten favorite in the Coaching Club American Oaks here on July 18, in the Charles Town Oaks.
He said he was driving back here after the races.
Before he left Friday, he watched Ny Traffic put in his final Derby workout. The colt was ridden by jockey David Cohen (Paco Lopez has the mount for the Run for the Roses) and they covered five furlongs in a time of 59.45 seconds after heading to the track just after 8:45 a.m.
"I thought he went super, it was what we wanted," Joseph said. "I am normally pretty calm but when he breezes or runs, I get nervous. I just want things to go right."
Ny Traffic has run five times this year with a win, three seconds and a third. He has finished second in his past three starts, including the Grade I Haskell at Monmouth on July 18. In that race, he surged at the end of the 1 1/8-mile race and just missed. He lost to the Baffert-trained Authentic by a nose.
Joseph was brimming with confidence after Ny Traffic showed his stuff in the Haskell. Then he watched Tiz the Law romp in the Travers.
"Our emotions went up after the Haskell," Joseph said, smiling. "After the Travers, we're like, 'Hold your horses!' "
Now comes the biggest test of all. A full field, or close to a 20-horse field in the Derby going 1 1/4 miles.
Joseph will not be intimidated by the Twin Spires as he rolls into Churchill Downs with his horse. He is confident that Ny Traffic fits with these.
"Sometimes, you handicap a race and you know some horses have no chance," Joseph said. "We are not that kind of horse in this race. We have a horse with a good chance. He is supposed to improve off (the Haskell). At least we hope so. I think we can get one more jump up with him. He will be a tough horse in this race."
twilkin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5415 • @tjwilkin
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