"The Mid-Summer Derby"

Saturday, at Saratoga Springs, New York, the 146th running of the Travers Stakes will be held.  It's called the Mid-Summer Derby for a reason - quite a while ago, many owners thought that making a three-year-old race 1 1/4 miles in the first week of May was asking too much of the horses.  At that point in time, most thoroughbred foals were born in April, May and June, and were barely actually three years of age. (All thoroughbreds have their birthdays on January 1 of each year - so if your horse gives birth on December 31, the next day your new baby is a yearling...)  A lot of breeders and race horse owners wouldn't try to run their horses on the first Saturday in may, in the Kentucky Derby.  Colts that took time to mature, or were born late in the spring, were aimed at "the Mid-Summer Derby,"  the Travers Stakes, run in late August at the same distance as the Kentucky Derby.  This year, the Travers will be run on 29 August, with a gate time of 5:46 p.m. EDT.  The horses entered are all three years old, they will all carry 126 pounds, and they will race for one and one-quarter miles.  The purse is guaranteed at $1.25 million.  If the Kentucky Derby winner is entered, the purse is raised to $1.6 million.
   American Pharoah was the 2015 Kentucky Derby winner.  American Pharoah is entered in this Saturday's Travers Stakes.  Nine other horses will race against him.  American Pharoah is "bucking the odds."  The only other Triple Crown winner to enter and win the Travers Stakes was in 1941, and the horse was Whirlaway.  Affirmed crossed the finish line first in the 1978 Travers, but was disqualified and placed second for cutting off Alydar in the stretch. (Alydar's trainer, John Veitch,  said the win was "a hollow victory").
  So, who is running against American Pharoah in the Travers Stakes?  What are the post positions and what are the morning line odds?  Here you go:
1.   Upstart   at odds of 15 to 1
2.   American Pharoah   at odds of 1 to 5
3.   Mid Ocean    at odds of 50 to 1
4.   Texas Red    at odds of 8 to 1
5.   Frammento    at odds of 30 to 1
6.   Frosted    at odds of 6 to 1
7.   Keen Ice    at odds of 12 to 1
8.   Tale of Verve    at odds of 30 to 1
9.   King of New York    at odds of 50 to 1
10. Smart Transition    at odds of 20 to 1

   I'll be cheering on American Pharoah.