‘Verve’ Works for Travers

GI Preakness S. runner-up Tale of Verve (Tale of Ekati) covered a half-mile in :48.09 Sunday at Saratoga. The Fipke homebred, who recently finished seventh in the GI Belmont S. June 6 and sixth in the GII West Virginia Derby Aug. 1, is being aimed for a next start in the GI Travers S. Aug. 29. “It was a good work for him,” said trainer Dallas Stewart. “He’s not a super-fast work horse, but he did well this morning. And, he came back good. I’m excited about him. We’re working on a rider right now, so we’ll see where we’re at. We’ll work again next week, another nice half, and then we’ll run. It looks like we’re going to have a good field [in the Travers. Everyone wants to run.”