SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Early Sunday morning, just after 6, trainer Brad Cox pulled up to his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track. He walked the shedrow, then checked on his horses along with his son–and assistant–Blake before departing for Albany International Airport and a flight home to Louisville, Ky.Cox also did his obligations with a quartet of writers who were waiting for him before the sun came up. They wanted to talk to Cox about his newest sensation, a 3-year-old colt named Leading Change (Gun Runner), who won the $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes about 12 hours earlier at Saratoga Race Course.Leading Change, bred by WinStar Farm and owned by Wathnan Racing, won the Midsummer Derby in just his third start. He is now undefeated in three starts and might be on the fast track to the $7-million GI Breeders' Cup Classic.Or maybe not.“I don't know if we have to go to the Breeders' Cup,” Cox said. “Who says we have to? We'll talk that over with the Wathnan team. We are looking at the Breeders' Cup Classic, but it very well could be the 2027 Classic.”The lightly raced colt will be pointed to the 2027 $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup in March. Wathnan Racing is owned by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, emir of Qatar, and Cox's Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}), also owned by Wathnan Racing, won that race in 2025.While the connections mull what to do with Leading Change, they will bask in the Travers glow. Ridden by Manny Franco, Leading Change beat the game Napoleon Solo (Liam's Map) by a half-length in the Travers to give Cox his second Midsummer Derby (Essential Quality in 2021).“I was confident he would run well,” Cox said. “This is no knock on the other 3-year-olds, but there is just no one to be scared of in this group. I thought my horse was the fastest horse based on what little he had done.”Leading Change will ship back to Cox's Churchill Downs base sometime this week.One of his other 3-year-olds, Further Ado (Gun Runner) is being pointed to the $1-million GI Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing on Sept. 19.Another of his sophomores, Walthnan Racing's Commandment (Into Mischief), was originally going that way, too, but the GI Belmont Stakes and GII Jim Dandy runner-up, has been taken out of training after a recent setback. Cox said he won't run again this year.Napoleon Solo Valiant in Narrow Travers LossTrainer Chad Summers said Napoleon Solo (Liam's Map), who got beat by half a length in the $1.25-million GI Travers, was mad Saturday night.“He was kicking and jumping,” Summers said outside his barn on the Saratoga backstretch Sunday morning. “He was not happy.”Summers was glum, too, but proud of his grey speedster, who set the pace in the Travers under Hall of Fame jockey Johnny Velazquez, only to get nailed in the shadow of the wire by 10-1 Leading Change (Gun Runner).In six career starts, Napoleon Solo has three wins and a pair of seconds. He won the GI Preakness Stakes and was second in the GII Haskell. A year ago, he sizzled as a 2-year-old, winning both starts, including the GI Champagne Stakes.Napoleon Solo | Sarah AndrewDespite his success, he has never been favored in a race. He was fourth choice in the Travers.“I am proud of him,” Summers said. “I know odds don't mean anything, but it has been frustrating to me that he was [third] choice in the Haskell and fourth in the Travers. After yesterday, maybe he will finally start to earn some of the respect that I feel he was deserving of.”Espoir USA's Napoleon Solo will depart Saratoga Monday and head for Belmont Park. What comes next is still to be determined. It will be either the $7-million GI Breeders' Cup Classic at 1 1/4 miles or the $1-million GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland Oct. 31. Napoleon Solo answered the question about the 1 1/4 miles in the Travers.Long range, Napoleon Solo could be on his way to Saudi Arabia in February for the $20-million G1 Saudi Cup.“He ran hard yesterday,” Summers said. “You are at the eighth pole, or the sixteenth pole, even, and you think you are going to hold on… you can't ask for anything else.”DeVaux Still Thinks Golden Tempo is No. 1The summer is over for Golden Tempo (Curlin). And, despite a third-place finish in the GI Travers Stakes, his trainer Cherie DeVaux still puts him atop the 3-year-old colt division.Can't argue with her about that.Golden Tempo owns wins in the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes. The only other 3-year-old colt with multiple Grade I wins this year is his stablemate Englishman (Maxfield), who took the Woody Stephens at Saratoga in June and then was brilliant again on Saturday when he won the H. Allen Jerkens by 3 3/4 lengths.“I know everyone is hyper focused on it,” DeVaux said outside her Oklahoma Training Track barn when asked about the 3-year-old title Sunday morning. “We don't set out not to be champion. It's not something I am worrying about. That is in control of the voters and that is something I have no control over. I think [Golden Tempo] deserves it. He has done plenty this year.”Golden Tempo has three wins and three third-place finishes in six starts this year. He, along with Englishman, will ship to DeVaux's home base at Keeneland Monday and prepare for the Breeders' Cup.Englishman | Sarah AndrewC R K Stable's Englishman is likely to train up to the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint; it has yet to be decided whether Golden Tempo, owned by Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stable will have a prep.Englishman has won four of five career starts by 24 1/4 lengths.Golden Tempo went off as the 2-1 favorite in the Travers, was stuck up inside for his rally with jockey Jose Ortiz and finished 2 1/4 lengths behind the winner, Leading Change (Gun Runner). He had won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont with outside rallies.“He is a horse that needs things to go his way,” DeVaux said. “Unfortunately, he got stuck down on the inside and got stopped a few times. It obviously takes a little wind out of your sails, but you can't be disappointed.”Rough Start Didn't Help RenegadeHall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher had the right to be the most frustrated of any who saddled a horse in the GI Travers. His Renegade (Into Mischief), the 3-1 second choice, finished eighth, 10 3/4 lengths behind Leading Charge (Gun Runner).From the start, it was going to be a bad Midsummer Derby for the colt, owned by Mike Repole's Repole Stable and Robert and Lawana Low.“He was fractious in the gate, which he has never done before,” Pletcher said outside his barn office at the Oklahoma Training Track Sunday morning. “I was hoping they would back him out and let him catch his breath.”When the gates opened, things didn't get any better.“The six [Ocelli] creamed him and he got further back and was never able to recover from that,” Pletcher said. “Never put in the same kind of run like he did last time [when winning the GII Jim Dandy].”Pletcher was not going to put any blame on jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who was riding Renegade for the first time in place of the injured Irad Ortiz Jr.“The horse acting up was not Tyler's fault,” Pletcher said. “Look, we know it was not what we were hoping. Tyler had never ridden the horse before and Irad was very familiar with him.”Pletcher said it was too soon to say what might be next for Renegade, who has three wins in six starts this year. The Travers was the first time he had ever finished off the board in nine races. The post Saratoga Notebook, Presented by NYRA Bets: Breeders’ Cup in Leading Change’s Future, but Maybe Not Until 2027 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.