If Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) and the New York Racing Association (NYRA) are to be believed, at this time next year, part of the deep-season drama will be whether the GI Travers Stakes winner will be targeting the grand finale of the new May-through-September “Thoroughbred Championship Series” for 3-year-olds those two entities are planning to unveil in 2027.The date, name and distance of that series-culminating stakes in September at Churchill Downs has yet to be disclosed. Nor is the points structure known for the six races that will be run exclusively at Churchill, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course.Even without those details, based on the results of the Churchill and NYRA stakes already run this year that are scheduled to be in the series next year, you can imagine what some of the storylines might look like.For example, if the series were active this year, would the connections of this past Saturday's Travers winner, the 3-for-3 'TDN Rising Star presented by Hagyard,' Leading Change (Gun Runner), be incentivized to run in September at Churchill if the late-developing colt was suddenly in the hunt to take down the $5-million points-based prize pool?Or would fellow 'Rising Star' Golden Tempo (Curlin) have already locked up enough points to capture the five-month series by winning the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes and then running third in the Travers, allowing him to bypass the new Churchill race and train up to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic?Churchill and NYRA have baked into the equation more than a little “if you build it, they will come” wishfulness.Perhaps their thinking is more along the lines of “if you dangle enough bonus money, it will be irresistible.”But for Churchill and NYRA to accomplish the goal of a successful series, it might mean de-legitimizing a deeply entrenched tradition like the Triple Crown while undercutting the premier races at smaller tracks. It could also have unintended implications for the Breeders' Cup Classic.When the formation of the series was announced four weeks ago, critics challenged the logic of (and motives for) Churchill and NYRA leaving the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the GI Preakness Stakes, off the schedule.Detractors also sounded off with concerns over the potentially detrimental effects the series could have on well-established, Grade I sophomore stakes in July and September, specifically the Haskell at Monmouth Park and the Pennsylvania Derby at Parx.While some proponents did welcome the new idea, the overall response was decidedly unfavorable.That's based, in part, on readers' reactions to TDN's initial coverage of the concept.An Aug. 3 article titled “Churchill, NYRA Launch 'Thoroughbred Championship Series' for 3-Year-Olds” and a next-day column by Bill Finley headlined “The Triple Crown Passes Away at 107” drew a combined 83 online comments.Only two were outright supportive of the series. Two others basically said “give it a chance.”Whatever your opinion, the August-to-autumn time window bookended by the Travers and the Breeders' Cup Classic has the potential to be the most intriguing aspect of the Thoroughbred Championship Series.Churchill and NYRA are likely envisioning that the spacing of the fifth and sixth events (after the Derby, Belmont, GIII Matt Winn Stakes and GII Jim Dandy Stakes) will allow for a 3-year-old to run in the Travers, then contest the September race at Churchill and still have six or seven weeks to get ready for the Breeders' Cup Classic.The $5-million question will be whether the prospect of a potentially lucrative stakes in September will be enough to lure next year's Travers winner out of the current seven-year streak of not racing in September or the early part of October.You have to go back to 2019 to find the last Travers winner whose connections opted for a race between the Travers and Classic. That was Code of Honor, who won the Sept. 28 GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes at Belmont Park before finishing seventh in the Classic at Santa Anita Nov. 2.The five winners of the Travers between 2021 and 2025 were all pointed toward the Classic without a September or October prep race, a gap that in most years equals 10 weeks.Last year, 10-length Travers winner Sovereignty trained up to the Breeders' Cup. He was the 6-5 morning-line favorite, but was scratched three days before the Classic after spiking a fever.In 2024, Fierceness won the Travers, went straight to the Classic, and finished second.Arcangelo, capping a four-race win streak with a 2023 Travers win, was the second favorite on the morning-line for the Classic coming off a 10-week break when he developed an issue with his left hind foot and was retired four days before the Breeders' Cup.Epicenter won the Travers in 2022, trained up to the Classic, and sustained right foreleg fractures during the running of the race. He was pulled up, vanned off and retired.Essential Quality, training up to the 2021 Breeders' Cup off his Travers win, was third as the beaten favorite in the Classic.(Not counted in this list is the wacky pandemic-altered scheduling of the 2020 season, in which Tiz the Law won the Aug. 8 Travers, then finished second as the beaten favorite in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby.)Widening the lens, between 2000 and 2025, 12 of the last 26 Travers winners (counting twice for the 2012 dead heat) made starts in September or early October, while 14 of them did not.Of the 26 Travers winners, the top next-race choice was going straight to the Breeders' Cup Classic, which happened nine times.Among the other horses aimed for the Classic after making a start in the early fall, the most popular option was the Jockey Club Gold Cup, which drew six Travers winners. Beyond the aforementioned Code of Honor, Summer Bird (2009) and Bernardini (2006) won both stakes.But when NYRA in 2021 switched the Jockey Club Gold Cup from being at Belmont Park in the fall to a closing-weekend feature at Saratoga around Labor Day, it ceased being a feasible target for Travers winners.The Pennsylvania Derby attracted four Travers winners since 2000, usually as a prep for the Classic. Two of them completed the Saratoga-Parx double–West Coast in 2017 and Will Take Charge in 2013.Two other then-Grade II stakes, the Kentucky Cup Classic Stakes at Turfway (run in September prior to 2011) and the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs (won by Travers winner Ten Most Wanted in 2003), also each once served as next starts for Travers winners over the last 25 years.Rounding out the list of 26, three Travers winners retired after winning that stakes and two made their next starts the following year.Out of curiosity, I searched far enough back on Equibase to see when the last Travers winners were tasked with two prep races between their victories at Saratoga and starts in the Breeders' Cup.Thunder Rumble in 1992 and Easy Goer in 1989 each had two Grade I starts at Belmont Park in September and October prior to their unsuccessful bids to win the Classic off three- and four-week layoffs, respectively.Thunder Rumble and Easy Goer both ran in the GI Woodward Stakes and then the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Thunder Rumble was fifth and seventh in those stakes prior to running seventh in the Classic. Easy Goer won both New York stakes and finished second, beaten a neck, as the 1-2 favorite in the Classic at Gulfstream Park.Then there was Chief's Crown in 1985, the only Travers winner to have–brace yourself!–three races after the Travers in prep for the Breeders' Cup.Forty-one years ago, Chief's Crown won the Aug. 17 Travers, ran third in the Aug. 31 Woodward, won the Sept. 14 GI Marlboro Cup, won an Oct. 13 overnight handicap at Belmont, then finished fourth as the beaten 9-5 favorite in the Nov. 2 Breeders' Cup Classic at Aqueduct.Regardless of which path Travers winners pursue–a prep race in early fall or train straight up to the Classic–actually winning both career-defining 10-furlong Grade I stakes is perplexingly elusive.Only one horse has done it: Arrogate in 2016, over the course of a nine-month, seven-race win streak that included a stakes- and track-record victory by 13 1/2 lengths in the Travers.Arrogate then won, in succession, the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita, the GI Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream, and the G1 Dubai World Cup at Meydan.That was 10 years ago. Some pretty nice horses, with and without interim races, have attempted the Travers-Classic double, both before and after Arrogate's accomplishment.Oddly enough, in this “less is more” era of training, and with NYRA hosting the Breeders' Cup in 2027, there is a chance that by this time next year, the winner of the Travers could be pointed to the Thoroughbred Championship Series finale in September at Churchill–not in addition to, but instead of running in the Classic at Belmont Park.The post The Week in Review: In ’27, Will the Travers Winner Say, ‘See you in September?’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.