SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Having taken control of the 3-year-old division with his dominant victory in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga, Epicenter will now be prepared to take on a tough group of older horses this fall as he targets the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Nov. 5. Leading that group of older horses are Flightline, the undefeated colt who makes his second start of 2022 in Saturday’s Pacific Classic at Del Mar, and Life Is Good, a three-time graded stakes winner this year including the Grade 1 Whitney four weeks ago. “He’s ready for it,” Steve Asmussen, the trainer of Epicenter, said Sunday morning. “They have to do something they haven’t done far more than what he [has to].” Asmussen was referring to the 1 1/4 miles of the Classic. Flightline, who has yet to run farther than one mile, will try 1 1/4 miles for the first time Saturday. Life Is Good’s lone loss in four starts this year came in the 1 1/4-mile Dubai World Cup. :: DRF's Saratoga headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more Epicenter showed Saturday that 1 1/4 miles is no problem for him. Sitting a relatively close-up fourth early under Joel Rosario, Epicenter forged past Cyberknife at the quarter pole, then drew clear in the stretch to a 5 1/4-length victory in the Travers. He ran the distance in 2:00.72 and earned a career-best 112 Beyer Speed Figure. “Ideally, he has added to, or strengthened on, that big rhythm that he already had,” said Asmussen, adding that to him the most impressive thing about Epicenter’s performance was “how consistent his speed was at all stages of a mile-and-a-quarter race.” The Breeders’ Cup is 10 weeks from the Travers. Epicenter won the Jim Dandy here 10 weeks after he finished second in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. So, while discussions are still to be had with owner Ron Winchell about what’s next for Epicenter, training up to the Classic appears a likely option. “Today, I couldn’t feel any better about going straight there,” Asmussen said. Asmussen said that Epicenter would stay at Saratoga for a little while past the meet - which ends Sept. 5 - but would move from here to Keeneland at some stage. Cyberknife, the Travers runner-up, came out of his race in good order, trainer Brad Cox said Sunday. Cox said Cyberknife would ship back to Churchill Downs soon and likely will be aimed at one of two Breeders’ Cup races - the Dirt Mile or the Classic. “I’d consider the Dirt Mile,” Cox said. “See how he’s doing, see how everybody else is doing and how they shape up. It might be something where we would cross-nominate.” Cox believes that Cyberknife can be effective at 1 1/4 miles, but perhaps not trying to do it on the front end. Still, Cox said he was content that Florent Geroux put Cyberknife on the lead in the Travers since nobody else wanted it. “I thought Florent did the right thing, he had a good hold of him, you could say it’d be better if he sat off a horse or two, but it’s the way it unfolded,” Cox said. “We had the one hole. If we would have had a post position farther out we may have had an opportunity to sit off a horse. I thought he ran a big race and was beaten by a better horse yesterday.” Rich Strike, the Kentucky Derby winner, ran a solid fourth in the Travers, narrowly beaten for second. Trainer Eric Reed said he was extremely happy with the performance the horse put in and said it is likely the horse would run once more this year in either the Breeders’ Cup Classic or the Grade 1 Clark Handicap in late November at Churchill Downs. :: Get Saratoga Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day.   “I kind of like the Clark, it’s on his home track, it’s probably our best option,” Reed said. Trainer Chad Brown had some disappointing results in the Travers with Zandon’s third-place finish the best of his trio. Artorius finished sixth, while Early Voting, the Preakness winner, was eased. Brown said jockey Jose Ortiz told him Early Voting appeared to lose his air at the half-mile pole. Brown said Early Voting scoped clean, but was a bit stiff on Sunday morning. “He’s a bit stiff everywhere but, fortunately, he doesn’t appear to be injured seriously or anything like that, but it was scary to see him drop back that sharp,” Brown said. As was the case in the Kentucky Derby, in which he finished third, Zandon couldn’t see out the 1 1/4 miles. Brown said he would possibly look at the Grade 1 $1 million Pennsylvania Derby going 1 1/8 miles at Parx Racing on Sept. 24. Though Artorius had only three starts under his belt entering the Travers, Brown was expecting a better performance from the horse who was beaten 10 3/4 lengths. “The track still had some moisture in it, maybe he didn’t care for it, I’m not really sure, but he was not moving the same,” Brown said. There was some good news on the 3-year-old front for Brown, who watched Jack Christopher rebound from his third-place finish in the Haskell with a 1 1/4-length victory over Gunite in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens at seven furlongs. “It was quite a race he ran, bounced out of the Haskell and do that, he ran super,” Brown said. When it comes to the Breeders’ Cup, Jack Christopher may not have a race that fits. The Dirt Mile is run around two turns and the Sprint would mean turning back to six furlongs. Jack Christopher did run a respectable race for a mile in the two-turn Haskell, so the Dirt Mile is not out of play. One non-Breeders’ Cup option could be pointing the horse to the Grade 1 Cigar Mile, to be run Dec. 3 at Aqueduct, with a possible prep such as the Kelso on Oct. 29.