SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Watching Rich Strike blitz around Saratoga’s main track shortly after sunrise Friday, trainer Eric Reed looked down at his stopwatch, saw a ridiculous time on it and turned it off. “I thought I messed up, I turned my watch off in the middle of the stretch,” Reed said. Reed didn’t mess up. After going an opening quarter in 22.72 seconds, Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike completed his half-mile workout in 46.38, according to Daily Racing Form’s Mike Welsch. Under exercise rider Gabriel Lagunes, Rich Strike continued out five furlongs in 59.87 and six furlongs in 1:13.31 in preparation for a start in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers. “Watching him, he looked like he was just galloping and when I got in the golf cart and I called the clockers I said ‘Did you catch him?’ ” Reed said. “He says, ‘Yeah, 22-and-2’ and then everything went out of my mind at that point. I had a hard time remembering the other fractions. “Kind of scary,” Reed added. “Then I saw how easy he did it, it just means he really, really took to the track and that’s half the battle. The other half is can he beat the horses again?” In the Kentucky Derby, Rich Strike beat all 19 horses he faced when, at odds of 80-1, he rallied along the rail under Sonny Leon and defeated favored Epicenter by three-quarters of a length. :: Get Saratoga Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day. In the Travers, Rich Strike will again take on Epicenter, Derby third-place finisher Zandon, and Derby also-rans Cyberknife and Charge It, both of whom have come out of the Derby to win graded stakes in what is shaping up to be a terrific renewal of the Mid-Summer Derby. Preakness winner Early Voting and Curlin Stakes one-two finishers Artorius and Gilded Age also are expected to run, as is Iowa Derby winner Ain’t Life Grand. Reed said the way Rich Strike worked Friday at Saratoga was quite similar to what “I saw a week before the Derby, The horse skipped across it. He wasn’t blowing, he wasn’t breathing, he was actually bucking coming down the stretch on the way back. He likes the track, that’s the only thing I had on my mind this morning was whether he liked it or not.” Now, in the weeks leading up to the Belmont Stakes, where Rich Strike finished sixth, Reed said he felt Rich Strike liked Belmont’s main track. “He trained good on it, he did nothing wrong, but Gabriel said he always had to work too hard to do what he did,” Reed said. "I thought he got across it just fine, but nothing like what I saw today. This is all horse.” The other eight prospective Travers starters were all expected to have their final breezes over the weekend. Entries for the Travers close Tuesday, and post positions will be drawn that evening at a downtown hotel.