Englishman turned the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial into another personal showcase at Saratoga, then saw that dominance rewarded with a climb to seventh in the latest NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll. The C R K Stable colt, trained by Cherie DeVaux and ridden by Jose Ortiz, is now widely viewed as the leader of the 3-year-old male sprint division.
Breaking from the four hole as the 2-5 favorite in a compact field of five, Englishman was in front almost immediately and never saw a serious challenge in the seven-furlong Grade 1 on Travers Day, stopping the clock in 1:20.71 for a 3 3/4-length score over Deep Flame. His final time was just 0.17 seconds off Runhappy's stakes mark and 0.31 off Artax's long-standing track record for the distance, underscoring how fast this performance was. Official charts from international outlets list the race on a fast track and confirm the winning margin and time, giving further weight to the raw figures that came out of the Jerkens. Horse Racing Nation's recap noted fractions of 23.01, 45.50 and 1:08.40, with Ortiz allowing his mount to cruise through every call before widening late.
In June, Englishman had already signaled his ceiling by dominating the Grade 1 Woody Stephens over the same seven-furlong trip at Saratoga, stopping the timer in 1:20.40 to equal the stakes record. That effort came on the Belmont Stakes undercard and effectively announced him as a budding star in the sophomore sprint ranks, a status echoed in multiple previews leading into the Jerkens that framed him as the clear division leader. Form figures compiled by European and international handicapping outlets show a four-win streak with only one defeat in his last five starts, all while facing graded or group-level company.
Darley's race report emphasized how Englishman's weapon is not just raw speed but the ability to maintain that pace while handling adversity, noting that he again floated wide into the lane in the Jerkens yet drew off regardless. Brisnet similarly highlighted that he led comfortably throughout with Ortiz, reinforcing the notion that rivals must either outbreak him or hope for a total pace collapse. DRF en Español, previewing the race, characterized DeVaux's current season as historic and cast Englishman as the centerpiece of a barn that has rapidly become a force in graded stakes sprinting.
BloodHorse's coverage of the latest National Thoroughbred Racing Association Top Thoroughbred Poll reports that Englishman climbed from 13th to seventh overall following the Jerkens, earning one first-place vote in the process. The poll, which is open to horses of all ages and surfaces, previously had Englishman receiving only scattered support in the “others receiving votes” category earlier in August. His surge into the top 10 underscores how voters are treating back-to-back Grade 1 wins and near-record times as the kind of résumé that belongs in the conversation with older, more accomplished runners.
Brisnet noted that Englishman now appears likely to be among the leading choices if connections send him to the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Keeneland this fall, given his back-to-back Grade 1 demolitions. The Darley recap went so far as to note that his Jerkens time was nudged right up against some of the fastest seven-furlong efforts ever run at Saratoga, placing him in the company of elite sprinters like Runhappy and Artax in the track's record book. Handicapping previews, including an OPI-based analysis that gave him a towering performance rating and made him a heavy favorite in the Jerkens, suggested he was sitting on exactly the sort of breakout he just delivered.
For handicappers, the key takeaway is that Englishman has repeatedly shown he can turn a fast break into a sustained, high-cruising-speed effort at seven furlongs, a profile that tends to travel well to races like the Breeders' Cup Sprint and even one-turn miles if connections ever choose to stretch out. With a stablemate like Golden Tempo giving DeVaux additional depth in the Travers Day stakes program and the barn firing on multiple fronts, Englishman's emergence as a star 3-year-old sprinter looks less like a one-race spike and more like the centerpiece of a broader, carefully managed campaign. As he heads into the autumn, his combination of speed, professionalism and consistency has already reshaped the 3-year-old male sprint landscape, and the NTRA poll voters have made it clear that the rest of the country is taking notice.
