Travers Stakes 2016 live stream: Time, TV schedule and how to watch online

Exaggerator, the colt who won the Preakness Stakes in May and ran out of gas at the Belmont in June, will be back on the track Saturday afternoon for the 147th running of the Travers Stakes in Saratoga Springs, New York. The horse who bested him (Creator) will be, too. All that’s missing from this marquee showdown is Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, but that shouldn’t take too much away from the “Mid-Summer Derby” featuring a selection of horse racing’s top 3-year-olds.

Television coverage begins on NBC at 4:30 p.m. ET with a post time of 5:44 p.m. You can stream it online using the NBC Sports Live Extra app.

The 1-1/4-mile Travers Stakes marks a nice midway point between the three Triple Crown races and the Breeders Cup, which will be held this year in early November. But the race is known as the “Graveyard of Champions” due to so many upsets in the past, making it difficult to use as a gauge of what’s to come. That includes 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah last year.

For the first time since 1977, a full field of 14 will be competing in the Grade 1 race for the $1.25 million purse. Guided by jockey Kent Desormeaux and trained by his brother, Keith, Exaggerator enters with the best morning line odds at 3-1, but the field is seen as rather open.

Connect, with three wins in four starts, is plenty familiar with the track after winning the Curlin Stakes last month. With John Valazquez as jockey and Chad Brown as trainer, he has the morning’s second-best odds at 4-1.

Another lightly raced, interesting horse to watch is American Freedom, trained by Bob Baffert. The colt enters at 6-1 odds after earning three wins in five starts and finishing second at the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational last month behind Exaggerator.

Creator, trained by Steve Asmussen and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., has been assigned odds that put him more in the middle of the pack at 15-1 after a sixth-place finish at the Haskell.

Ellis Starr made an argument at America’s Best Racing for Governor Malibu, trained by Christophe Clement with Joel Rosario serving as jockey. Governor Malibu has 12-1 morning line odds.

Governor Malibu and jockey Joel Rosario may get first run on the tiring leader before some of the other horses with a better late kick get into high gear, allowing just enough margin to hang on for the upset win in this year’s Travers.

The field will be filled out by a mixture of new and familiar names, including Gun Runner, who finished third in the Kentucky Derby; Destin, who finished second in the Belmont; and Laoban, who ran in the Preakness and earned a victory in July at the Grade 2 Jim Dandy.

You can find the full field for the race, as well as viewing information below:

Time: 5:44 p.m. ET post time

TV: NBC coverage begins at 4:30 p.m.

Streaming: NBC Sports Live Extra

Post positions, with their morning line odds: