The Silks

1986: The Travers Celebration

In the summer of 1985 I saw a small poster announcing “The Travers.” When I inquired about this “Travers,” I was told with great flourish of the importance of the Mid-summer Derby. Not a detail was spared about the world-famous horses, the famous racing families and stables, the canny trainers, gallant jockeys, celebrities and, yes, even the politicians. I was astonished—and delighted. But, I wondered, how was it that such a monumental event had such a modest poster to announce it? Well, they said, if I had a better idea, perhaps I should try it. So, I did. I got to work immediately on my first poster — the 1986 Travers Silks.

The jockey’s brilliantly colored silks, I thought, graphically showed the pageantry, color and rich history of this the oldest thoroughbred stakes race in the United States. So, to research the horses, families, stables and silks, I went to Saratoga Springs’ racing museum. I sketched some 25 or 30 silks, but after much painful editing settled on just 15 silks for the poster — five rows of three. This tall, slender poster set the format for The Colors of Racing poster series.

The Travers Silks poster was given away as a party favor to attendees of the Travers Ball in August of 1986. The poster has been out of print for many years, and copies are exceedingly rare — and dear.

Originally, only Travers winners were to be on the 1986 Travers Silks poster. But, in the end, I just had to include a little intrigue. Two of the 15 horses represented by the silks did not win the Travers. Can you find them? Answer is below.

1986: The Silks

Out of Print

Poster
17" x 33"
Paper: LOE 65 lb. dull cover
Four colors plus varnish
Typeface: ITC Garamond

Serigraph (silk-screen print)
Serigraph (silk-screen print)
Size: 11.25" x 25"
Paper: Arches 88 silkscreen paper from France
Edition: 35 prints

The original artwork is the same size as the printed poster. The words “The Travers” are actually screen-printed on the paper along with the artwork.

There is no Saratoga version of the 1986 poster.

Notes:

The original studies for the silks and caps on this poster were done as separate little drawings that I would pin to a board in different arrangements. I’d move the silks from row to row matching rivals, history and color complexity, then walk across the room to see if any one silk stood out. I must have walked ten miles.

First Silks is the hand-drawn outline of the jockeys silks. This pattern was used to make the 15 separate blank silks which I later filled in with the appropriate stables’ colors. (ink test) I worked in the silkscreen process. This was done in the summer of 1985.

Key to the silks

Payson Stable Carr de Naskra	Glen Riddle Farms Man O’ War	Bertram R. Firestone General Assembly

C.V. Whitney Chompion	Loblolly Farms Temperance Hill	A.G. Vanderbilt Native Dancer

Harbor View Farm Affirmed	Pen-Y-Bryn Farm Damascus	Goldmills Farms Bold Reason

Meadow Stable Secretariat	William Haggin Perry Loud	Calumet Farm Alydar

Ogden Phipps Buckpasser	Marcia W. Schott Willow Hour	Rokeby Stables Key to the Mint

Answer:

Secretariat and Affirmed did not win the Travers.