John Ward was in such a jovial mood that you would have thought he had just won the $1 million stakes. The third-generation Kentucky trainer stood among reporters in the tunnel leading from the walking ring to the track at Monmouth Park, where minutes earlier his colt Sky Mesa had finished second in the Haskell Invitational.

A horse being led over for the next race had moved within a few feet of Ward and his questioners, and he was the first to notice. "Better move and let him by," Ward said as he guided the group out of harm's way. "Wouldn't want to lose anybody, because there are so few of you."

Everybody laughed, and Ward again emphasized he wasn't disappointed that Sky Mesa had fallen 1 3/4 lengths short of catching lone front-runner Peace Rules. He was already looking down the road, and he loved how his relatively green colt had gained 1 1/4 lengths in deep stretch.

Someone asked if the late move made Ward feel better about his chances 20 days later in the Travers Stakes, and he beamed. "That's the idea," he said.

The scene reminded me of standing next to Ward in April 2001 at Aqueduct, shortly after Monarchos closed late for second behind another loose-on-the-lead winner, Congaree. Asked then if he was upset, Ward shook his head. "No, no, no," he said. "First Saturday in May, first Saturday in May."

Monarchos and Ward got the roses and the glory at Churchill Downs, and he hopes Sky Mesa will get as much out of the Haskell as Monarchos received from the Wood Memorial.

Sky Mesa will be making only his sixth start Saturday in the 1 1/4-mile Travers (ESPN, 5-7 p.m.), and it's time for him to prove he's more than a regal pedigree and a half-ton of potential. The son of Pulpit out of a Storm Cat mare has been an equine version of Brazil, which has been called "the country of the future, and it always will be."

The day before the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last October, Sky Mesa was scratched after wrenching an ankle. Then he sat out the Triple Crown with a bruised foot. He's finally healthy but he's 0-for-2 this season. Ward hopes he's ready to make a great leap forward, and now's the time.

"I think he's going to have to step up a notch more to be a Travers winner," Ward said Tuesday. "The extra eight pounds and the additional furlong are two features he'll have to overcome.

"If he can repeat his final sixteenth of a mile in the Haskell in the Travers, then he'll have matured to the next level as a racehorse."

Missing the grueling Triple Crown series might help Sky Mesa, who still has upside and a lot less mileage on him than warriors such as Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker and Kentucky Derby and Preakness champion Funny Cide.

"I think a couple of other horses may be coming to the edge." Ward said. "They've had a number of mile-and-a-quarter races carrying weight, and that can leave scars . . . I think we've seen the best performances from those horses, though that's not to say they can't give them again. I don't think we've seen Sky Mesa's best yet. I think he's still on the bell curve going up."

Ward isn't certain that Sky Mesa's mind is right yet, and if his relative freshness will be as much of an edge as his inexperience is a detriment. He considers Sky Mesa a stronger animal than the light-bodied Monarchos, but the Derby winner didn't mind fighting through fatigue at crunch time. Sky Mesa hasn't done that. Can he make the breakthrough this weekend at Saratoga against the best field he's ever faced?

"He's had a couple of races to get hard," Ward said, "and he's really coming to himself . . . If he improves off his Haskell, he's definitely going to be in the mix the last 70 yards."