After running poorly for the third straight time, Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming will be sent to WinStar Farm on Monday for a break and will get a complete physical, after which his connections will make a decision on his future.

“We’ll make a decision after that as to what his next step is,” trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday morning.

Always Dreaming finished ninth, beaten 18 lengths by West Coast in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes. Pletcher said Always Dreaming seemed fine Sunday morning, but he had no explanation for his performance in the Travers. Always Dreaming stalked the front-running winner West Coast for about seven furlongs before fading.

 “I can’t offer much excuse based on the trip he got,” Pletcher said. “He was in the position that we thought he would be in and he seemed to be going comfortably. He came off the bridle on the far turn and that was it.”

Since winning the Derby, Always Dreaming has finished eighth in the Preakness and third in the Jim Dandy.

Pletcher said Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit, fourth in the Travers beaten eight lengths, came out of the race well and could possibly make his next start in either the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 23 or the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont on Oct. 7.

“I was hoping he’d have a little more punch when Jose [Ortiz] moved him out,” Pletcher said. “He kind of finished a little bit evenly; you could make a case that it was a little bit of a hard track to make up ground on. He ran well, looks good so we’ll go on to either the Pennsylvania Derby or the Jockey Club depending how things unfold here the next couple of weeks.”

Preakness winner Cloud Computing finished eighth, 12 1-4 lengths behind West Coast. Trainer Chad Brown did not offer an excuse for him except to say it was the second straight race over Saratoga’s main track in which the horse failed to run well. Cloud Computing finished fifth in the Jim Dandy.

Brown said he needs to regroup with Cloud Computing and depending how he bounces back he could consider the Pennsylvania Derby. Last year, Connect finished sixth, beaten 21 3-4 lengths in the Travers, and bounced back to win the Pennsylvania Derby.

Meanwhile, Travers winner West Coast seemed to come out of the race in good order, according to John Terranova, the New York-based trainer in whose barn West Coast resided during his stay. West Coast was scheduled to return to trainer Bob Baffert’s barn in Southern California on Monday and Baffert and owners Gary and Mary West would go over the potential options.

West Coast earned a 108 Beyer Speed Figure for the Travers victory, the highest two-turn number earned by a 3-year-old this year.

More later on drf.com