Belmont Stakes: Always in a Tiz to skip race, run in Easy Goer
ELMONT, N.Y. – Always in a Tiz, who likely would have been the longest shot in the field, will skip Saturday’s $1 million Belmont Stakes and instead run in the $150,000 Easy Goer Stakes on the day’s undercard, said Anthony Bonomo Jr., racing manager for his parents’ stables.
Always in a Tiz, a son of Tiznow, won his debut at Saratoga last summer but has lost five consecutive races since, most recently finishing ninth in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 6.
Bonomo said the decision to skip the Belmont was made Tuesday after a conference call between his father and trainer Dominick Schettino. Anthony Bonomo Sr., who races under the banner Brooklyn Boyz Stables, owns Always in a Tiz with his wife, MaryEllen Bonomo, who races under the banner MEB Racing Stables.
“To put him in a mile-and-a-half race after a while off and after all this work we put in, it didn’t seem like the right thing to do,” Anthony Bonomo Jr. said. “We want to look more to the future than one race. God forbid we run him and we knock him out again. We want to try to get ready for Saratoga and everything else.”
The Easy Goer, restricted to 3-year-olds, is run at 1 1/16 miles.
The defection of Always in a Tiz leaves a 14-horse field for the Belmont, so only one starting gate will have to be used.