Bindner-Bejarano team reunites with Tiz Our Turn

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Walt Bindner Jr. couldn’t remember the last time he and jockey Rafael Bejarano teamed to win a race. But he sure remembers that one time.

“Of course I do,” Bindner said the morning after Tiz Our Turn ($10.20) carried Bejarano to a 3 3/4-length triumph in a $38,415 starter-allowance Thursday over the Churchill Downs turf.

Bejarano won the Grade 1, $750,000 Stephen Foster on June 12, 2004, at Churchill aboard Colonial Colony, giving Bindner easily the biggest score in a training career that dates to 1974. Colonial Colony, the rank outsider in a field of six, paid $127.20 when up by a nose over Southern Image in the slop.

In all, Daily Racing Form statistics show Bindner and Bejarano teaming for five wins from 22 starts. The latest victory gave Bindner, 72, a particularly deep measure of gratification, mostly because Tiz Our Turn had been such a major reclamation project over the last couple of years.

Tiz Our Turn, now 5, was turned out following an August 2018 race.

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“I honestly never thought he’d ever make it back,” said Bindner. “About a year later, I saw him in a field running around like a wild horse. I brought him back, but then he got an infected hock, so that took him another six months.”

The gelding now has had five races since returning to action in late May, winning three of those. “He took a lot of patience and a lot of work,” said Bindner. “When it ends up like this, it’s very rewarding.”

Tiz Our Turn is the only active runner in Bindner’s care at the HighPointe training center near LaGrange, Ky.

“I’ve been trying to ease out of the game,” said Bindner, “but a horse like this keeps drawing you back in.”