Cee's Tizzy pensioned

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Cee’s Tizzy, a former leading sire in California and the sire of two-time Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Tiznow, has been pensioned, Harris Farms manager Dave McGlothlin said on Thursday.

“His fertility had been decreasing in the last two years,” McGlothlin said. “He was bred to four mares this year. He looks good and feels like a million dollars. He was willing to make the trips to the breeding shed, but he was not getting the mares in foal.”

Cee’s Tizzy is 23.

Tiznow, a leading stallion in Kentucky, is by far Cee’s Tizzy’s most prominent foal, but the stallion had a broader impact. He is the sire of the California-bred Cost of Freedom, a three-time stakes winner this year, including the Grade 3 Vernon Underwood Stakes on Nov. 25.

This year, Cee’s Tizzy ranks 12th among California stallions by progeny earnings, with $1,623,131 and has had 78 runners win 38 races. Lifetime, his progeny have earned in excess of $35 million. Aside from Tiznow, the 2000 Horse of the year, his leading foals include Gourmet Girl, the 2001 champion older female, and Budroyale, who was second in the 1999 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park.

Tiznow, who earned $6,427,830 in 2000 and 2001, is the only horse to win the BC Classic twice, and remains the richest California-bred in history.

“There aren’t too many California sires that you can say that about,” McGlothlin said. “He was the only stallion to have two Eclipse Award winners in California.”

Led by Tiznow, Cee’s Tizzy had progeny earnings in excess of $5 million in 2000 and 2001. Tiznow won 8 of 15 starts. He stood for $75,000 at WinStar Farm in Kentucky in 2010.

Cee’s Tizzy, who is by Relaunch, will remain at Harris Farms in Coalinga, Calif., during his retirement, McGlothlin said.

“His normal routine is he goes out about 6:30 or 7 in the morning and comes in at 4,” he said. “He looks terrific and is in good health.”

Cee’s Tizzy began his career at Lakeview Thoroughbred Farm in Southern California and moved to Harris Farms in the mid-1990s. On the track for owner Cecilia Straub-Rubens, he won 3 of 6 starts and $173,150. He was third in the Grade 1 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs in 1990, the only year he raced.

California Flag on a break

California Flag, who shared the 2009 California-bred Horse of the Year title with Dancing in Silks, is in the midst of a farm vacation following an eighth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6.

Trainer Brian Koriner said California Flag is likely to rejoin his stable later this month at Santa Anita, when the track’s winter-spring meeting grows closer to starting on Dec. 26.

“He won’t need much time” to be ready to race, Koriner said. “He’ll be fine.”

Owned by Keith Card, California Flag had 1 win in 4 starts this year, the Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar. He was also third in the $1 million Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai in March.

A winner of 9 of 21 starts and $1,166,501 in his career, the 6-year-old gelding has won six stakes. California Flag has won three races on Santa Anita’s hillside turf course, including the 2009 BC Turf Sprint. If he returns to racing during the Santa Anita meeting, California Flag is likely to start on the hillside turf course in a stakes.

◗ Teddy’s Promise, the easy winner of an optional claimer for statebred 2-year-old fillies on Thursday, will make her next start in the $100,000 California Breeders’ Champion Stakes for 2-year-old statebred fillies over seven furlongs at Santa Anita on Dec. 27, owner-breeder Ted Nichols said.