Champagne among Tagg's options with Tiz the Law

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Barclay Tagg is in a quandary about where to next run Tiz the Law.

Does he take a swing and run the debut winner in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne, or take the more conservative approach and point to races like the $250,000 Sleepy Hollow for New York-breds on Oct. 19 or the Grade 3, $150,000 Nashua at Aqueduct on Nov. 3?

“I’d love to run him in the Champagne but I don’t know if off that one maiden race it’d be a good idea,” Tagg said Friday. “He certainly acts like nothing fazes him.”

A New York-bred 2-year-old son of Constitution, Tiz the Law impressed observers with a 4 1/4-length debut victory at Saratoga on Aug. 8. He then developed a shin issue, which Tagg took care of by blistering it. Tiz the Law had an easy 30 days of training before going back to serious training.

Since getting back to the work tab, Tiz the Law has breezed fast, including a five-furlong move in 59.44 seconds Thursday morning over Belmont’s main track.

Tiz the Law started five lengths behind Single Focus and Niko’s Dream, came three wide after drilling an opening quarter in 23.07 seconds, and blew past his workmates in midstretch, hitting the wire in 46.97 seconds. The work went a furlong past the wire, with Tiz the Law getting that final eighth in 12.47. He went out six furlongs in 1:12.72.

Tagg said exercise rider Heather Smullen told him Tiz the Law took the dirt well.

“She pulled him out at the head of the lane and she said ‘I tried to settle him down and let him go along with them, but all of a sudden he just took off,’” Tagg said.

Green Light Go, winner of the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, is the likely favorite in the Champagne. Others under consideration include Alpha Sixty Six, Flap Jack, Gozilla, and Three Technique. Lebda is possible.

On Friday, Alpha Sixty Six, a neck winner of a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race here on Sept. 7, worked five furlongs in 1:00.47 outside of Gouverneur Morris, a maiden winner at Saratoga who is pointing to next Saturday’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland.