Kentucky Derby favorites Tiz the Law, Art Collector share sire line
Tiz the Law and Art Collector have arrived at this point of their 3-year-old seasons by different avenues. New York-bred Tiz the Law, purchased as a yearling by Sackatoga Stable, was a Grade 1-winning juvenile. Art Collector, a Kentucky homebred for Bruce Lunsford, was a late developer.
However, both are unbeaten this year and are expected to be the top two choices in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby. Both also share similar pedigree patterns.
Both colts are from the sire line launched by the late leading sire A.P. Indy, the 1992 Belmont Stakes winner who is widely regarded as a source of stamina. Tiz the Law is from the first crop of Constitution, by perennial leading sire Tapit, a grandson of A.P. Indy. Art Collector is by A.P. Indy’s champion son Bernardini, winner of the 2006 Preakness Stakes.
“[Bernardini has] shown that ability to get that top-class colt, and his daughters, whether or not they are great racemares, it seems the blood is there and the production speaks for itself,” said Jimmy Bell, president of U.S. operations for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin, which stands Bernardini in Kentucky. “I think Sheikh Mohammed takes enormous satisfaction in having a stallion making such a contribution to the breed.”
Since 1997, the season A.P. Indy’s first foals were 3, his sire line has accounted for seven winners of races in the American Triple Crown series. The stallion’s champion daughter Rags to Riches won the 2007 Belmont Stakes. Tapit, who is by A.P. Indy’s son Pulpit, is the sire of three Belmont Stakes winners, with Tonalist in 2014, Creator in 2016, and Tapwrit in 2017. Two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome, by another son of Pulpit, Lucky Pulpit, won the 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness before Tonalist denied him the Triple Crown in the Belmont. Orb, by A.P. Indy’s son Malibu Moon, won the 2013 Kentucky Derby. And most recently, Tiz the Law won a shortened edition of the Belmont Stakes on June 20, which was the first leg of this year’s rescheduled Triple Crown series.
Tiz the Law and Art Collector both also have classic sire Distorted Humor featured in the second or third generation of their pedigrees. Distorted Humor – sire of 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide and 2010 Belmont winner Drosselmeyer – is the broodmare sire of Art Collector, and also the broodmare sire of Tiz the Law’s father, Constitution.
Art Collector is out of Distorted Humor’s stakes-winning daughter Distorted Legacy. Art Collector won this year’s Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes and Ellis Park Derby. Distorted Humor is also the broodmare sire, in recent years, of Eclipse Award champion Arrogate, North America’s leading money-winning racehorse; New Money Honey, winner of the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and 2017 Belmont Oaks; and Grade 1 winners Book Review, Carrick, Constitution, Elate, Guarana, Molly Morgan, Practical Joke, and Takaful.
:: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales
Constitution and Distorted Humor both stand at WinStar Farm, as does Tiznow, the broodmare sire of Tiz the Law. Tiz the Law is out of the Tiznow’s Grade 2-winning daughter Tizfiz, who was purchased by breeder Twin Creeks Farm for the specific purpose of matching up with stallions they own or co-own, including Constitution.
“We bought the mare because she was a very good outcross to several of our stallions,” said Randy Gullatt of Twin Creeks, which sold four-time Grade 1 winner Tiz the Law for $110,000 to Sackatoga at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred yearling sale. “She had some quality on the racetrack and was a very classy mare.”
Two-time Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Tiznow, the sire of 2008 Belmont winner Da’ Tara, is also the broodmare sire of Grade 1 winners American Patriot, Come Dancing, It Tiz Well, Noble Bird, and Personal Diary. Come Dancing is by Malibu Moon, putting her on the same pedigree pattern as Tiz the Law.