Strong Tide in sharp form for Connally Cup at Sam Houston
Strong Tide is becoming a marathon runner of note. He turned in one of the biggest races of his career in a 1 3/16-mile race last out at Oaklawn Park and it could set him up for a start at 1 1/2 miles in the Grade 3, $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Cup on Jan. 30 at Sam Houston Race Park.
“We’re considering going back to Houston, to go a mile and a half on the grass,” trainer Mike Lauer said. “We ran there last year, ran midpack. Hopefully, we go better. It’s the only race going a mile and half in the near future and it is a good grass course. Hopefully, we have better luck than last year.”
Strong Tide won in track-record time at Oaklawn on Jan. 9, with a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 96. Last meet, he won an Oaklawn allowance over 1 9/16 miles.
“He has excelled going long,” Lauer said. “He holds two track records down there now, but they’re kind of seldom-used distances. But I’ll take ’em!”
Track records run in Strong Tide’s family.
“He’s a homebred,” Lauer said. “His mother won like $600,000. She held two track records. She still holds one in Indiana. When she was a 2-year-old, she ran five-eighths at Hoosier in 57 [seconds] and change. Then at 4 or 5, she went a mile and a sixteenth on the grass in 1:39 and change at Indiana.”
Strong Tide is a son of English Channel.
“He sires a lot of distance horses,” Lauer said. “Strong Tide is a big horse. He’s a big, distance-looking horse. You walk up to him, you would know it instantly. He’s far from a Quarter Horse. Far from a sprinter.”