Tagg hopes to end his local drought with Tiz Dashing in Sycamore

On Friday, it will have been nine years and 51 weeks since Barclay Tagg trained a Keeneland winner.

Tagg’s opportunities since Tale of Verve captured a maiden race on Oct. 16, 2016, have been scant: Tagg subsequently has sent out just 10 Keeneland starters, and only two since 2018. He ran a horse – unplaced – at Keeneland this past April. His most recent runner before that was the last truly high-class horse Tagg trained, Tiz the Law, fourth at Keeneland in the 2020 COVID-19 Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Tiz the Law, like 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide, campaigned for Tagg and the Sackatoga Stable, and now Sackatoga and Tagg are back at Keeneland with what looks like their best horse since Tiz the Law. Tiz Dashing, a son of Tiz the Law, is part of an overflow field of 16 entered in the Grade 2, $400,000 Sycamore Stakes.

If Tiz Dashing breaks Tagg’s long Keeneland drought, he’ll do so in the longest race the 4-year-old has tried. Tiz Dashing won well last out going 1 3/16 miles in Saratoga allowance company, but that two-turn contest is a far cry from the three-turn Sycamore over 1 1/2 miles.

Madison Meyers has one winner from three Keeneland starters and has saddled one graded stakes winner during a training career that, following a few years of dabbling, essentially dates to 2019. The Keeneland winner and the graded stakes winner? That’s the same horse, Desvio, who won the 2025 Sycamore at 34-1 but will not fall so far under the radar Friday.

Tiz the Law and Desvio comprise just one-eighth of the Sycamore entrants; the starting gate Friday can accommodate a dozen runners, leaving four horses stuck on the also-eligible list.

Mercante, part of the field’s main body, raced this past Saturday, but trainer Brian Knippenberg didn’t rule out running back in the Sycamore. A scratch gets first also-eligible Lambeth into the race and last out he finished a fine second behind Grade 1-class Tawny Port in the 2 1/16-mile Nashville Gold Cup.

Tiz Dashing generally has faced higher-class turf competition this year than the rest of the Sycamore field, and while he was seventh in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland and eighth in the Grade 1 Manhattan, he performed creditably in both starts. Tiz Dashing defeated just three opponents in his Saratoga allowance but finished off that 1 3/16-mile contest looking like he could go farther.

Desvio, meanwhile, is a true 1 1/2-mile horse – he’s just not a horse for Kentucky Downs. Steady improvement through a light 2026 campaign crashed to a halt there Sept. 5 in the Kentucky Turf Cup.

“I would say he was not in love with Kentucky Downs,” Meyers said, understatedly.

Desvio bobbled around and never appeared to be comfortable with the Kentucky Downs footing or the track’s unusual configuration, but a return to his previously ascendant form brings a Sycamore repeat into play.

Desvio was a course-and-distance second in April, albeit more than nine lengths behind a lights-out victory from Burnham Square in the Elkhorn Stakes. On July 11, he encountered compromising trouble and still finished a respectable fourth in a strong renewal of the 1 3/8-mile Bowling Green. In that start, and even in his 2025 Sycamore, Desvio, who has no speed, found himself in a paceless race. That might not prove the case Friday.

“We keep hitting these short fields, and it’s hard to get the pace setup he needs,” Meyers said.

One could imagine as many as six horses pushing toward the front in the Sycamore, a group that includes vulnerable 5-2 morning-line favorite Just a Touch. Tiz Dashing, stretching out, should sit in the second flight, and if he stays the trip can give Barclay Tagg his first Keeneland winner in almost a decade.