Tiz the Law favored in a Florida Derby like no other

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With an uncertain future ahead and an empty grandstand behind, a dozen 3-year-olds will take to the track late Saturday afternoon at Gulfstream Park to decide the premier event of the 2019-20 Championship meeting, the Grade 1 Curlin Florida Derby. The marquee race of the season highlights an outstanding 14-race program that will feature a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 pool, which will have a carryover in the vicinity of $1.5 million if it’s not hit Thursday or Friday.

First post time is 11:30 a.m. Eastern.

The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic makes this year’s Florida Derby like none other in the storied history of the event, which had its inaugural running in 1952. First and foremost, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the Kentucky Derby, is now five months not five weeks away. This year’s Florida Derby will be run behind closed doors in front of only a scattering of socially distanced trainers and their grooms for a purse that less than a week ago was slashed from $1 million to $750,000.

While the 1 1/8-mile Florida Derby can no longer be considered a true Kentucky Derby prep, it will still offer 170 qualifying points, of which 100 will be awarded to the winner.

The field for the Florida Derby swelled to 12, plus an also-eligible, in the final hours before the draw, with many of the prospective starters deciding to run in light of the limited options available nationwide in the weeks and perhaps even months ahead. That, however, does not apply to the three leading candidates for the race – Tiz the Law, Ete Indien, and Independence Hall, each of whom has been pointed to this race for at least a month or longer.

Trainer Barclay Tagg circled the Florida Derby on Tiz the Law’s calendar not long after his impressive three-length victory over Ete Indien in the Grade 3 Holy Bull here Feb. 1, opting at that point to forgo the original plan of using the Louisiana Derby for his final Kentucky Derby prep. The Holy Bull was the first start for Tiz the Law since he suffered his lone setback in four career starts when beaten less than a length following a somewhat eventful trip over a sloppy racetrack in his 2-year-old finale in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs in November.

Florida Derby: News, contenders, and videos

Tiz the Law, a New York-bred son of Constitution owned by Sackatoga Stable, won the Grade 1 Champagne at 2 and had been ranked first in Daily Racing Form’s Derby Watch until he was displaced by Authentic on March 13. He is currently third to Authentic and Nadal, both of whom are trained by Bob Baffert.

“Everything has gone perfectly since his last start, I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” said Tagg, who won the Kentucky Derby for Sackatoga with Funny Cide 17 years ago. “He even drew a perfect post, although it all still depends upon the breaks you get during the race.”

Manny Franco, Tiz the Law’s regular rider since winning the Champagne on Oct. 5, again has the assignment.

Ete Indien flattered Tiz the Law’s performance in the Holy Bull by coming back four weeks later to record an even more eye-catching 8 1/2-length victory in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. Despite breaking from the extreme outside with a short run to the first turn in the 1 1/16-mile race, Ete Indien quickly sprinted to command under jockey Florent Geroux before drawing off with total authority through the stretch. Geroux, who replaced the injured Luca Panici for the Fountain of Youth, retains the mount Saturday.

Ete Indien was not as fortunate at the draw as Tiz the Law and will again be forced to break from the outside stall in post 12. His trainer, Patrick Biancone, is confident the added distance will not be an issue.

“I don’t think he has a problem with stamina,” Biancone said. “He’s very manageable. We had to ask him to get out of a bad hole [in the Fountain of Youth] but when he got the lead, he relaxed immediately. Florent said he came back to him very nicely.”

Trainer Mike Trombetta, like most of his colleagues involved in the race, readily admits the current situation has altered his perspective on this year’s Florida Derby.

“Obviously, things have changed regarding this race and the overall Kentucky Derby picture in just the one week since Independence Hall shipped to Gulfstream Park,” Trombetta said. “When we got here, we needed to be first or second on Saturday to make it into the [Kentucky] Derby. With that race not until September, things are different now.”

Trainer Todd Pletcher will send out the pair of Gouverneur Morris and Fountain of Youth runner-up Candy Tycoon in quest of a sixth Florida Derby victory.

The Florida Derby was perhaps the least likely option for Gouverneur Morris’s final Derby prep before circumstances changed over the past several weeks. The lightly raced son of Constitution has won two of his three career starts, including a first-level optional-claiming race in near record-setting time last month at Tampa Bay Downs in his 3-year-old debut.

“We laid out plans from a developmental purpose with the thinking that coming into the [Kentucky] Derby in his third start was the best way to prepare for that effort,” Pletcher said. “Of course, all that has changed. The Florida Derby is right in front of us now, and in these uncertain times we felt like we had to take advantage of what is available to us now.”

The improving Candy Tycoon rallied to finish a distant second in the Fountain of Youth, never menacing the winner, Ete Indien, at any point.

“He’s taken a little longer to get where we thought he might be, but he’s training well and if he gets a good solid pace to run at, like he could, it should help his chances on Saturday,” Pletcher said.