Tiz the Law hits his mark on day of six Travers workers
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y - Led by Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law, six of the nine prospective candidates for next Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga put in their final workouts Saturday morning.
At Saratoga, Tiz the Law was the first horse on the main track shortly after it opened up at 5:30 a.m. With exercise rider Heather Smullen aboard, Tiz the Law turned in a solid move, going five furlongs in 59.99 seconds, getting his final quarter in 23.68 seconds according to Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch’s watch. Tiz the Law galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.48 and seven furlongs in 1:28.30.
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It was a spot-on breeze despite the fact the two-way radios that assistant trainer Robin Smullen uses to communicate with the exercise rider were not working.
“The radio, it didn’t work, and I’m like I don’t hear anything, so I’m just watching the poles because if you go off the way he feels, you feel like you’re going in 1:01, 1:02, but he’s not,” said Heather Smullen, who is the niece of Robin Smullen. “He covers the ground that much better. So you have to watch the poles and that’s what I was doing. I kept looking over at the pole and I said this should be right. You can’t do it based on his stride, because if you base it on his stride you just think you’re cantering around.”
This was Tiz the Law’s third work over Saratoga’s main track. It was the first one done at 5:30 a.m. when the track is much less busy than it is immediately following the mid-morning renovation break.
“He’s maybe a little more aggressive later when it’s busy out there and there’s a whole bunch of stuff going on,” Smullen said. “He was a little more relaxed today, which was perfect. It’s a week out, you don’t need to have him do too much. He cantered around as easy as he can and goes that time? What else do you want him to do?”
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Trainer Barclay Tagg wasn’t looking for anything more than what Tiz the Law did.
“I told her I wanted her to go in a minute flat, and if you err, err on the fast side, and she went in 59.99,” Tagg said. “He hasn’t missed a beat since the last race. Whether it’s the right thing or the wrong thing for him, I don’t know, but he’s doing well. He came out of it good, blew off good.”
Following the 8:45 break, Country Grammer, Caracaro and Shivaree all breezed minutes apart.
Country Grammer, who won the Grade 3 Peter Pan here on July 16, worked four furlongs in 48.20 seconds in company with the Grade 1-winning turf horse Valid Point.
“A little maintenance work,” trainer Chad Brown said. “There’s not that much time between races, so we’re just going to get one work into him and just maintain where he’s at. He bounced out of the race really well.”
Caracaro, who finished second to Country Grammer in the Peter Pan, worked six furlongs in 1:15.98 under jockey Javier Castellano. Caracaro, a son of Uncle Mo, went steady throughout in splits of 13.16 seconds, 26.19, 38.55 and 50.87, and he galloped out seven furlongs in 1:29.91.
“The kind of work he put up today is what we think we should have done,” said Gustavo Delgado Jr., the son of the trainer. “He had to do everything easy like he did today. He didn’t get tired at all, that’s what we wanted. If we’re going to roll, we’re going to roll next week, hopefully.”
Shivaree, second to Tiz the Law in the Florida Derby but 11th in the Grade 2 Blue Grass at Keeneland last month, went five furlongs in 1:03.31, with a final quarter of 25.27 seconds. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:16.89.
At Del Mar, Uncle Chuck, the Los Alamitos Derby winner and expected second choice in the Travers, worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 for trainer Bob Baffert. Uncle Chuck has run just twice, but Baffert has compared him to Arrogate, who won the 2016 Travers by 13 1/2 lengths in a track-record time of 1:59.36 for 1 1/4 miles.
“I can’t say he’s as good as Arrogate, but I think coming into the race I feel pretty good that if she ships well, has a clean trip, I don’t think he’s going to embarrass us,” Baffert said by phone. “We’ll see how he fits.”
Uncle Chuck is expected to ship to Saratoga on Tuesday along with Gamine, the Grade 1 Acorn winner who is pointing to Saturday’s Grade 1 Test.
At Fair Hill Saturday, Mystic Guide worked five furlongs in 1:01. Equipped with blinkers, Mystic Guide started three lengths behind a workmate, according to trainer Michael Stidham, who added the horse did not have to be as hard ridden Saturday morning has he has in previous workouts.
Stidham said he and Jimmy Bell, the president of Godolphin Racing’s U.S. operation, would discuss on Sunday whether to run Mystic Guide in the Travers or perhaps wait for a race like the Grade 2, $150,000 Jim Dandy here on Sept. 5.
“I’m happy with the work,” Stidham said. “We don’t know if the Travers is the right next step or not.”
The remaining three Travers prospects are Max Player, South Bend, and First Line. While Max Player and South Bend will each have one more work, First Line won a maiden race here on Wednesday and his connections are deciding whether to wheel back on short rest.
The Travers draw will be held Wednesday in the 1863 Club at 11 a.m.