Tiz Midnight, Legacy could meet again at Santa Anita

CYPRESS, Calif. – A day before Saturday’s $200,000 Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos, Tiz Midnight was walked from the stables to the paddock for a routine schooling session. The trip was a disaster.

“She fell apart,” trainer Bob Baffert recalled. “She had a meltdown. She’ll do that.”

In the Bayakoa, Tiz Midnight displayed the opposite behavior. She was better behaved while being saddled and ran accordingly, winning the Grade 2 race for fillies and mares over 1 1/16 miles in track-record time for her first stakes win.

Tiz Midnight led in early stretch, lost the lead briefly to Warren’s Veneda, and rallied to win by a head as the 4-5 favorite. Tiz Midnight was timed in 1:41.62, slightly quicker than the previous mark of 1:41.81 set by Legacy last July. Saturday, Legacy finished third in the Bayakoa.

The result leaves Tiz Midnight, Warren’s Veneda, and Legacy positioned to contend for the major stakes for fillies and mares in the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting. Races such as the $200,000 Santa Maria Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on Feb. 14, and the $350,000 Santa Margarita Invitational over 1 1/8 miles on March 14 are possibilities for Tiz Midnight and Legacy.

The 4-year-old Tiz Midnight races for breeders Karl Watson and Paul Weitman in partnership with Mike Pegram. Watson and Weitman raced Tiz Midnight’s dam, Tough Tiz’s Sis, who won the Grade 1 Lady’s Secret Stakes at Santa Anita in 2007 and the Grade 1 Ruffian Handicap at Belmont Park in 2008.

Tough Tiz’s Sis finished behind Zenyatta in three stakes in 2008.

Warren’s Veneda had her best career result in a graded stakes in the Bayakoa.

“You don’t usually break the track record and run second,” trainer Craig Lewis said on Sunday.

Owned by breeder Ben Warren, Warren’s Veneda won the Cat’s Cradle Handicap for California-breds at Hollywood Park in November 2013. Lewis said that Warren’s Veneda could run in stakes for Cal-breds or graded stakes in coming months at Santa Anita.