Tiz Miz Sue just getting started

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Even though the ninth race Sunday at Oaklawn will be run at six furlongs, it should produce starters for the track's 3-year-old filly route series, which begins next month with the $75,000 Martha Washington.

Tiz Miz Sue is targeting that one-mile stakes Feb. 13, but is getting her season started Sunday in the $40,000 optional claiming sprint for 3-year-old fillies that carries first-level allowance conditions. She looks like a solid choice after a year in which she closed for second to future champion She Be Wild in the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Lassie at a mile in September.

"She's a very nice filly," said Steve Hobby, who trains Tiz Miz Sue for Cresran LLC.

Tiz Miz Sue is by Tiznow and out of the Grade 3-winning mare Sue's Good News. She won her maiden at six furlongs at Arlington in August in her second start. In her most recent out, Tiz Miz Sue was eighth after setting the pace in the Grade 3 Pocahontas at Churchill Downs on Nov. 1. Sunday, she will be racing with blinkers off.

Hobby said plans were to go in a two-turn race with Tiz Miz Sue last week at Oaklawn, but when a winter blast led to the loss of a few days of training, he awaited the option for Sunday.

"We had that race the other day, which looked like a great spot for her, but I was five days in the barn without a breeze," he said. "The next long one is on [Jan.] 31st, and if I wait for that one, I can't come back in the stakes. It's too close for her.

"So, I'm going to run her six furlongs and then go back in the Martha Washington. That's the plan."

Abel Castellano Jr. has the mount on Tiz Miz Sue.

Other top contenders in the 12-horse field include No Such Word, a maiden special weight sprint winner at Churchill on Nov. 13.

"She's even going to be better longer, so we feel good about her," said Cindy Jones, who trains No Such Word.

Terry Thompson has the mount on No Such Word.