Tiz Shea D likely to target regional derbies next

Tiz Shea D appeared to have come out of his Saturday night Indiana Derby win in good shape, trainer Bill Mott said, and will be pointed to races on the national “derby” circuit this summer.

Tiz Shea D earned a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure for running 1 1/16 miles over a sloppy Indiana Grand track in 1:43.02. He was 1 1/4 lengths better than Mr. Z, who took a solid lead to the quarter pole before ducking out and briefly impeding pace-stalking Tiz Shea D. Divining Rod finished a head behind Mr. Z in third.

Tiz Shea D won for the second time in six starts. He had apparently dropped in class from several graded stakes to run in a first-level allowance race on the Belmont Stakes card, but finished second behind Tommy Macho, who would come back with a decent third in Speightster’s Dwyer Stakes win. The class move from a $90,000 allowance race to a $508,000, Grade 2 stakes, then, was probably more horizontal than vertical, but Tiz Shea D still stepped up to some extent. The sloppy conditions proved no impediment. Tiz Shea D had finished second to El Kabeir in the Gotham in his previous wet-track start.

“It didn’t hurt my feelings when it came up sloppy,” Mott said.

Tiz Shea D had shipped from New York to Mott’s string at Churchill Downs four days before his race, and as of Monday he was back at Churchill with assistant trainer Kenny McCarthy. Mott said no set plans have been formulated, but there are several lucrative regional derbies from which the connections can choose in the next couple months, and Mott seemed disinclined to step Tiz Shea D up toward the top of the division for now.

“He looks like a real nice horse to spot around outside New York, maybe,” said Mott.

Options for High Dollar Woman

High Dollar Woman, who on Saturday wired the Grade 2, $206,900 Indiana Oaks for her first stakes win in her second start for trainer Steve Hobby, “came out of the race super,” Hobby said. She could make her next start either in the Monmouth Oaks or the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga. The races are the same day, Aug. 22, but the Monmouth Oaks is a Grade 3 race with a $100,000 purse, while the Alabama is a Grade 1 race with a $600,000 purse.

High Dollar Woman won by one length over Sweetgrass, went 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.49, and earned a Beyer of 90. That figure equaled her career high, produced in a second-out Saratoga maiden win last summer when Tony Dutrow trained the filly. That race, like Saturday’s, came on a wet track, but Hobby remains hopeful High Dollar Woman can show her best on fast going.

“I hope that’s not something she requires,” Hobby said. “She’s such an efficient mover, I feel like she can run over anything.”

High Dollar Woman made one start at Oaklawn, ran meekly, and was turned out to pasture, coming into Hobby’s barn in Kentucky this spring. Hobby got a feel for her, looked at the stakes options, and decided to target the Indiana Oaks, giving High Dollar Woman a prep race over the track in a second-level optional-claiming sprint, in which she finished second. The plan, though, wound up being perfectly executed, with High Dollar Woman notching an important graded-stakes victory. She cost owners Alex and JoAnn Lieblong $675,000 at auction.

Glenard to step up

Glenard won his second race in a row on the Indiana Derby card, taking the $104,000 J. Kenneth Self Shelby County Boys and Girls Club Stakes by one length despite appearing to perform below his peak over a yielding turf course. He equaled the 94 Beyer he earned in a Delaware Park optional-claiming win last out, and earned a spot in a higher-class race next out.

“Don’t really have any plans, but I definitely think we’ll test deeper waters,” said trainer Graham Motion. “My puzzle over him is what distance he really wants to go.”

Glenard won Saturday going 1 1/16 miles, and his other good races this year came at one mile 70 yards and 1 1/8 miles. He flopped in the 1 1/2-mile Pan American, but came out of that race quite sick, and before being exported from England, raced several times at distances of 1 3/4 miles and farther.