Tizmetizyou tests Santa Anita dirt again

ARCADIA, Calif. – A $65,000 allowance race at Santa Anita on Sunday was the third race option for Tizmetizyou this weekend.

Trainer Brian Koriner hoped to start Tizmetizyou in an allowance race on turf. The race was scrapped because of insufficient entries, he said. Koriner considered the $75,000 Exotic Wood Stakes over 5 1/2 furlongs for fillies and mares Sunday as a second option. That, too, did not draw enough runners when entries were taken Thursday.

Sunday’s allowance race over six furlongs on dirt is a consolation for those wanting to run in the Exotic Wood Stakes, and a test for Tizmetizyou. She is winless in two starts on dirt, having finished second and fourth in maiden races last year. Koriner has been encouraged enough by Tizmetizyou’s training on dirt at Los Alamitos to give Sunday’s race a try.

“This is where we had to go,” he said.

A filly with ample speed, Tizmetizyou races for E-Racing.com and Eagle Oak Ranch. A 4-year-old filly by Tiz Wonderful, Tizmetizyou won an allowance race on the hillside turf course March 23, her first start since last June.

Koriner said Tizmetizyou is a nervous filly. He cautions that she might not adapt well to the cross-town ship from Los Alamitos to Santa Anita.

“If she holds together, she can run well,” he said. “She can be nervous. Hopefully, she doesn’t fall apart.”

There are five starters in the allowance race, which is restricted to fillies and mares who have not won a graded stakes since July 1. None has won a stakes.

Maker or Breaker was fourth in the Santa Lucia Stakes and the Grade 2 Marjorie Everett Handicap last year but went unplaced in two restricted stakes at Del Mar last summer. Trained by Bob Baffert, Maker or Breaker has not raced since September.

“She wasn’t right, so I turned her out and gave her some time,” Baffert said.

Of Sunday’s allowance race, Baffert said the distance “might be a little short” for Maker or Breaker.

Big Honey Bee, Tiz Molly, and Velvet Mesquite are the other runners.

Big Honey Bee and Tiz Molly were second and third in an allowance race over six furlongs here April 3. Big Honey Bee was fifth in the CERF Stakes at Del Mar last summer.

Velvet Mesquite has won 3 of 5 starts, all for trainer Blake Heap, including an allowance race on the hillside turf course April 25.