SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Belmont Stakes champion Tiz the Law added the Travers Stakes to his winning summary on Saturday, making him the favorite to win the postponed Kentucky Derby next month and then possibly claim the sport’s 14th Triple Crown with a Preakness victory in October.
A New York fox son of Constitution, Tiz the Law ran from Caracaro in the strip of what is known as the Mid-Summer Derby, winning by five and a half lengths at Saratoga Race Course.
Tiz the Law, driven by Manny Franco, covered the mile-and-a-quarter distance in two minutes and 95-hundredths of a second, paying his supporters $ 3 on a $ 2 bet. It was the sixth victory in seven started for Tiz the Law, and the $ 535,000 first place checked his career earnings past $ 2 million.
The ‘Graveyard of Champions’, as Saratoga is called, really felt like a cemetery on Saturday, when spectators were off the field. Instead, people watched a test drive near the track or watched the Travers from the porch of bars nearby.
The victory of Tiz the Law and his jockey were especially popular at the Horseshoe Bar on the other side of the clubhouse and among the grooms, hot walkers and other members of the invisible workforce of thoroughbred racing.
The Colt’s coach, 82-year-old Barclay Tagg, entrusted a horse of a lifetime to Franco, 25, who gave Tiz the Law an unexperienced ride last fall at the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. Franco was stuck in traffic and could not get out on time and finished third.
“The Kentucky jockeys kind of trained Manny in those,” said Jack Knowlton, the managing partner of Sackatoga Stable, which owns Tiz Law.
More experienced riders wanted the mountain on Tiz the Law, but Tagg and the Sackatoga partners stayed with Franco, who rewarded their faith by working harder on his craft.
“They made me a better jockey,” Franco said.
The Travers’ victory confirmed Sackatoga Stable’s ambitious scheme for Tiz de Wet, one that mirrors some of the sport’s greatest horses.
The Triple Crown champions Sir Barton (1919), Omaha (1935), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943) and Citation (1948) each competed in a race between the Preakness and the Belmont, typically the last two races in ‘ the series. All but Omaha were victorious.
The coronavirus pandemic, which has shifted seasons for many sports, has boosted the full-blooded racing calendar well. Instead of the Kentucky Derby serving as the Triple Crown’s first leg on the first Saturday in May, the Belmont Stakes took the leadoff spot for the first time in history, on a Saturday in June.
The victory of Tiz the Law in the Travers was especially dear to Knowlton. In 2003, he oversaw a New York-based fund, Funny Cide, which made the Sackatoga partnership semifamous by winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.
Knowlton, who lives in Saratoga Springs, and many of his partners were heartbroken that year when Funny Cide became ill and the day before the Travers was scratched.
Saturday’s victory was just the last consolation. Following Belmont’s victory, Knowlton and his 34 current partners sold Tiz the Law’s stallion rights in an eight-figure deal with Coolford America’s Ashford Stud. Knowlton would not disclose the exact price, but he acknowledged that Sackatoga would receive bonuses if Tiz won the law the Travers, the Derby, the Preakness and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, which is scheduled for November.
Now, Sackatoga, Tagg and Franco will head to Kentucky with a sail that has been the best 3-year-old in the nation.
“It’s just so exciting,” Knowlton said. “When I saw this show, it blew me away.”
