Tiz the Law was out on the Belmont Park main track Wednesday for his second published work since winning the Belmont Stakes on June 20, posting a 1:01.10 for five furlongs, as his connections look toward the Aug. 8 Travers at Saratoga Race Course.
Owned by the Saratoga Springs-based Sackatoga Stable, the leading 3-year-old in North America is scheduled to run in the Travers, Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby and Oct. 3 Preakness.
“He looked perfect,” trainer Barclay Tagg told the New York Racing Association. “He’s got a lot of energy. He wouldn’t blow out a candle.”
A New York-bred like Sackatoga’s 2003 Triple Crown contender Funny Cide, Tiz the Law is undefeated from three starts this year and is well on top of the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 272, followed by California-based Honor A.P.
“It will be interesting,” Sackatoga operations manager Jack Knowlton said. “No one will have run a mile and a quarter before the Travers and it will be unusual that some horses will have run a mile and quarter before the Derby. This [Travers] was a race we could have had Funny Cide in, but he got sick. We’d love to complete the New York circle.”
Tiz the Law is scheduled ship on Monday from Belmont to Saratoga, where the 152nd meet will open on Thursday, July 16.
‘MONOMOY’ BACK
Having missed her entire 4-year-old season in 2019 due to colic and injury, 3-year-old filly champion Monomoy Girl is set to return to stakes company for the first time since winning the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Distaff when she takes on four rivals in Saturday’s Grade II Ruffian at Belmont.
She got back to the track on May 16 and won an allowance at Churchill Downs by 2 3/4 lengths off an 18-month layoff.
“I think the ultimate goal is the Breeders Cup and the shot at another championship,” co-owner Michael Dubb said. “There’s no reason to stretch her out to two turns in her second start in 18 months. This seems like the logical spot. I’ve seen her and physically she looks fantastic. She’s large, she’s powerful and she’s beautiful.”
‘DARES’ TO DREAM
During her Eclipse Award-winning campaign in 2018, Monomoy Girl won the Kentucky Oaks for trainer Brad Cox, and he has another good shot to win that race this year with Shedaresthedevil, who cruised to victory in the Indiana Oaks at Indiana Grand on Wednesday night.
She earned 20 Kentucky Oaks points to move into third on the leaderboard behind Swiss Skydiver, who has been considered a Kentucky Derby prospect and will get a chance to reinforce that belief when she chases Derby points against males in Saturday’s Grade II Blue Grass at Keeneland.
In the Indiana Oaks, Shedaresthedevil stalked in second place and took control off the turn to win her third of five starts in 2020. She was third to Swiss Skydiver in the Grade III Fantasy at Oaklawn Park on May 1.
“We expected her to run well,” Cox said. “She’d been training the part out of her last race at Churchill, where she ran a big race. It was a good trip, she responded well. I thought she looked great at the quarter pole.
“[Jockey] Florent [Geroux] had to kind of reach around and keep her alert the last sixteenth of a mile. He said she kind of got a little lost late. But when he asked her the last sixteenth, she really kicked on. Overall it was a big effort, exactly what we were looking for.”
Kentucky Derby points were also on the line at Indiana Grand, and Cox made it a clean sweep of the Indiana Derby and Oaks when Shared Sense pulled away from a five-horse stack at the eighth pole to win, also with Geroux in the saddle.
GARCIA TESTS POSITIVE
Jockey Martin Garcia was scheduled to ride Indiana Oaks fifth-place finisher Miss T Too, but he was replaced by Julien Leparoux after testing positive for the coronavirus in Kentucky.
Garcia’s agent Jay Fedor told the Daily Racing Form that Garcia was asymptomatic for COVID-19, but a test to ride at the abbreviated Keeneland meet came up positive, and Garcia is now subject to a 14-day quarantine.
Since June 30, Garcia has ridden Churchill Downs in Louisville in June, Indiana Grand on June 30, Ellis Park in Kentucky on July 2, Los Alamitos in California last Friday and Saturday and Prairie Meadows in Iowa on Sunday. Fedor told the DRF that Garcia tested negative when he was at Churchill.
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