DERBY DELAY ARRIVES
On the original date of Run for the Roses, Knowlton left to ponder what might be
Sackatoga Stable’s Tiz the Law could have been favorite in Kentucky Derby that will wait until September.
The weather in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday, is supposed to be perfect. Partly sunny with a high of 81 degrees and hardly a chance of rain.
An ideal day for the 146th running of the Kentucky Derby.
One problem. There will be no Run for the Roses on Saturday. It was long ago postponed — on March 17 if you’re wondering — because of the coronavirus pandemic. The new target date for America’s most famous horse race is Saturday, Sept. 5.
Jack Knowlton of Saratoga Springs hopes he still has a major player on Labor Day weekend. He certainly would have if the Derby were being run on the first Saturday in May. Knowlton is the managing partner of Sackatoga Stable, which owns a talented New York-bred thoroughbred named Tiz the Law.
If the Derby were being run on Saturday, Tiz the Law would have been one of the favorites, if not the favorite in the 11/4-mile Kentucky Derby.
And what a party it would have been for Knowlton and his Sackatoga crew. Knowlton has 32 partners with the horse and there would have been a boatload of people descending on Louisville to be part of the Tiz the Law entourage. Seventeen years ago, Sackatoga took Churchill Downs by storm, riding to and from the track in a yellow school bus as their horse, Funny Cide, another New York-bred, won the Derby, then followed it up with a win in the Preakness, the first two legs of the Triple Crown.
Of the 10 partners who owned Funny Cide, only Knowlton and Lew Titterton, who splits time between Saratoga Springs and Florida, are involved with Tiz the Law.
Instead of sucking on mint juleps and leading the Tiz the Law cheers from a box seat at
Churchill Downs, Knowlton will be spending Saturday in his condo in Florida. He went south before Tiz the Law won the Grade I, $750,000 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on March 28. He has been there since.
“It is frustrating,” said Knowlton, who is flying back to Saratoga on Sunday. “Having arguably one of the top horses primed to run in the Kentucky Derby ...”
As his voice trailed off, you could sense the disappointment. It’s no one’s fault that there is no Kentucky Derby on Saturday. But when you have a horse, maybe a horse of a lifetime,
ready to roll, it’s hard not to feel some sadness.
“I feel bad for both of us,” Barclay Tagg, Tiz the Law’s trainer, said by phone from Florida, where Tiz the Law also remains. “I get a horse like this every 20 years but what can you do? There are a lot more important things going on.”
Tagg, who also trained Funny Cide, said when he is allowed to, he will ship Tiz the Law back to his home base at Belmont Park. Racing in New York has yet to be given the go-ahead from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Once allowed to come back, Tagg will begin to map out a plan to get Tiz the Law to the first Saturday in September.
He has mentioned races such as the Belmont Stakes and the Travers as possible landing spots for his horse, who has won both his starts this year and has four wins in five career starts. The New York Racing Association has not yet released a schedule for its 51-day spring/summer meet, which was supposed to begin on April 24. Had the Triple Crown been run on its normal schedule, the Belmont would have been on June 6.
It could now become the first leg of the Triple Crown as NYRA is under no obligation to move its biggest spring race to the fall.
The Travers, the centerpiece of the Saratoga race meet, is normally run on the last Saturday in August. That schedule has not yet been announced. If racing is allowed at Belmont and Saratoga, it would almost assuredly be in front of no fans.
Until he knows when he can leave Florida, Tagg will continue to train Tiz the Law at Palm Meadows Training Center. He is not overly concerned over layoffs with the horse. His first race this year, the Holy Bull at Gulfstream on Feb. 1, came off a nine-week layoff. Then it was another eight weeks until he won the Florida Derby.
“With another horse, it might be a problem,” Tagg said. “Not this horse. I have that kind of faith in him. He has done everything we have asked of him to do so easily. He is a young horse and he has a lot of unknown time in front of him. You want to be prepared if they plop the Belmont in front of us.”
Knowlton will also readjust his emotions and get his sights set on Louisville in September. And he hopes he has the same horse at the end of summer that he has now.
“I am thankful we have a good horse, but of all the years for (coronavirus) to happen ... hopefully, it will all work out,” Knowlton said. “I can’t imagine I will be going into the first weekend of September with the same degree of confidence I have now. Hopefully, we have some more outstanding races with him; you know we are losing some of his best days, presumably, but there is nothing we can do about it.”