Tiz the Law tests track with easy gallop in slop

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – All eyes were on Tiz the Law early Wednesday when the heavy favorite for Kentucky Derby 146 got reacquainted with a sloppy Churchill Downs surface for the first time in more than nine months.

Tiz the Law was out for a slow gallop under regular exercise rider Heather Smullen when he joined a couple dozen other horses during a rainy 7:30 a.m. training session reserved for prospects for the Kentucky Oaks and Derby, to be run Friday and Saturday, respectively, without spectators. Tiz the Law arrived here Tuesday following an early morning charter flight out of Albany, N.Y.

As a dominant winner of the Belmont Stakes and Travers in this reshuffled year of the coronavirus, Tiz the Law is expected to be one of the biggest Derby favorites in the last 50 years. The New York-bred colt is listed as a 3-5 program choice after being assigned post 17 in a field of 18 3-year-olds in the 1 1/4-mile race.

“The track was really off, so we just gave him a little canter around there,” trainer Barclay Tagg said shortly after returning to Barn 20. “The next couple of days we’ll try to get a couple of serious gallops into him.”

Tiz the Law, owned by the Sackatoga Stable, has been nearly perfect in a seven-race career, with one notable exception. His lone loss came last November over a sloppy track in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, his only prior start at Churchill. A fast track is very likely for Saturday, with mostly sunny skies and a high of 82 in the local forecast.

“He was still pretty young and pretty green then, and he didn’t come out of the gate too well that day,” said Tagg. “I would like a fast track for him.”

Manny Franco, who has ridden Tiz the Law in all but his career debut, will be back aboard on Saturday.

By chance, the next two program choices for the Derby will break on either side of Tiz the Law, with the favored trio occupying up the three outside gates. Honor A. P. (5-1, Mike Smith) will start from post 16 and Authentic (8-1, John Velazquez) from post 18.

“I didn’t particularly want to be out that far, but he seems to handle everything that’s thrown at him, so we’ll just have to leave it up to him,” Tagg said following the Tuesday postposition draw.

The expected second choice, Art Collector, was declared out of the Derby early Tuesday with a minor foot problem. The disappointment was excruciating for the colt’s local connections, owner-breeder Bruce Lunsford, trainer Tommy Drury Jr., and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.

Drury said the injury is very minor and that he should be able to point Art Collector to the Oct. 3 Preakness at Pimlico. The colt is back at Drury’s main base at the Skylight training center just east of Louisville.

“He grabbed himself” during a Monday gallop, said Drury. “It was still very sensitive [Tuesday] morning. When I took my thumbs to palpate the bulbs of his heels, you could still tell it was pinching him.

“I had to make a choice. Your horse has to always come first. To run in a race of this caliber and trying to compete against the best 3-year-olds in this country, you’ve got to be 110 percent. To me, it wouldn’t have been fair to Art Collector, even though it’s slight, knowing that there’s an issue of any kind.”

Art Collector has won all four of his races this year by open lengths, including the Blue Grass Stakes, and was widely regarded as a threat to Tiz the Law. The defection helps to make Tiz the Law an even more prohibitive favorite than he would have been. Romps in the Belmont and Travers give him an unprecedented record for a Derby starter, one sure to make him the first odds-on starter since Arazi was 9-10 in 1992. The last odds-on favorites to win the Derby were Spectacular Bid ($3.20) in 1979 and Seattle Slew ($3) in 1977.

This was the first time since 2003 that fewer than the 20-horse maximum was entered in the Derby, although fewer than 20 have actually run in some interim renewals owing to scratches. Coincidentally, Tagg and Sackatoga won the 2003 running with Funny Cide.

The Derby is carded as the last of 14 races. First post is set for 11 a.m. Eastern, with the Derby going at 7:01 p.m. NBC will provide extensive television coverage starting at 2:30 p.m.