WIRE TO WIRE WIN
Colt beats heavily favored Tiz the Law for trainer’s record-tying sixth Kentucky Derby win
Authentic holds off favored Tiz the Law at Kentucky Derby
LOUISVILLE. Ky. — The debate that figured to start in October and last until the end of racetrack time went ahead and fizzled in two hushed but dramatic Saturday evening minutes. Tiz the Law, the colt with the stylish blaze of face and the dominant blaze of foot, won’t win this most misshapen of Triple Crowns. Of all the nutty things in a batty year, the biggest Kentucky Derby favorite in 31 years couldn’t run down a horse pooh-poohed for issues of stamina.
So when Tiz the Law, co-owned by Houstonian Roger Sofer, pounced near front-running Authentic around the turn toward home, and when they ran together through the stretch, and when Authentic staved him off all the way to win in a rapid 2:00.61, horse racing had to settle for a more esoteric slice of history. Rather than a Triple Crown winner, it has the second trainer across 146 years with six Kentucky Derby triumphs.
It had been 68 years since Ben Jones, the Missourian who had started on bush tracks in the west and Mexico, rang up a sixth Derby win when he prepared 1952 Kentucky Derby champion Hill Gail. For all that time, Jones had sat up there alone with his six, until Authentic’s sturdy triumph in a race with almost zero fans because of a pandemic elevated Bob Baffert alongside.
“I cannot believe I’m sitting up here,” the 67-year-old said on the interview dais, “because I have so much respect for Tiz the Law.” He soon added, “I really thought Tiz the Law was unbeatable.”
He marveled about a year in which his stalwarts, such as Nadal and Charlatan, fell away with springtime injuries, and he lavished praise on venerable and respected jockey John Velazquez, the 48-year-old from Puerto Rico who logged a third Derby win, following upon Animal Kingdom in 2011 and Always Dreaming in 2017.
“I saw that white face next to me,” Velazquez said of Tiz the Law’s handsome mug, “and I thought, ‘OK, we’ll go.’ ” He said, “Every time I asked him for more, he gave me more.” He thought, “Now it’s going to be a race between him and I, and let’s see who has more.”
Few would have guessed that the 9-1 third choice would have more than the 4-5 favorite.
Tiz the Law, who had won six of seven races lifetime with uncommon command, including a dominant Belmont Stakes on June 20, broke from the next-to-last post, sat in fourth around the first turn, then in third at the end of the backstretch, then in second heading toward home trying to chase down the only horse who had started outside him.
Then, as Velazquez put it, “He never passed him.”
He never passed him, and suddenly Authentic had a fifth win in six starts, his lone loss in the Santa Anita Derby in June, for which Baffert blamed himself and credited winning trainer John Shirreffs of Honor A. P.
Before Tiz the Law’s second loss in eight tries, the New Yorkbred had spent 2020 winning uninterruptedly. Meanwhile, Baffert had some time when he just set aside Authentic for two weeks. “He was a May foal,” Baffert said, noting Authentic’s birth month. “He was late.” They got going after that, but by the time they got to the first Saturday in September and the Derby, they came as an afterthought and part of Baffert’s twohorse chances.
The other, Thousand Words, had to scratch suddenly when he flipped during preparations in the paddock Saturday. His antics broke the arm of assistant trainer Jim Barnes. “The good news,” veterinarian Kathleen Anderson said afterward, “is the horse is absolutely fine. He did misbehave in the paddock and was scratched as he fell over onto his side.” She proclaimed him “cleared for service without a scratch upon him.”
That wasn’t quite true for Barnes.
“I told (Velazquez), ‘Do it for Jimmy,’ ” Baffert said, his Derby wins now ranging from Silver Charm in 1997 through Real Quiet in 1998, War Emblem in 2002, American Pharoah in 2015, Justify in 2018 and Authentic in a strange 2020.