< Tiz the Law, the Belmont champion ridden by jockey Manny Franco, wins the prestigious Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Saturday.
Tiz the Law takes Travers
Belmont winner Tiz the Law won the $ 1 million Travers Stakes by 5 1/ 2 lengths at Saratoga, and heads to Kentucky for next month's Derby as the probable favorite.
Ridden by Manny Franco, Tiz the Law ran 1 1/ 4 miles in 2: 00.65 on Saturday without fans in the grandstand during what is usually the Spa's biggest day of the summer. He paid $ 3, $ 2.40 and $ 2.10.
The 3- year- old colt remains undefeated this year with four straight graded stakes victories for
82- year- old trainer Barclay Tagg.
“I've been doing this a long time and I've always wanted to win the Travers," Tagg said. “This has been in my head my whole life. And now it happened so it couldn't be better.”
Tiz the Law became the first New York- bred in 138 years to win the Belmont Stakes on June 20 in the first leg of the rescheduled Triple Crown series. He began his racing career at Saratoga last summer and has six wins in seven starts.
“We saw a performance today that just blows me away,” said Jack Knowlton, managing partner of Sackatoga Stable. “We know we had a nice horse. We thought we had the best horse. To do what he did today, we're looking forward to going to Kentucky now.”
Knowlton was part of the ownership group cheering on Tiz the Law by the fence near the finish line. Wearing masks, the group high- fived but didn't pay much heed to the sign advising people to keep their distance.
“I wish there were 50,000- plus people here to see this performance live," he said.
The Travers victory gave Tiz the Law 100 points in qualifying for the Kentucky Derby and he continues atop the leaderboard with 372.
Caracaro returned $ 6.40 and $ 4. Max Player, third in the Belmont, paid $ 3.70 to show.
South Bend was fourth, followed by Country Grammer, Bob Baffert- trained Uncle Chuck and Shivaree.
Caracaro earned 40 Derby qualifying points, while Max Player picked up 20 and South Bend earned 10.
Tiz the Law was third in the early going before overtaking leader Uncle Chuck near the quarter pole. Franco sneaked a peek behind him before taking Tiz the Law three horses wide and then two horses wide before straightening into the upper stretch. Tiz the Law geared down near the sixteenth pole and cruised home.
“He gave me chills. When I pressed the button, he just took off," Franco said.
In the $ 300,000 Test for 3- year- old fillies, Gamine defeated Venetian Harbor by seven lengths for Baffert. Up in Smoke finished third.
Gamine ran seven furlongs in 1: 20.83, equaling the stakes record set by Lady Tak in 2003. She paid $ 2.60 to win as the odds- on favorite.
Gamine was coming off an 18 3/ 4- length victory in the Acorn at Belmont Park on June 20. Next up for her is the $ 1.25 million Kentucky Oaks on Sept. 4.
“She's rising straight to the top,” said Jim Barnes, assistant to Baffert, who remained in California. “For what she's accomplished so far for such a lightly raced filly, we look forward to stretching her out and see what comes of that.”
Ramona Hill wins Hambletonian
A filly winning the Hambletonian has been a rare sight in the 95- year history of trotting's biggest race.
Only 15 have accomplished the feat. Now owners Michelle and Al Crawford and Brad Grant have done it twice in the past three years.
Ramona Hill joined the list Saturday in East Rutherford,
N. J., scoring an impressive one- length victory while matching the stakes record set by her sire in 2009. Atlanta won in 2018 for the Crawfords and Grant.
"We haven't quite processed, I don't think we'll process for a long time," Michelle Crawford said. "To have these two fillies in our lives and to do the hard work and the breeding and the racing and selections in the yearling crop to get them to this point and then find out that they're good enough to go into these races and be competitive, is unbelievable — it's a great feeling."
Driven by Andrew McCarthy, the 3- year- old daughter of Muscle Hill covered the mile in 1: 50.1 in equaling the record set by her father. The Tony Alagna- trained trotter paid $ 2.80, $ 2.10 and $ 2.10 as the favorite in the field of 10 3- year- olds for the $ 1 million race.
Ramona Hill made a late last- to- first move and posted the fastest time ( 1: 51.2) in winning one of the two eliminations held last week.
Breaking from the No. 5 post position in the final, McCarthy moved earlier this week, taking the lead from Threefiftytwo near the end of the backstretch in winning for the third time in four starts in the coronavirus- delayed season.