Disappointment, but no shame

Editor’s note: Tiz the Law, owned by Sackatoga Stable, finished second in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby as the 3-5 favorite. Jack Knowlton of Saratoga Springs is the operating manager of Sackatoga and will be sharing his experiences of Derby week with the Times Union, as told to Times Union racing writer Tim Wilkin

I am disappointed. I am told Authentic ran the seventh-fastest Derby in history and Tiz just got beat. There is no shame in that. I don’t know how Authentic gagging at a mile and an eighth in the Haskell runs one of the very fastest Derbys. That is pretty incredible.

There is no shame in what our horse did. Bob Baffert has now won six Kentucky Derbys. Everybody had asked me all week who I was afraid of going into the race. I told them you have to pay attention when Baffert brings a horse to this race. I was talking to him during the week and he must be a very good poker player. The way he was talking to me, I did not think he expected that he was going to win. Obviously, he had that horse cranked up to run and he did run. You have to give him and his horse credit.

We got the trip that we wanted. Authentic got the lead and got to the inside all the way around. Speed is a huge asset and Tiz has got good speed and he got to Authentic. When they went into the stretch, I thought Tiz was going to go by him. We ran up to the other horse and the other horse was better than us. I thought we were going to be a winner. You had to think with the fractions that Authentic was running that he was going to come back to us. It just didn’t happen.

Again, I am very disappointed but very proud of our horse. I am proud of our jockey, Manny Franco. He gave us the ride we asked him to give us. There really isn’t a whole lot more to say. I talked to Barclay after the race and he was with the horse and he said Tiz came out of the race in good shape. He is doing fine.

The partners and I had a great time, a great experience. Up until the end, that is. We know Tiz ran a great race and he did himself proud. It’s all you can ask for. When you are second in one of the fastest runnings of the history of the Kentucky Derby, what can you say? Just really proud. There is no question about that. Just because he got beat, I don’t think Tiz loses any of his stature.

Well, we are just about back to the hotel and we’re all getting off the school bus. And that will do it for our diary. It has been fun.