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Tale of the Tape: Funny Cide vs. Tiz the Law

Tom Pedulla of America’s Best Racing uses a Tale of the Tape to compare and contrast top 3-year-olds Funny Cide, the 2003 Kentucky Derby winner, and Tiz the Law, this year’s huge Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve favorite.

The Derby 20 Presented By NYRA Bets: 18 Will Go Forward In Rescheduled Run For The Roses

The defection of Art Collector early Tuesday morning and late addition of several other entrants this week have left an interesting field of 18 for Saturday's rescheduled Kentucky Derby.

For the first time since the introduction of the Derby points system in 2013, there will be two horses in the field with no points at all. Those are the Todd Pletcher-trained Money Moves, a lightly-raced son of Candy Ride, and the Bret Calhoun-trained Mr. Big News, an upset winner of the Oaklawn Stakes two starts back. Neither has the credentials to compete with this field on paper, but the first Saturday in (September) is for dreamers!

Tiz the Law is definitely a deserving favorite, but the large field could make him vulnerable. Honor A. P. should be ready to roll for trainer John Shirreffs, and its hard to leave a Bob Baffert trainee out of the Kentucky Derby.

My longshot picks, or a few horses that I expect to outrun their odds, include: King Guillermo (20-1 morning line), Ny Traffic (20-1 morning line), and Enforceable (30-1 morning line).

Where did your favorite Derby horse end up? Be sure to click on the expandable boxes for each Derby candidate to get all the latest information in this edition of The Derby 20!

Tiz the Law

Connections

Pedigree

372

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

1st

Paulick Report Ranking

Honor A. P.

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Pedigree

140

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

2nd

Paulick Report Ranking

King Guillermo

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

3rd

Paulick Report Ranking

Ny Traffic

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Pedigree

110

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

4th

Paulick Report Ranking

Enforceable

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

5th

Paulick Report Ranking

Major Fed

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

6th

Paulick Report Ranking

Thousand Words

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

7th

Paulick Report Ranking

Sole Volante

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

8th

Paulick Report Ranking

Max Player

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

9th

Paulick Report Ranking

Authentic

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Pedigree

200

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

10th

Paulick Report Ranking

Money Moves

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

11th

Paulick Report Ranking

South Bend

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

12th

Paulick Report Ranking

Winning Impression

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

13th

Paulick Report Ranking

Finnick the Fierce

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

14th

Paulick Report Ranking

Necker Island

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

15th

Paulick Report Ranking

Attachment Rate

Connections

Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

16th

Paulick Report Ranking

Mr. Big News

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

17th

Paulick Report Ranking

Storm the Court

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Pedigree

Derby Points

Derby Post & Odds

18th

Paulick Report Ranking

The post The Derby 20 Presented By NYRA Bets: 18 Will Go Forward In Rescheduled Run For The Roses appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Hernandez Not Worried About Inside Post With One-Eyed Finnick The Fierce

For most trainers, getting the inside-most gate in the Kentucky Derby is like a punch in the gut. It would be easy to think the trainer of a horse missing his right eye — blind to a wall of horses on his outside — would be verklempt. Not Rey Hernandez. Hernandez, who conditions and co-owns Finnick the Fierce, points out the chestnut has finished well from the first post position before, including his third-place performance in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and his second-place effort (which was later converted to a win via disqualification) in an allowance/optional claimer at Oaklawn. “You know, he's been running really good with the one position,” said Hernandez. “His best races have been from the one position. He might like to be there.”

Hernandez said for as long as he's had Finnick the Fierce in the barn, he has been missing his right eye, which was removed when the son of Dialed In was a weanling. Finnick the Fierce was born with a congenital cataract in that eye, and was sold to veterinarian Dr. Arnaldo Monge for $3,000. After the eye was removed, Monge said the oversized colt was a different animal, leading Monge to suspect the eye had been painful for some time. Monge sold a half interest in the horse to Hernandez, charging the same $3,000 he originally paid. Now, Finnick has raked in $191,290 in earnings and is headed to the Derby. Hernandez said it's a dream come true. “It's amazing,” he said. 'It's a dream we've all got. I'm very excited to have gotten this far.” Hernandez was the one to break Finnick the Fierce as a yearling, so he has only ever known him as a one-eyed horse. He admits it took a little bit of patience as the horse began to train. It also required gelding him early on to reduce misplaced hormonal exuberance that could get him hurt. “It is challenging,” said Hernandez. “In the early stages he was a little more careful with the blind eye because he was trying to see everything with the one good eye. But he's learning how to progress with the one eye. “In the early stage, he'd look around with the good eye everywhere. When he ran in the Kentucky Jockey Club, he was running with the head cocked, trying to see the crowd. He still ran a big race but you could see he was not focused completely.” Hernandez said his partnership with Monge is a good one. For the most part, he's left to manage the horse as he sees fit. Monge told the Louisville Courier-Journal he knew early on the horse was something special–even before he hit the racetrack, thanks to his size and excellent conformation. For Hernandez, it was his performance in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill that sealed it. “He always showed a lot of talent, and he was very smart, but we didn't know he was that good until he ran first time out,” he said. “I really liked how he ran. That was a five furlong race and he was flying the last 1/16th of a mile. At that point I had a good feeling he was a good horse. “Once he ran second in the Jockey Club, it was pretty much the top 3-year-olds in that race. I was really impressed and running second in the same track they run the Derby, that's pretty good.” Finnick the Fierce beat Kentucky Derby favorite Tiz the Law, who ran third in that race. Tiz the Law has been undefeated since then, meaning Finnick the Fierce and Silver Prospector are the only two 3-year-olds ever to get the better of him, and they've done it on this track. In a Derby year unlike any other, Hernandez is a little relieved Finnick the Fierce will not have to content with the swarms of people normally present on the backstretch or leaning over the rail during the walkover. “The way I look at it, it's a plus,” he said. “It's a plus because I think the less noise for him, noise is a little annoying for him. He's a little concerned by noises, but now that it's going to be quiet I think he'll probably have a better performance.”

Thanks to the National Turfwriters and Broadcasters Association (NTWAB), which has assembled a group of pool reporters providing independent reporting to members unable to be on the Churchill Downs grounds this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The post Hernandez Not Worried About Inside Post With One-Eyed Finnick The Fierce appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Tiz the Law Owner Fights Off Leukemia, Makes It To the Derby

Roger Sofer won’t be at Churchill Downs Saturday to cheer on Tiz the Law (Constitution) in the GI Kentucky Derby, but he will be at home, watching, hoping and rooting for a horse he co-owns along with 31 other partners in the Sackatoga Stable syndicate. He’s not complaining

Back in mid-March, right before the GI Florida Derby, Sofer got the chilling diagnosis that he had leukemia. He vowed to beat the disease but knew the odds were against him and he didn’t know what the next few months would entail.

“Roger is a fighter,” said Jack Knowlton, who heads the Sackatoga team.

The fighter is still standing, and he will make it to Kentucky Derby day.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” the 70-year-old Houston resident said. “It’s just a very slow process and I am tired all the time. But I’m not complaining.”

Sofer exercised regularly and kept his weight down, so he wasn’t too worried when he developed a rash in March. He had it checked out and the news was devastating. The doctors at MD Anderson Cancer Center told him that he had a rare and aggressive form of leukemia and there was no known cure for what he had. They gave him a year.

“It was staggering,” he said. “I woke up with a skin rash and there was nothing else wrong with me. I am someone who works out six days a week, and has weighed the same for 40 years. Turned out it was leukemia.”

He began treatment immediately, undergoing chemotherapy seven days a week. He was let out of the hospital just in time to watch the GI Florida Derby, getting home about an hour before the race.

The Sackatoga family had already endured one tragedy. In October, Tiz the Law partner Bruce Phillips passed away. Sofer vowed that his story would not end the same way.

“I am looking forward to beating the brains out of this thing,” he said.

At least he had something to take his mind off of his illness. When Tiz the Law won the Florida Derby and Sofer vowed that not only would he attend the Kentucky Derby he would bring the doctor from MD Anderson who had helped him through his ordeal. If not for COVID-19, those would have been goals he would have met. Then there was the GI Belmont S. and then the GI Travers S. Sofer watched them all from home from what became his lucky television and wearing the same clothes every time.

“Tiz has been great because he gives me something else to think about,” Sofer said. “The Houston press has been really good to me. My story has been in the papers here quite a bit. They got all the clippings up in the unit at the hospital, so everybody there knows my story and everybody there is rooting for Tiz.”

It wasn’t just the horse. He said Knowlton and the other Sackatoga partners have always done whatever they could to keep his spirits up.

“Roger is a tremendously caring guy,” Knowlton said. “He’s a huge, huge supporter of horse aftercare. I can’t say enough good things about Roger, and we were all really saddened by the situation he was in. We’re hopeful the treatment will be successful and he’ll be back with us watching the races next year.”

Sofer was born in Queens and had been a lifelong fan before deciding to go into ownership. He bought a few horses on his own and went in on a some others with the team at Hidden Brook Farm. He met Knowlton in 2008 and decided to give Sackatoga a try after watching the stable’s Doc N Roll (Wheelaway) win the Cab Calloway S. for New York breds at Saratoga.

“To be involved with Tiz the Law you never think you’re going to get lucky like we’ve gotten lucky with this guy. It’s dream,” he said.

While Sofer was hanging in, his doctors were still concerned and told him that he would die if not getting a bone marrow transplant. With his son acting as the donor, Sofer got the transplant July 2, 12 days after Tiz the Law won the Belmont. He’s convinced that the transplant has allowed him to turn another corner.

“We are going for the cure,” he said. “They don’t want to just make you feel better. They’re in the cure business here at MD Anderson.”

He is now receiving treatment just three days a week as an out patient and is not currently undergoing chemotherapy.

“The heavy lifting has been done,” Sofer said. “Thank God, I am doing well.”

His goal now is to stay that way.

“I really believe I’m going to beat these thing,” Sofer said. “I don’t know if I’m going to beat it for 20 years. But, overall, if I can just stay normally healthy I’m going to be around long time.”

Which might mean watching Tiz the Law win a Triple Crown or have another standout season next year. Being part of a once-in-a-lifetime horse and winning a battle against leukemia, Sofer has come to believe that anything is possible.

The post Tiz the Law Owner Fights Off Leukemia, Makes It To the Derby appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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