Though trainer Ken McPeek has been considering sending talented 3-year-old Tiz the Bomb overseas to contest classic races like the Epsom Derby on grass, the colt will first make another start over dirt on the first Saturday in May. McPeek broke the news on Steve Byk's At The Races radio show on Monday, following Tiz the Bomb's victory over Tapeta on Saturday in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
“He was ultra-impressive,” McPeek said. “He seems to be a horse that certainly is very adaptable. The initial reaction after the race, and there are some logistics issues taking him to Europe initially, but I think he's going to run in the Kentucky Derby. This horse has done well, he's here, he's gonna get in, and he's punched his ticket.”
Tiz the Bomb has a big juvenile season, winning Kentucky Downs' $500,000 Juvenile Mile Stakes and the G2 Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland before a big runner-up finish in the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.
The son of Hit It A Bomb made his sophomore debut on the dirt in the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 5, finishing seventh while beaten 20 1/4 lengths. The Equibase chart indicates that Tiz the Bomb “raced two wide and out of contention early, and had no apparent mishaps.”
Having since rebounded with two stakes victories over synthetic at Turfway, earning 110 Derby points in the process, Tiz the Bomb is giving McPeek confidence ahead of the Kentucky Derby.
“Churchill is a different surface,” McPeek explained. “The Gulfstream surface is a heavy sand and the kickback is pretty significant, and he didn't handle that at all. I've had a list of horses over my career that have run on anything, and I think sometimes we suffer from analysis paralysis when you pigeon-hole a horse that he's strictly a grass horse or a dirt horse or a synthetic horse. Sometimes it's more class level than it is surface.”
Should Tiz the Bomb run well in the Kentucky Derby, McPeek could still take the colt overseas.
“The 2,000 Guineas is a race that I would have loved to have attempted, but there were some problems with logistics and licensing and things like that,” the trainer said. “If he were to run well in the Kentucky Derby and he justifies it, I would love to take him to the English Derby and the Irish Derby. I think he's a horse that will handle even more ground.
“Fingers crossed this horse stays healthy… He could take us on maybe an unprecedented ride.”
Among those problems with licensing could be Tiz the Bomb's ownership.
Tiz the Bomb raced last year for Phoenix Thoroughbreds. The group's founder, Amer Abdulaziz Salman, was accused of money laundering in a cryptocurrency scam. Abdulaziz has denied the allegations, but Phoenix has not raced in Britain since October of 2020 when the British Horseracing Authority issued a suspension on financial grounds.
Phoenix was listed as the colt's owner in the G3 Holy Bull, but Tiz the Bomb is listed in the Triple Crown nominations as being owned by McPeek's Magdalena Racing and raced under that name in the Jeff Ruby and the John Battaglia.
McPeek told the Thoroughbred Racing Commentary in February that Magdalena will be leasing Tiz the Bomb from Phoenix for any of his starts in Britain.
The post ‘He’s Punched His Ticket’: Tiz The Bomb Will Head To Kentucky Derby appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
