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20 Years Celebrating the Legendary Tiznow

As the calendar turns to 2022, the final crop of foals from legendary racehorse and sire Tiznow will become yearlings. Soon-turning 25, Tiznow has sired over 80 blacktype winners including 14 Grade I/Group 1 winners after nearly two decades as a cornerstone stallion at WinStar Farm.

This year, the successful sire enjoyed his first full year of retirement. WinStar Stallion Manager Larry McGinnis said that Tiznow still shares a similar routine to the other stallions in the stud barn.

“He does get a bit more leeway because he's a teacher's favorite,” McGinnis admitted. “If there's a day where he wants to stay out in his paddock, we'll feed him outside. I think he has developed a little bit of a bravado as he's gotten older. He does try to intimidate the young boys as they go through. He does what he wants, when he wants and it will be like that for the rest of his life.”

Such a lifestyle is nothing new for Tiznow, who was well documented on the racetrack for doing most everything on his own terms. McGinnis said that attitude never wavered throughout the blaze-faced bay's career at stud.

“Tiznow is the smartest horse I've ever been around. When we first got him, I noticed that. He looks a lot and nothing fazes him. One time we had him on a tour and a girl got stung by a bee right next to him. She screamed bloody murder and he just stood there. He has never shown that he's afraid of anything.”

Tiznow and McGinnis have developed a special bond as they've shared the past two decades together at WinStar. Before Tiznow's arrival, McGinnis was the assistant manager at Prestonwood Farm as the property transitioned into WinStar Farm.

“They told me that we had a stallion coming in and asked if I wanted to be stallion manager,” he explained. “I didn't realize that the horse coming in was Tiznow.”

Tiznow was no shoo-in to become a successful Kentucky stallion when he first arrived at WinStar, but the grit and determination the California-bred son of Cee's Tizzy showed during his illustrious career on the racetrack was soon reflected in his offspring.

He was the leading freshman sire of his crop after producing 2005 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Folklore and 2009 GI Dubai World Cup winner Well Armed. His success continued throughout his career with the likes of 2008 GI Travers S. hero Colonel John, 2008 GI Belmont S. winner Da' Tara and 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Mile victor and now WinStar sire Tourist.

Tiznow prepares for the 2001 Breeders' Cup Classic | Horsephotos

“Tourist is pretty much like his dad-even-keeled,” McGinnis explained. “Nothing much gets him wound up. I've rarely seen one of Tiznow's progeny that didn't have composure and know how to handle things without getting excited about it.”

Tourist and Crestwood Farm's Tizdejavu are the only sons of Tiznow standing in Kentucky today, with several more at stud in regional markets. If his top performer this year in GSW Midnight Bourbon someday joins a stallion program, the colt could be the last of Tiznow's sons to begin a career at stud.

And yet, Tiznow still has his last few crops waiting to show their worth on the racetrack. Fittingly, his final crop that arrived this year came 20 years after the unforgettable day at Belmont Park when Tiznow won his second straight GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

Owned by Cees Racing Stable and campaigned to a champion 3-year-old and Horse of the Year season in 2000 by trainer Jay Robbins, Tiznow returned to the Breeders' Cup in 2001 to defend his Classic title with only one win to his resume as a 4-year-old.

Even his regular rider, Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron, couldn't be certain of Tiznow's true ability as they approached the starting gate.

“There was always some question in your mind of if he peaked as a 3-year-old,” McCarron said. “But the way he trained, I knew there was more. It was just a question of which Tiznow was going to come to the party. Fortunately, he rose to the occasion on the most important day of his life in the 2001 Breeders' Cup Classic.”

Sent off as a 7-1 gamble behind the top pick in Juddmonte homebred Aptitude as well as European invaders Galileo (Ire) and Sakhee, Tiznow stalked in third position for most of the trip until McCarron looked out of the corner of his eye to see Sakhee coming to their outside. The pair fought neck and neck down the stretch and as the wire grew closer, Sakhee bobbed his head in front.

“I had it in my mind that I was not going to hit him with the stick,” McCarron explained. “I wanted to let him be the boss. When Sakhee went by me by a neck I thought, 'Well, I've got nothing to lose. I might as well see if he'll respond from a little tap.' So I tapped him once left-handed and I felt him accelerate. He went back on and overtook Sakhee right in the shadow of the wire.”

The roar of the crowd swelled as race caller Tom Durkin exclaimed a line that will forever be held in racing's history book, pronouncing that Tiznow had won it for America.

Tiznow towers over rival Sakhee as he edges past the wire first in the 2001 Breeders' Cup Classic | Horsephotos

“I don't really know if in my notes previous to that if I was going to say that Tiznow wins it for America,” reflected Durkin. “I don't know, but it was in my subconscious somewhere. Some would argue that it was a rather jingoistic thing to say, but that was the story. Tiznow was carrying an American banner and he was trying to beat a foreign horse, so that was a big story there.”

The 2001 Breeders' Cup was the first international sporting event following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks six weeks earlier. SWAT teams lining the rooftops and security check-ins made for a very abnormal day at Belmont Park.

“When Tom Durkin screamed Tiznow wins it for America, that was a really happy day,” McCarron recalled. “With the devastation and the tragedy of 9/11, people were really longing for something to make them happy. It just so happened that the Yankees won the World Series that year and then when Tiznow wins it for America, that was kind of the icing on the cake.”

Tiznow retired after earning the title of the first and only horse in history to claim back-to-back Breeders' Cup Classics, leaving cherished memories in the hearts of racing fans as well as those who knew him best.

Today, McCarron looks back fondly on Tiznow's days in training when the opinionated and super-sized colt protested from being led into a stall and had to be turned around and backed in, as well as his most memorable antic during his final workout ahead of the 2001 Breeders' Cup when he refused to move forward on the racetrack, standing stoically for 35 minutes before finally moving ahead and putting in a blazing mile-long work.

“He had a very strong will and didn't do anything unless he was ready to do it,” McCarron said. “He was quirky, but what I learned from him was tremendous. He taught me a lot about the relationship between a person and a horse. Once I learned, I tried to figure out what made him tick and just let him be the boss. That's what he wanted, so I just followed his lead and fortunately, we had a lot of success together.”

These days, as both Tiznow and his rider enjoy the laid-back life of retirement in the Kentucky Bluegrass, it isn't uncommon for McCarron to stop in at WinStar. Along with visits from his old friend, Tiznow is still a fan favorite during the tours at WinStar and of course, he is happily looked after by McGinnis and the rest of the WinStar stallion team.

“He's just been kind of a rock,” McGinnis said, reflecting on his two decades with the stallion. “He helped my career out as much as Distorted Humor and Speightstown did. If it wasn't for them, I'd just kind of be a regular Joe. Tiznow was a good, useful sire that was a California-bred and really, if you think of it, shouldn't have been a stallion, but he made himself one by winning two Breeders' Cup Classics. I'm not sure if anybody is ever going to do that again.”

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Annual Belmont Stair Climb Tribute to 9/11 Firefighters Set to Return Oct. 17

After a year lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDNY Stair Climb returns to Belmont Park on Sunday, October 17. This year's 7th annual event is part of the nationwide 9/11 stair climb program that pays tribute to the FDNY firefighters who died more than 20 years ago on 9/11. The climb benefits the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), which supports the families of fallen firefighters and the FDNY Counseling Service Unit.

“Twenty years later, I still remember what trauma looked like etched on the faces of firefighters at the World Trade Center site when a team from the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and I arrived on scene September 12, 2001,” said Chief Ron Siarnicki, who is the NFFF executive director. “It's not something you can ever forget.”

There are several ways to participate. You can register as an individual climber, team captain or team member here and can also can donate to a climber, a team or a team member. Gates and on-site registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 17 at Belmont. The opening ceremony will be at 9:30 a.m., with the climb set from 10 a.m. to Noon. Participants are invited to a post-climb reception with food and entertainment and the day's racing card. Five races will be named in honor FDNY fallen heroes.

The fees are $50 for a climber (13 & up), which includes a t-shirt, badge & after party; $35 for a virtual climber (includes a t-shirt and virtual-climb toolkit); $35 for a virtual runner/walker, biker and gym stair climber (includes a t-shirt and virtual-climb toolkit; $50 for a climb supporter; and $20 for Kids, 4-12 (includes the after P=party, which is free for Children 3 & under.

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Belmont Park Resumes Annual 9/11 Tribute To Firefighters

From air shows to rock concerts, Belmont Park has hosted a wide variety of non-racing events in its more than 115 years.

But none of those events are more important than the hundreds of firefighters, their families and others who have gathered at Belmont Park in recent years to climb the equivalent of 110 flights of stairs from the World Trade Center, where 343 FDNY firefighters perished on Sept. 11, 2001.

Siarnicki and a foundation team arrived at the World Trade Center site within hours of the terrorist attacks. And once there, the enormous challenge ahead in facing a level and scope of tragedy unmatched in the history of U.S. firefighting became apparent.

“We quickly understood we needed to expand our capabilities and look for resources and support that we could utilize to assist the fire service and their families through this unprecedented amount of grief and loss,” recalled Siarnicki. “Not only did we lose an unprecedented number of firefighters; we also realized that supporting the families and co-workers left behind would require behavioral and mental health support with a new and intense focus on trauma.”

The nation's inaugural FDNY stair climb to benefit the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation took place on September 11, 2005 when Colorado firefighters climbed 110 flights of stairs in Denver – each step commemorating the 110 stories of the World Trade Centers. The concept caught on around the country and became an annual event, taking on particular relevance in New York, where the tragedy of 9/11 was so personal and still raw. Citi Field, home of the Mets, hosted the first of several FDNY stair climbs. In 2017, the annual event moved to Belmont Park.

There are several ways to participate. At https://nfff.akaraisin.com/ui/national/about?utm_source=ticketpage&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=belfall21&utm_content=fdnystairclimb, you can register as an individual climber, team captain or team member. You also can donate to a climber, a team or a team member.

Gates and on-site registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. on October 17 at Belmont Park. The opening ceremony will be at 9:30 a.m., with the climb set from 10 a.m. to Noon. Participants are invited to a post-climb reception with food and entertainment and the day's racing card. Five races will be named in honor FDNY fallen heroes.

“The FDNY knows that we're here for them as long as they need us,” said Chief Siarnicki of the NFFF. “We've been able to bring this same promise to the fire service as a whole. Our trauma, grief and behavioral health counseling program is something we now offer to fire service organizations across the U.S. as they're dealing with their own traumatic events and line-of-duty deaths.”

Go to firehero.org to read Chief Siarnicki's article, “20th Anniversary of 9/11 Lessons Learned.”

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A Look Back: New York Racing and 9-11

For New York-based trainer Pat Reynolds, it was supposed to be a quiet day, as quiet as it gets at the New York racetracks. September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday, a dark day in New York, and Reynolds was hoping that he could cut his day short after working one of his better horses at the time, Peeping Tom, that morning at Belmont Park. Instead, he was soon heading head first into a nightmare.

Just a few minutes after the first plane had struck the World Trade Center, someone called Reynolds into his office and told him to turn on the news. He sensed immediately that the buildings were under attack, a terrible feeling and one that hit home. Reynolds's wife, Laura, worked in the North Tower, the first one struck by an airplane.

“I went nuts,” Reynolds said. “It's one thing when you read about something like this in the paper, something happening to somebody else. This was a personal disaster.”

The usually punctual Laura Reynolds was running a few minutes late to work that morning and never reached her office. It was not until about 3 p.m. that afternoon that she was able to find a working phone to call her husband and tell him that she was safe. Still later that afternoon, she finished the long walk from lower Manhattan to the couple's home in Flushing, Queens, and fell into her husband's arms.

It is just one of the stories that emerged that day from the New York racetracks and Belmont Park, which is about a dozen miles from what was the World Trade Center. The whole country, and New York in particular, was shaken to its core that awful day, and the New York tracks didn't escape the horror and heartache. Everyone has their story, where they were when the planes hit, who they knew that was killed, how they dealt with the shock and grief.

For New York racing, it was a time to mourn and to hit the pause button, but it was also a time to look ahead. In less than seven weeks, the Breeders' Cup was set to be run at Belmont and no one wanted to give in and cancel or postpone the event. Everywhere, there was a sense that the proper response was to put your head down and get through this.

It didn't exactly start out that way.

With no racing scheduled for that afternoon, jockey Richard Migliore thought he was going to have an easy day. He started off the morning working a few horses at the track and then got in his car to head home. As he was pulling into his driveway, he got a call from a friend telling him what was going on. He went inside his home and began watching the coverage and then decided he wanted to take a look for himself. Along with trainer Dennis Brida, he drove back to Belmont and went up on the roof to get a clear view of what was happening. Migliore and Brida had the entire roof to themselves.

“You could see the smoke and everything else that was going on,” he said. “It appeared to me that one of the towers fell. I said to Dennis that the tower just fell. He said, 'No, I think something just blew up.' As the smoke and dust started to settle, you knew that a tower had fallen. It was surreal. It was madness. I'll never forget being on the roof at Belmont when the first tower fell.”

Among the handful of tracks scheduled to run that Tuesday, all canceled. Belmont was scheduled to resume racing on Wednesday, Sept. 12. Migliore heard rumors that NYRA was going to rush back into action. In what now seems like a tone-deaf move, four U.S. racetracks actually ran on Sept. 12 and 26 were in operation on the Friday after the attacks.

“There was talk there was going to be racing immediately because people thought we had to get back to some sense of normalcy,” said Migliore, whose wife, Carmela, lost a cousin, Charles Lucania, in the attacks. “Then, of course, smarter heads prevailed. It was decided that we had to take a step back.”

In the executive offices, NYRA President Terry Meyocks knew that some important decisions had to be made and made quickly.

“We discussed with the trustees and with our management team what was the right thing to do,” he said. “We knew we needed to take some time off. At the same time, we knew that the Breeders' Cup was coming up and that we had to move forward.”

Belmont resumed racing on Sept. 19, eight days after the attacks. The day began with a moment of silence before Sam Grossman played a rendition of “America” on his bugle. There were 5,436 fans in the massive stands and many seemed to have their minds elsewhere.

“I remember having mixed emotions that day,” said Migliore, who won the day's third race. “The jockey's room has always been my comfort zone. Everything else could be going wrong in my life and I could walk into the jockey's room and just escape. I could have a huge argument with my wife and when I walk into that room, it's the furthest thing from my mind. There was a sense of relief that I was going to get back to what I do. Yet, it still didn't quite feel right. It almost seemed trivial. Big deal. I got to ride in a few horse races. There was something a hell of a lot more important going on, and only a few miles away from where we lived.”

Two nights later, the Mets entertained the Atlanta Braves and the sporting world as a whole began to return to normal. But the Breeders' Cup remained a concern. With horse coming in from all over the country and the world, there were so many moving parts and so many concerns.

“We had a good rapport with local, New York City and state police,” Meyocks said. “We worked with them as to how to proceed and whether or not we could have a Breeders' Cup. We felt it was prudent to go ahead and run the Breeders' Cup. We felt confident we could do it. Basically at the end of day, we felt it was the right thing to do.”

Forty-six days had elapsed since the attacks on the World Trade Center, but reminders were everywhere when horsemen, jockeys, track management and fans started to file into the track.

“I remember going into the infield before the races,” said Jerry Bailey, who would win the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint that day aboard Squirtle Squirt. “All the jockeys gathered and they took pictures of us holding American flags. I looked up at top of the grandstand at Belmont and remember seeing snipers up there with their rifles. I thought to myself, is this the way it is going to be from now on? It struck me how different things had become.”

“The Breeders' Cup was crazy because of all the security,” Migliore recalled. “You look up on the roof and there's snipers everywhere. Everywhere you went, there were bomb sniffing dogs. They put up those big cinder block buffers so someone couldn't drive a car into the lobby.”

The day went off without a problem and it finished up with a win by the American-based Tiznow by a nose in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic over European shipper Sakhee. As he so often did, announcer Tom Durkin captured the moment perfectly, calling out “Tiznow wins it for America!”

“We all took a lot of pride in how well the Breeders' Cup worked,” Meyocks said.

As for Reynolds, he's been training ever since that fateful day. The first trainer of Big Brown, he's had some good years, but also some slow years. He's learned to deal with it.

“This is a wonderful sport and something I've spent my whole life doing,” he said. “But when it comes down to human life, everything else is secondary. That day, it put everything else into perspective.”

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