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Tiz The Law ‘A Different Horse’ This Year, Return To Churchill Won’t Be A Problem

The only time likely Grade 1 Kentucky Derby favorite Tiz the Law has not earned a trip to the winner's circle in seven career starts came at Churchill Downs when he capped his juvenile year with a third-place finish in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club last November.

So much has changed since then for the New York-bred son of Constitution, including four straight graded stakes wins to start his sophomore campaign. After capturing the Grade 3 Holy Bull and Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, Tiz the Law has been making history since, becoming the first state-bred in more than a century to win the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes by 3 ¾ lengths on June 20 and followed by throttling the Grade 1 Runhappy Travers field by 5 ½ lengths on August 8 at Saratoga.

Those efforts have primed Tiz the Law, bred in the Empire State by Twin Creeks Farm, for a shot at history as he continues on the Triple Crown trail. The next challenge is a return engagement at Churchill, where he will be the likely heavy favorite in the 146th running of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby on September 5.

Jockey Manny Franco, who expertly piloted the Barclay Tagg-trained Tiz the Law to four Grade 1 wins, including the Champagne in October at Belmont Park, said his charge has matured since his last appearance in the Bluegrass State.

“He's a different horse now. He's very mature and he's improving race-by-race and I'm really happy with the way he's doing it,” Franco said. “His mind is growing and he's doing everything the right way. He's ready for whatever happens.”

Traditionally the opening leg of the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby is now the middle jewel, with the Belmont Stakes serving as the opener to accommodate the revised training schedule for 3-year-olds due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Though the circumstances are different with the race being in September instead of May, the “Run for the Roses” will maintain its signature full field, with up to 20 entrants still expected. Though Tiz the Law remains the unanimous leader in the NTRA top 3-year-old poll [and fifth in the top overall thoroughbred poll overall], Franco said the Derby will see the rest of the field looking to take down the favorite.

“If we get a good position, it's going to be the same,” Franco said. “We just need a good break and put him where he's comfortable, and he'll have a great race.”

In the Runhappy Travers, Franco was able to gear down Tiz the Law in deep stretch, but said he likely won't have that luxury a week from now.

“The Derby won't be an easy race, so we have to be prepared for everything that day and I think on that day, I'm going to have to make him run and see what he has in the tank,” Franco said. “He gave me great confidence after the last race because he handled the mile and a quarter, and the way he won, it gave me more confidence.”

The opportunity to ride Tiz the Law for owner Sackatoga Stable has been a continuation of a flourishing career for Franco. Still just 25 years old, Franco has come into his own as a jockey, winning the last two New York Racing Association year-end riding titles on the highly competitive circuit. Last November, he won his first career Breeders' Cup race, guiding Sharing to victory in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, and won his first American Classic in this year's Belmont.

A win in the Kentucky Derby would set up a potential history making spot in the Grade 1 Preakness on October 3, where Tiz the Law could attempt to become just the 14th Triple Crown winner in history.

“This is a horse that any rider needs; we all need a shot on this kind of horse,” Franco said. “I'm really enjoying the moment to have this opportunity. I'm trying to do the best I can. He does things the other horses can't. I put him wherever I want and he's going to be there for me. Some horses, that's not [the case]. He has a lot of ability. He's very easy to ride. He rates. He does whatever I ask.”

Franco, who started riding in the United States in 2013, has won seven of his 11 career Grade 1 victories occur since 2019. His agent is Hall of Famer Angel Cordero, Jr., who won a pair of Kentucky Derbies with Bold Forbes in 1976 and Spend a Buck in 1985.

“Angel is a Hall of Fame rider and I'm just happy to have him on my side because he's been in this position before and he always talks to me about how to handle this time,” Franco said. “I'm just blessed to have him in my corner. I just listen to him and try to put it in practice.”

Franco entered Friday with 1,385 career wins in 9,710 starts.

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Heather Smullen an Integral Part of Team Tiz

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Every morning when Tiz the Law (Constitution) goes out to the track for his exercise, there is a Smullen from Oxford, PA on his back.

Most days the likely favorite for the GI Kentucky Derby is carrying Robin Smullen, trainer Barclay Tagg’s longtime assistant and life partner. Once a week, when the colt has his timed workout, though, Heather Smullen, Robin’s 38-year-old niece, has the assignment. It is a challenge, she acknowledges, to keep the four-time Grade I winner to the task while not getting in the way.

“He is pretty impressive,” Heather Smullen said. “The goal is always to make it look–for him, it is effortless–for the person sitting on his back, you want to make it look as effortless on your part, because the more I do, the more it either annoys him or distracts him. He knows to do his job. When he was younger he was a little bit green. Now he does his job very well. That being said, you’ve got to tell him. ‘We’ve got to stop. We can’t be going this fast. We really don’t need to go quite this fast.’ You have to do it in a way that he is cooperative because you don’t demand anything of him. You ask him nicely and hope he agrees because he is a very athletic horse.”

Like her aunt, Heather Smullen grew up around horses and moved from the show ring to the business of Thoroughbred racing. Since graduating from Cecil College in Northeast Maryland near the Fair Hill Training Center, where she studied photography and digital imaging, she has added to her resume working for trainer Ralph Hicks and Alan Cohen’s Arindel Farm. Since her teens, Smullen has been connected to Tagg’s stable. Tagg quipped “I haven’t been able to get rid of her since” she spent a summer in Saratoga with Robin and him about 20 years ago.

The enthusiastic teenager has emerged as an important member of the team that is preparing Sackatoga Stable’s once-beaten colt for the Derby. As usual, she was up on Tiz the Law when he worked five furlongs in a bullet :59.47 in the darkness at 5:30 a.m. Sunday. She will be aboard when he has his final Derby work this weekend and will accompany the New York-bred on his flight to Louisville on Monday.

Smullen said it is clear that he understands what is ahead on the mornings when they are together.

“He knows I get on him and he gets to have fun. He gets to go fast, essentially,” she said. “So, when I get on him, he’s like, ‘game time.’ He puffs up and he will put on a show. That’s what he likes to do.”

Smullen said that Tiz the Law is very much aware of who he is, what he can do and the array of people around him.

“He knows everyone. He is very smart,” she said. “Every horse had a different level of intelligence. Some horses are very smart. He, in particular, is very smart. He knows his people. He knows his people he likes. You see him for the cameras. The ears are up. He is alert. He is like, ‘look at me, I am beautiful, I am good at what I do.’ He knows.”

Heather Smullen is the daughter of Robin’s older brother, Randy. Robin and Randy and their siblings were raised on the family’s 120-acre farm that was home to 25 horses. A couple of decades later, history repeated itself with the next generation of Smullens. Robin was already in the formative years of her Thoroughbred racing career when Heather was a youngster with an interest in horses.

“She grew up on that farm riding show horses, ponies and anything she could get her hands on she rode,” Robin Smullen said. “She learned everything from experience. She kind of grew up the same way I did. She learned everything from experience, riding and doing.”

Robin described the relationship with her niece as being more like they are sisters and said she was proud of what she accomplished.

“Oh, sure. How could I not be?,” Robin Smullen said. “She does everything really the way you want it done. She’s very astute with soundness issues. A lot of that she learned from me, too. Hind-end issues she really picked up on right away. But, there again, she grew up on a horse, so she learned it quickly. She had to re-adjust her riding skills to get along with the racehorses. She can hold a really strong horse and she’s a little tiny thing. I showed her easier ways to hold horses and she caught right on when she started doing it.

“I was kind of out of the picture with her when she started learning to gallop, but when she went to work for Barclay and got on some real difficult horses I showed her the best way to get along with a real difficult horse. She just caught on. Everything is really natural to her.”

During her career as an exercise rider and assistant trainer Heather Smullen has been up on many top-level horses. She was the regular rider of the Ralph Nicks-trained GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Caledonia Road (Quality Road) and handled Tale of Ekati (Tale of the Cat) and Big Truck (Birdrun) among others for the Tagg stable. On a few occasions, Smullen filled in for her aunt on Funny Cide (Distorted Humor), Sackatoga’s 2003 Derby and GI Preakness S. winner. She called him the strongest horse she has been on as she compared him to Tiz the Law.

“And he would give you goosebumps just going. The stride on him was incredible,” she said. “But he only had one way of going and that was fast. And this horse is much more tactical. He is much more manageable but he does play games. He messes with other horses, and messes with you if you don’t let him go fast enough.”

Smullen smiled as she explained how Tiz the Law “messes” with other horses on the track.

“He will either try to buzz horses or he will be like, ‘let’s go to the outside, let’s go past this horse and go faster,'” she said. “He is just smart, so he plays games. If you don’t let him go fast, he will find something else entertaining to do. So, with him, the most impressive thing about him is that he has a turn of foot like no other horse that I have ever been on. You can be going at a cruising speed, which is fast, and if you just put your hands down and smooch to him and say ‘go’ two or three strides, he is gone. Most horses it takes a sixteenth of a mile to get running.”

To make her point, Smullen explained how horses can be slow to accelerate in a race when a jockey asks them to get into a spot, which can cost them position and ground.

“It does not take him awhile to get running. There are very few horses I have ever been on that have the turn of foot he has,” she said. “I have never gone on him as fast as he can go. We were joking the other day about that. I have never ever been on him in a work where you had to say ‘go’ because he goes so fast. When he was a baby you would ask him because you were teaching him stuff. Now he knows. So, how fast would he be if you asked him? I don’t want to find that out. I just want to keep him nice and sound and win a lot of races.”

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Tagg Calls Tiz The Law’s Penultimate Derby Work ‘Perfect’

After Saturday's sudden downpour in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., that drastically changed the track conditions and postponed Tiz the Law's workout, the Sackatoga Stable-owned colt was the first horse on the Saratoga Race Course main track Sunday, breezing five furlongs in a bullet 59.47 seconds in preparation for the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby on September 5.

At 5:30 a.m., on the main track rated fast with exercise rider Heather Smullen up, Tiz the Law reached three furlongs in :35 3/5 and galloped out six furlongs in 1:12 4/5 and up in 1:26 for seven furlongs.

Trainer Barclay Tagg said the workout for the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes and Grade 1 Runhappy Travers champ was “perfect” as he prepares for the Kentucky Derby, second leg of the Triple Crown, at Churchill Downs. The third leg of the Triple Crown, the Grade 1 Preakness, is slated for October 3 at Pimlico Race Course.

“It went fast enough, but not too fast,” Tagg said. “It was a little quicker than usual, but it wasn't too quick for him. He's a pretty fast horse. I told Heather I wanted a good work in him. I didn't want to set any records out there. I wanted her to keep a good snug hold on him. I wanted a good work.”

This was the first workout for Tiz the Law since winning the Travers by 5 1/2 lengths on August 8. With two weeks before the Kentucky Derby, Tagg said this workout was important.

“This is an important workout. In one way, I don't have any way to make up for it,” Tagg said. “It's the first thing he has done in the last two or three weeks. That's why I needed a good work today. If he goes a little too slow going on top of the race, I wouldn't want that, but I don't want it too fast either. It's going to have to be almost perfect. If it's just like today, that would be fine. I can only work him two times before this race. To me, this work was more important.”

Smullen said the colt performed in a professional manner while working on the Saratoga main track.

“It was a little dark and he wasn't quite as focused going down the backside,” she said. “He was playing around. At the three-eighths pole, I took my stick out. He stayed nice and straight. I never had to ask him. At the eighth pole, he saw a horse. I didn't have to do anything. He finished up his work. Galloping out, he just kept going. He's good at what he does.”

Watching near the clocker stand on the backstretch, Sackatoga Stable principal owner Jack Knowlton said he was also impressed with the workout and gallop out.

“Pretty amazing,” Knowlton said. “If you watch him gallop out, he just wants more. He isn't even breathing hard, which is pretty amazing. They didn't expect that he was going to have a fast work. They wanted him to have a vigorous work and gallop out and get a lot out of the work. I think they got all of that and more. [Assistant trainer] Robin [Smullen] and Barclay said not to expect a real fast time because the plan was to be off the rail because the rail was pretty deep.”

Tagg also had Joyce B. Young's Highland Sky working over the Oklahoma training turf course this morning in preparation for the Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Sword Dancer. Also with Smullen aboard, the 7-year-old gelding went in 1:01.22.

Highland Sky made a belated run from the back of the field in the Grade 2 Bowling Green, crossing the wire in third before being elevated to second behind Cross Border. This was the second workout off that race as his first workout was a bullet in 1:00 1/5 on August 14.

“He's doing well since that race,” Tagg said. “If he wasn't doing well, I wouldn't be running him.”

Almost five years ago [September 5, 2015] Highland Sky won his debut at Saratoga going 1 1/16 miles over the turf course. He has also won over the Saratoga main track by taking the John's Call in the off-the-turf event last August by 81/4 lengths.

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Tiz the Law Drills Five-Furlong Bullet in Penultimate Derby Breeze

Sackatoga Stable’s Tiz the Law (Constitution), a looming prohibitive favorite in the GI Kentucky Derby, recorded his second-to-last breeze before the Sept. 5 Run for the Roses when covering five furlongs in a bullet :59.47 (1/39) over the Saratoga main track Sunday morning. The Barclay Tagg trainee was scheduled to breeze Saturday at the Spa, but had his work pushed back a day after a sudden downpour drastically changed the track conditions.

Working under cover of darkness at 5:30 a.m. Sunday under exercise rider Heather Smullen, Tiz the Law clicked off his three-furlong split in :35 3/5 before galloping out six panels in 1:12 4/5 and up in 1:26 flat (XBTV video).

“It went fast enough, but not too fast,” Tagg told the NYRA notes team. “It was a little quicker than usual, but it wasn’t too quick for him. He’s a pretty fast horse. I told Heather I wanted a good work in him. I didn’t want to set any records out there. I wanted her to keep a good snug hold on him. I wanted a good work.”

The breeze was Tiz the Law’s first since romping with a career-best 109 Beyer in the GI Runhappy Travers S. Aug. 8. He is scheduled to breeze once more next weekend before shipping to Churchill Downs.

“This is an important workout. In one way, I don’t have any way to make up for it,” Tagg said. “It’s the first thing he has done in the last two or three weeks. That’s why I needed a good work today. If he goes a little too slow going on top of the race, I wouldn’t want that, but I don’t want it too fast either. It’s going to have to be almost perfect. If it’s just like today, that would be fine. I can only work him two times before this race. To me, this work was more important.”

Smullen added that the darkness affected Tiz the Law’s focus in the early part of the work before the colt buckled down for the stretch run.

“It was a little dark and he wasn’t quite as focused going down the backside,” she said. “He was playing around. At the three-eighths pole, I took my stick out. He stayed nice and straight. I never had to ask him. At the eighth pole, he saw a horse. I didn’t have to do anything. He finished up his work. Galloping out, he just kept going. He’s good at what he does.”

Elsewhere on the Derby contender worktab Sunday, John C. Oxley’s Enforceable (Tapit) drilled six furlongs in 1:12.20 (1/2) Sunday morning at Churchill. Last seen running fourth in the GII Toyota Blue Grass S., the gray worked in the fog under Adam Beschizza in company with stablemate Ghost Fighter (Tapit) and got his final five-eighths in :59.20.

“He’s doing extremely well,” said trainer Mark Casse. “This was his last big breeze. They caught him in 12 and 1, but he probably went a little faster because we broke him off at the five and a half and we worked him a sixteenth past the wire, but it was so foggy. The time isn’t as important as how well he did it. Adam said he couldn’t get him pulled up until the three-eighths pole. He’s doing very well and is holding his weight good. I told Mr. Oxley that I don’t know where he fits with this group, but we couldn’t ask him to be any better than he is right now.”

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