Robin Smullen | Horse Racing Free Tips

War Dancer Sires First Stakes Winner in Awad

Step Dancer became the first winner for his freshman sire (by War Front) when he led home a one-two for War Dancer on debut Sept. 4, and he gave the MGSW turf router a first black-type victory Saturday. Third in the GII Pilgrim S. Oct. 3, the bay worked his way to the rail from the seven post while traveling towards the back half of the field early here. He snuck a bit closer heading for the home turn, and remained inside for the stretch run as he waited for a seam. Like a Saltshaker moved first and too the lead, and when he opened up, he drifted off the fence, allowing Step Dancer room to run. The latter charged through on the rail, and had more than Like a Saltshaker could handle late. Both of the top two finishers were produced by freshman sons of War Front.

“I saw Jose [Ortiz, aboard Like a Saltshaker] looking for some room and I was just making sure I had some options in front of me,” said winning rider Dylan Davis. “Jose was able to get through, so I followed him and I thought something else might open up, and it did. He just loved the ground. He kept finding more and more. I was very impressed with him today. It was just like how he wowed me first time out. He really stepped up again today.”

Robin Smullen, assistant to trainer Barclay Tagg, who was in Kentucky with GI Breeders’ Cup Classic contender Tiz the Law (Constitution), added, “Last time we, we stayed a little too close to the pace and we thought we had to on the inner turf, but it took away from his kick. Today, I told Dylan [Davis] I wanted him five lengths off the pace and to find a spot and don’t ask him until he turns for home. He came home with a great kick. He doesn’t need to get to the outside. He showed that he’s game and he can do whatever you want.”

AWAD S., $80,000, Belmont, 10-31, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, 1:48.69, yl.
1–STEP DANCER, 120, c, 2, by War Dancer
                1st Dam: Just Be Steppin, by English Channel
                2nd Dam: War Indian, by Indian Charlie
                3rd Dam: Kadwah, by Mr. Prospector
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN. O-Hayward R. & Donna R. Pressman &
Diamond M Stable; B-Sugar Plum Farm & Richard Pressman
(NY); T-Barclay Tagg; J-Dylan Davis. $44,000. Lifetime Record:
GSP, 3-2-0-1, $96,100.
2–Like a Saltshaker, 122, g, 2, Peace and Justice–With Sprinkles,
by Harlan’s Holiday. O-Magic Oaks; B-Glenn E. Brok LLC (PA);
T-Adam Rice. $16,000.
3–Space Launch, 120, c, 2, Bernardini–Spacy Tracy, by
Awesome Again. O-Athlone Racing & Daniel & Jane Burke;
B-Daniel J. Burke (KY); T-Christophe Clement. $9,600.
Margins: 3/4, 3 1/4, 1HF. Odds: 7.00, 15.50, 3.95.
Also Ran: Wootton Asset (Fr), It Can Be Done, Shawdyshawdyshawdy, It’s a Gamble, Catman, Kidnapped, Claw, Heat of the Night. Scratched: Master of the Ring, Take Profit.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

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Kirkpatrick & Co Presents In Their Care: Smullen Is The Glue That Holds Tagg Operation Together

Robin Smullen was 17 years old when she was preparing Barnabas, her finest horse, for a show. He was as responsive as ever to her cues – until he could respond no longer.

Barnabas collapsed beneath Smullen due to an aneurysm. Nothing could be done except to comfort him. He died in the arms of a teenager with whom he had enjoyed such a wonderful connection, his head nestled in her lap.

Smullen was devastated. She remained in her bedroom at her family's Oxford, Pa., farm for three days. She sold her three or four remaining show horses. She did not know how she would go on.

“At that point, I was thinking I wanted to give up on horses completely,” she said.

She soon realized how strong a hold horses can have on someone who had been around them for as long as she could remember. There is a pull that is undeniable. And perhaps inescapable.

“I was born into horses. That is all I ever knew,” said Smullen. “A lot of people who get into horses and leave, they always come back.”

Come back she did, and Thoroughbred racing is so much better for that. As an assistant to Barclay Tagg and his life partner, Smullen has been instrumental in the development of a pair of outstanding New York-bred 3-year-olds for modest Sackatoga Stable.

The gelded Funny Cide swept the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2003. Tiz the Law looms as a prime contender in the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 7 at Keeneland Race Course. He could emerge as Horse of the Year if he adds his first test against older horses to his authoritative Florida Derby, Belmont and Travers triumphs.

Smullen aboard Funny Cide. Photo courtesy Robin Smullen

“Robin is really the glue that holds Barclay Tagg Racing Stable together,” said Jack Knowlton, who has overseen Sackatoga since he established it with five high school friends in 1995.

Tagg and Smullen have shown they can accomplish a lot with relatively little. Funny Cide was purchased privately for the comparatively meager sum of $75,000 as a 2-year-old in training. Tagg made a winning bid of $110,000 to bring home Tiz the Law as a yearling at Fasig-Tipton's 2018 Saratoga Sale.

Smullen is proud of the keen eyes they bring to sales.

“We've picked out so many good horses and people don't realize,” she said. “A lot of people could have bought Funny Cide, but we did. You can't see that he's going to win the Derby, but you can see that a horse can run.”

Confrontation, a $35,000 purchase as a 2-year-old, and Realm, a $75,000 yearling, provide two more examples of diamonds in the rough that the tag team of Tagg and Smullen discovered. Each horse surpassed half a million dollars in earnings.

Smullen has been aboard tractable Tiz the Law throughout his development, just as she was the headstrong Funny Cide. When she talks, Knowlton and Tagg listen.

“That is invaluable to have somebody with her knowledge,” Knowlton said. “If there is one little thing that is maybe bothering him, she'll identify it. She may know what it is or, if not, she will work with the veterinarian or the blacksmith or the chiropractor or the masseuse.”

When Smullen detected upper body stiffness in Tiz the Law following his loss to Authentic in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, she showed her unwavering commitment to always putting the horse first by urging that the colt skip the $1 million Preakness, the final leg of this year's Triple Crown due to the pandemic. Knowlton abided by that advice. He also was on board when she and Tagg opposed shipping the colt across the country to Santa Anita for last year's Juvenile despite a fees-paid berth in the demanding $2 million race courtesy of a Champagne romp.

Smullen and Tagg have long enjoyed a relationship most couples would envy.

“We went to dinner,” Tagg likes to say, “and she never left.”

One of the keys to their staying power is their ability to leave work behind once long days at the barn and the track are done. They currently oversee approximately 20 horses.

“The good part about Barclay is he leaves the barn at the barn and then home is home,” Smullen said. “If you don't get along with the way you make a decision on a certain horse or a certain race, you leave that at the barn.”

Doswell, a quirky 5-year-old that is fairly new to their stable, represents a constant source of disagreement.

“He's a little bit of a head case, but I try to get along with him and compromise on things,” said Smullen. She gallops Doswell each morning; she is the one aboard for his antics once his training is done. Tagg would like to see the veteran walk back to the barn. The gelded son of Giant's Causeway, bred and owned by Joseph Allen, has other ideas.

“He doesn't like to walk off the track,” Smullen said. “He's jigging and carrying on the whole time, so I just jog him home.”

Although Tagg is routinely dismayed by that unusual sight, Smullen's willingness to live with that idiosyncrasy appears to be reaping rewards. After going winless through his first five career starts, Doswell is perfect in two turf starts for Tagg and Smullen. He led at every call when he finally broke his maiden on Aug. 8 at Saratoga Race Course. He displayed the same front-running command in capturing an allowance race on Oct. 2 at Belmont Park.

With each of those victories, Smullen is reminded of the rewards that working with horses can bring. And she is grateful she persevered long after the beloved Barnabas took his last breath.

Tom Pedulla wrote for USA Today from 1995-2012 and has been a contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Blood-Horse, America's Best Racing and other publications.

If you wish to suggest a backstretch worker as a potential subject for In Their Care, please send an email to info@paulickreport.com that includes the person's name and contact information in addition to a brief description of the employee's background.

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Tiz the Law Preps for BC Classic

MGISW Tiz the Law (Constitution) breezed six furlongs in 1:12.26 (1/1) over the Belmont main track Friday morning in preparation for the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland Nov. 7. The Empire-bred will be vanned to Kentucky Sunday to continue his preparations for the World Championships.

Under exercise rider Heather Smullen, Tiz the Law went in company with stablemate Niko’s Dream (Central Banker) (five furlongs in 1:01.05) before drawing away at the top of the lane. He recorded splits of :13.07, :24.84, :36.43, and :47.63 before galloping out seven furlongs in 1:25.46 and one mile in 1:40.05.

“He just goes out there and does his job,” Smullen said. “He was on the bridle, breaking off of her [Niko’s Dream] and then he decided ‘Well, it’s time to finish up’ and he just went on away from her. He does everything you expect a good horse to do.”

“We wanted him to settle next to [Niko’s Dream], which he did,” said trainer Barclay Tagg’s assistant and longtime partner Robin Smullen said. “They went the first three-eighths in 36 and 4. He galloped out seven-eighths in 1:25. He pulled up great, cooled out well.”

A decisive winner of the GI Belmont S. June 20, Tiz the Law was ultra-impressive when capturing the GI Runhappy Travers S. Aug. 8 and was second in the GI Kentucky Derby Sept. 5. Connections chose to skip the GI Preakness S. Oct. 3 and train up to the Classic.

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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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