SARATOGA SPRINGS — Tiz the Law, owned by Sackatoga Stables won this years G1 Runhappy Travers Stakes on Aug. 8.
This beautiful day in Saratoga was only matched in the quality of racing, as Tiz the Law managed to prove that he was the dominant racer after his crushing performance in the Travers. After Tiz the Law’s strong performance in the Belemont Stakes on June 20, he was coming in as the odds favorite (1/2) to win the Travers.
Trainer, Barclay Tagg, felt confident in his horse after seeing his morning training, afterwards saying to saying the NYRA staff, “He looks fine… I was very pleased with the way he ran. He did everything a good horse ought to do and did it perfectly.”
Since becoming the first New York-bred horse to win the Belmont stakes in 138 years, Tiz the law also became the first to win the Travers since 1992.
Tagg was elated to win the Travers in his second try, his first being in 2008 with Tale of Ekati. He had this to say about his victory afterwards, “I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve always wanted to win the Travers. This has been in my head my whole life. And now it happened so it couldn’t be better… You always have some doubt because many different things can happen. That’s always in the back of your mind, but I was very confident in the horse.”
The rest of the staff at Sacktoga Stables was thrilled with the victory too. Operation Manager, Jack Knowlton, was pleased after seeing his horse race, and even more thrilled at the prospect of racing in the Kentucky Derby.
When asked about his thoughts on the victory, Knowlton replied happily, “It’s just so exciting to be in the race and to be 1-2, there’s a lot of pressure. We had well-wishers from everywhere. We saw a performance today that just blows me away. We know we had a nice horse. We thought we had the best horse. To do what he did today, we’re looking forward to going to Kentucky.”
Aside from the Travers, the Ballerina and Longines Test were the other Grade 1 races featured on Saturday’s card. The Serengeti Empress managed to turn things around in this race after a slew of second place finishes in previous races this year. Jockey, Luis Saez, managed to get Serengeti Empress out to an early lead and was able to hold off the pursuers in the mile and an eight-long race.
In the Longies Test, Gamine managed to show her brilliance by getting off to an early lead and winning the $300,000 stakes. Trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, Jockey, John Velazquez was thrilled to be in the saddle of Gamine.
“Obviously, she’s very good. You love to be on these kinds of horses. I have to thank Bob and the owners for the opportunity. Bob said she breaks well and to kind of let her do her thing. If another horse wants to go too fast, we just let her sit second and she’ll be fine sitting second. But she broke so good and the other horse kind of stayed right next to me and didn’t press the pace very much, so I just kind of let her do what she wanted to do the first quarter-mile. Once we got to the turn, I let her get into the turn and she got really comfortable and really smooth and got away from the other horse and kept going.”
Moving into the fifth week of racing, the Saratoga Derby Invitational, and the G1 Alabama highlight Saturday’s card, with the Saratoga Oaks Invitational being the main attraction for Sunday’s card. Be sure not to miss out on any of the racing this season by either streaming the race online, listening in through radio, or catching a live TV Broadcast. For the full racing schedule and more information on broadcast times, check out the NYRA website at nyra.com/saratoga. Updated daily, you can find all the race details and stats to stay in the know for this unique season at Saratoga.
