Barn Tour: Tagg, Smullen are still going strong at Saratoga

Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Was it really 21 years ago that the gelding Funny Cide, owned by a modest upstate New York partnership known as Sackatoga Stable and trained by Barclay Tagg, burst onto the national scene by winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness?

Heck, it was four years ago that Tiz the Law, another New York-bred with the same connections, completed a personal Triple Crown for Tagg by capturing the Belmont Stakes. He later placed second in the Derby in a season turned upside down by the pandemic.

There is something reassuring about seeing Tagg and Robin Smullen, his assistant and life partner, still hard at work at the barn and at the sales, where they are constantly on the prowl for the next Tiz the Law by paying close attention to his progeny.

“It’s nice to know him. It’s nice to see that some of them, a lot of them, have the same attitude. Straightforward. No b.s.,” Smullen said. “They do their job and they’re not clowns and they’re precocious.”

Tagg and Smullen oversee 17 horses at Saratoga. “We’re healthy. Still hanging in there. Still doing it,” Smullen said.

The only perceptible change is that Tagg asked Smullen to speak on behalf of their Saratoga string during a Barn Tour for Horse Racing Nation.

Courtly Banker. Don’t let his maiden status through four starts fool you. This gelded 3-year-old son of prolific New York sire Central Banker has ability. After going unraced at 2 for Sackatoga, he produced a pair of third-place efforts in his first two starts. He most recently took second in a New York Stallion Series stakes race on July 18 at Saratoga, going one mile on the inner turf course. “He’s still a maiden,” Smullen said. “He’s run in the Stallion Series Stakes and he was second both times, so he’s an accomplished maiden. There’s a race for him Aug. 30, a maiden race, so we really hope we can win another race up here with him.”

Leftembehind. This 4-year-old gelding, by Accelerate, has not shown much except for his races at Saratoga. He went winless through six starts before breaking through at the Spa for Sackatoga last July. He took an allowance race July 31, splashing home by a 1 3/4 lengths on a sloppy track that had been sealed. That made him 2-for-15. “There is a race for him at the end of the month,” Smullen said. “It will be a step up (to a second-level allowance), so we’ll see. He won here last year. He won here this year. So horses for courses they say, right?”

Spirit of the Law. This 2-year-old Tiz the Law colt caught a sloppy, sealed track for his Aug. 3 debut, running a lackluster seventh in a six-furlong maiden special weight contest. The Sackatoga connections look forward to seeing what he can do on a fast surface and believe his first start was not an indication of his talent. “The track was just a mess, so put a line through that one.”

Time and Tide. Tagg and Smullen look forward to seeing what this 3-year-old son of Australian sire Exceed and Excel can do. He’s worked seven times in preparation for his first start, with two of those on turf. “He might make the last week. He still has to breeze out of the gate. He’s got a nice pedigree, and he’s doing well. We like him a lot. It’s just taken him a little while to get to the races.”

Tiz Dashing. He's yet another Tiz the Law juvenile who will be campaigned by Sackatoga. He first appeared on the work tab June 12 and has drilled steadily since then. He fired a five-furlong bullet out of the gate in 1:00.20 on Aug. 2. “He’s coming along nicely. He’s had some nice works. His pedigree suggests turf. There is a race for him at the end of the month, one on dirt and one on turf. We’ll make a decision after we breeze him on the turf.”

Union Trail. The 4-year-old gelding broke his maiden in May in his seventh try and is 1-for-2 since. “He’s going to run back Aug. 23. There is a race going a mile and three-eighths, which is open company. Unfortunately, the New York-breds, they don’t usually write a distance of ground for those. A mile and an eighth is the best you’re going to get, and that rarely happens. This is a mile and three-eighths on the turf. Hopefully, he can just get a nice comfortable lead, put his ears up, slow the pace way down and still have a finish. If he can do that distance, it opens a lot of doors.”