Tiz the Law bucks Saratoga trend to seek Quadruple Crown

After Tiz The Law strong wins in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes, he confirmed his place as the favorite to win the 3-year-old championship. Further evidence of this is his receiving the second most first-place votes (10) in the overall NTRA poll, second only to the Bob Baffert-trained Maximum Security (16).

The Travers winner has become the only horse to ever win three 100-point prep races since 2013, when the Kentucky Derby Points System was adopted by Churchill Downs, replacing the graded stakes earnings system previously used to secure entry into North America’s most famous race. He arrived at about 9:15 Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs and has been installed as the 3/5 Kentucky Derby favorite, the first time a favorite has had such low odds since Easy Goer in 1989.

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Tiz the Law’s Travers Stakes 5 1/2-length win was impressive for a number of reasons. First, it was his widest margin of victory in a G1 race; second, his Beyer Speed Figure was the top mark for a 3-year-old in a route race this year.

The Sackatoga Stables entry has won four races in 2020 by a margin of 16 1/2 lengths. The final time of 2:00.88 was the sixth fastest time in Travers Stakes history, and the second fastest time in the last 29 years.

Known as the “mid-summer derby,” the Travers Stakes plays a potentially new role in the Triple Crown dynamics with the 2020 Kentucky Derby rescheduled to Sept. 5. In addition to being a Kentucky Derby points race for the first time ever, the race also has generated talk of a Quadruple Crown. To date, there has only been a single Quadruple Crown winner: Whirlaway. He is the only Triple Crown winner to have also won the Travers Stakes. And there is good reason for this.

Not only was Mr. Longtail the Triple Crown winner with the most starts, 60 (and 32 wins), but he also did well at Saratoga at 2, winning the Saratoga Special and Hopeful Stakes and placing in the United States Hotel and the Grand Union Hotel Stakes. After winning the Triple Crown, he won the Saranac Handicap carrying 130 pounds. He would also contest the Travers Stakes, which he won by three lengths. While he would race another 28 times until the age of 5, his sophomore season would be his last at Saratoga.

There have been musings about whether Tiz the Law’s winning a COVID-19 Triple Crown with rescheduled and redrawn races should be considered as legitimate an accomplishment as that of other Triple Crown winners. Trainer Barclay Tagg’s planned campaign is aggressive featuring six G1 races: Florida Derby, Belmont Stakes, Travers Stakes, Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic.

So far, Tiz the Law has perfectly executed the plan. There are strong reasons to consider that a Triple Crown accomplishment by this horse is as worthy, and perhaps in some ways more worthy, than the efforts of past champions.

Triple Crown Traditions

The first Triple Crown ever credited is Sir Barton’s in 1919. At that time, the Belmont Stakes was run at a distance of a 1 3/8 miles, not the mile and a half that Triple Crown winners from Gallant Fox forward have contested it. Thus, Tiz the Law winning the race at a redrawn 1 1/8 mile should not be held against him.

Also, Sir Barton in 1919 ran in the Preakness Stakes four days after the Kentucky Derby. In 1930, Gallant Fox ran in the Preakness Stakes eight days before the Kentucky Derby. In 1946, Assault won all three races in 28 days and Gallant Fox all three in 29 days. Citation, seen by many as one of the greatest horses ever to win the Triple Crown, accomplished the feat in six weeks, not the more traditional five.

Seven of the Triple Crown winners won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes with four to eight days between the races. Were the other Triple Crown winners that have come since less legitimate than these first seven?

There is no doubt that winning the Triple Crown in the traditional manner is difficult. But it is also clear that “actual” Triple Crown traditions are few and far between.

That said, there are some challenges that Tiz the Law is facing that other Triple Crown winners did not face. As a result, should he manage to win there should not be any asterisk next to his name. He deserves all the recognition he gets.

Form

The biggest challenge that Tiz the Law faces to winning the Triple Crown is form. Maintaining competitive form to be able to win races in June, September and October is quite difficult. Count Fleet, War Admiral, Seattle Slew and Justify could not have competed in a Triple Crown like the 2020 event because of injury and fitness questions. Two of them never raced again as 3-year olds after the Belmont Stakes.

It is unclear whether these horses would have been fit to compete in the early fall. Other champions, such as Sir Barton, Omaha and Assault, lost their Triple Crown form later in the year, so it is uncertain they could have won a Triple Crown scheduled like the 2020 edition.

After all, if recent history is any guide, 3-year-old form usually declines. In the last 25 years, only nine 3-year-old champions have won a graded stakes race after September: Maximum Security in 2019, American Pharoah in 2015, California Chrome in 2014, Lookin at Lucky in 2010, Summer Bird in 2009, Curlin in 2007, Bernardini in 2006 and Skip Away in 1996. Only eight of those won a G1, and of those eight, only three won against a championship-caliber field (American Pharoah, Curlin and Skip Away).

Of the horses that did not win a race after September, eight were retired, two were injured, one lost his form and one was injured and did not recover his form. In the other four instances, horses who developed later in their 3-year-old season took the three-year-old championship: West Coast in 2017 and Arrogate in 2016, but they would have missed the first leg of the Triple Crown in June.

Thus, if Tiz the Law is able to win the Triple Crown based upon this schedule, it will be an extraordinary feat.

As the 2020 Travers Stakes winner heads into the 146th renewal of the Kentucky Derby, here is a look at how other Triple Crown winners have fared at Saratoga Race Course:

American Pharoah

American Pharoah, our most recent Triple Crown winner to race at Saratoga Springs, entered the race off an amazing string of victories during which he won seven G1 races, five as a 3-year-old: the Arkansas Derby, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, the Belmont Stakes and the Haskell Invitational Stakes.

During that time, he traveled between California and Louisville, Louisville and Baltimore, Baltimore to Louisville, Louisville to New York, New York to California, California to New Jersey, New Jersey to California before returning to New York for the 146th running of the G1 Travers Stakes.

During that year, he had traveled 18,750 miles. A road warrior. Exactly 37 years before, North America’s last Triple Crown winner, Affirmed, had run in the Travers Stakes and finished first only to be disqualified from the race. Before shipping to Saratoga Springs, Baffert worked American Pharoah a bit fast. His work before the Kentucky Derby was seven furlongs in 1:27. The Travers work was much faster, galloping seven furlongs in 1:23.40.

In addition to the travel and fast work, the champion galloped before a crowd of some 15,000 fans. Forty-two years before, Secretariat had participated in a similar gallop before 5,000 fans.

Heading to the gate, American Pharoah’s jockey, Victor Espinoza, noticed the horse was sweating. This was atypical. Coming out of the gate, the horse did not go to the lead with his usual ease. He was also joined on the lead by Frosted, who normally laid further off the pace by pilot Jose Lezcano. The new jockey — replacing regular rider Joel Rosario, who had been injured earlier in the day — pressed the pace on Belmont Stakes runner-up Frosted for Godolphin Racing.

The pace of the second half-mile turned out to be the fastest ever in Travers Stakes history. Closer Keen Ice with Jockey Javier Castellano was also called upon to engage earlier than he had in the past by trainer Dale Romans. As a result, after putting away Frosted in the stretch, American Pharoah had little left to challenge Keen Ice coming down the outside while race caller Larry Colmus exclaimed, "the graveyard of champions has claimed another.” The final margin of the loss was one length. Ironically, Frosted in third place finished closer to American Pharoah than he ever had in any previous race, two lengths behind the champion.  

Affirmed

One of racing’s greatest rivalries is that of champions Affirmed and Alydar. Entering the 109th edition of the Travers Stakes, they had faced each other nine times, and Affirmed held the advantage with seven wins. Alydar had last beaten the Triple Crown champion as a 2-year-old in the Champagne Stakes.

The two rivals tuned up for the Travers Stakes at Saratoga with Affirmed winning the Jim Dandy Stakes and Alydar besting older horses in the Whitney Stakes. Four horses competed in the Travers Stakes. Entering the race, the Harbor View Farm champion lost his jockey Steve Cauthen to a knee injury before the race. As a result, Laffit Pincay Jr. was called in to ride.

Shakeshakeshake took the early lead along the rail, with Affirmed running second toward the middle of the track. Alydar was in fourth toward the outside. The race held like this until the field approached the grandstand turn. At this point, Affirmed, still in the middle of the track, had taken the lead from Shakeshakeshake, who faded to last.

Alydar moved up along the rail, challenging Affirmed. Affirmed went to the rail, forcing Alydar jockey Jorge Velazquez to take him back to third behind Nasty and Bold. Alydar rallied in the stretch but was never able to get closer than second. Upon review, Affirmed was disqualified to second. It was the last time the two would face each other.

Secretariat

After a 25 year drought, Secretariat would answer the call by winning the Triple Crown races in track record-breaking times and by an increasing margins of 2 1/2 lengths in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes to 31 lengths in the Belmont Stakes.

Secretariat’s next start would come in the G1 Whitney Stakes. He had not been training well leading up to the race except for his final work, when he ran a mile in 1:34. Despite a slight temperature, his connections decided to race him given that the Whitney Stakes was the first of a four-race deal with network television and people from across the country were coming to see the Triple Crown winner.

In a five-horse field, after kicking the gate open, Secretariat broke from the three hole and moved outside, stalking the field around the track in fourth position. Onion, who had set a track record at six furlongs at Saratoga four days before, shot to the lead from the one hole and maintained it going into the second turn. As the field reached the stretch, Secretariat engaged with Allen Jerkens’ horse taking the rail.

Jerkens noted in an interview after the race that he knew the rail was not the best part of the track. The two dueled to the finish, but Secretariat had none of the fire that he had shown during the Triple Crown run, eventually losing by a length. Later, Secretariat was diagnosed with a fever caused by a virus as the Saratoga race course took its third Triple Crown winner.

Gallant Fox

Other than Man o’ War’s loss to Upset in the Sanford Stakes, there have been few greater upsets than that of Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox’s by 100-1 Jim Dandy. The setting for this unlikely result was a track saturated by rain the previous day, that morning and into the afternoon.

Gallant Fox had never even trained on such a surface, let alone raced on it. This was to be a math-up between 2-year-old champion Whichone and Gallant Fox, the likely 3-year-old champion. Gallant Fox had won the Flash Stakes at Saratoga the previous year, adding that to his Cowdin Stakes win.

But in the richest race in the world, the Belmont Futurity, he had finished third to Whichone. What bettors had forgotten was that Jim Dandy had won a 50-to-1 upset in the Grand Union Hotel Stakes the year before over the same type of surface.The four-horse field also included Sun Falcon.

Gallant Fox and Whichone had broken sharply and broke away from the other two starters in the middle of the track where the going was thought to be best on the sloppy track. As they came out of the second turn, they were tiring. Jim Dandy, on the inside of the track, galloped by them to win by eight lengths. Thirty-four years later, the Jim Dandy Stakes was created to recognize one of the greatest upsets in racing history.

Sir Barton

Before becoming a Triple Crown champion, Sir Barton began his racing career at Aqueduct in early July in the Tremont Stakes before shipping to Saratoga. Though he did not do particularly well, Sir Barton raced in all the major 3-year-old stakes, losing three of them (the Flash Stakes, the United States Hotel Stakes, and the Sanford Stakes) to his stablemate Billy Kelly, who would win champion 2-year-old.

He closed out his freshman year at Saratoga with a loss in the Hopeful Stakes. As a 3-year-old, after his loss to Purchase in the Dwyer Stakes and showing signs of needing more of a break after the Triple Crown, Sir Barton took two months off, skipping the Saratoga meet. He returned to upstate New York as a 4-year-old and defending Horse of the Year.

In his first race, the Saratoga Handicap, he won convincingly, setting the track record at for a mile and a quarter at 2:01 4/5 and winning over long-distance champion Exterminator. Returning from a jaunt to Canada to compete in the Dominion Stakes, Sir Barton bested Man o' War's Miller Stakes track record by a second in the 1 3/16-mile Merchants and Citizens Handicap.

Here the son of Star Shoot carried 133 pounds against the speedy son of Whisk Broom, Gnome, who made a challenge on the far turn carrying 18 pounds less. With Sir Barton on the rail, Gnome drifted out slightly nearing the wire, giving the edge to the champion. Sir Barton’s track record of 1:55 3/5s also qualified as a new world record. It was a memorable swan song for him at the Spa.

Tiz the Law is a third of the way to accomplishing the enormous task of winning the Triple Crown. Should he be fortunate enough to achieve such a task, he would merit consideration with the other Triple Crown greats, especially since he would become only the second horse to win a Quadruple Crown.

Remaining standing after facing all comers on a schedule and under conditions set by the tracks is really all anyone can ask of a champion. So far, though, to this son of Constitution it seems winning “tiz the law."