Wow.  Tiz the Law was the overwhelming favourite to win the 2020 Kentucky Derby.  Not simply because in this, the time of Covid, we are looking for stories that will make us smile.  Tiz the Law’s performances in his previous races, and especially the Travers, were stellar.  He was, we believed, the real deal.   Indeed, just minutes prior to the running of the Derby, he was the almost unanimous choice of NBC handicappers and experts.

The fact he is owned by the Sackatoga Stable gang of friends that owned Funny Cide the 2003 Derby winner and back then the gang arrived at Churchill Downs in a  yellow school bus.  Now this year, and due to covid and social-distancing, they had hired 2 yellow school busses to chauffeur them to Churchill Downs only added to the charm of this exceptional horse.

And, of course, Canada’s Northern Dancer factors prominently in Tiz the Law’s bloodlines.

We all knew the one glitch on Tiz the Law’s young racing career occurred last November at Churchill Downs.  He finished third.  Seems he may not have liked the racing surface any more then than he did on the fist Saturday in September.

According to trainer, Barclay Tagg, Tiz the Law’s jockey, Manny Franco, said that when the colt “had to get down and run, he was kind of swimming on that track.  He didn’t like the track.”

“You could see it in the stretch,” Tagg continued, “He looked like he was going to go on by and win easy…when I watch the replay you could see he just wasn’t getting a hold of it nicely.”

Those of us gathered around our television sets could also see it.  The colt was really struggling.  It looked as if he couldn’t get traction.  And let’s face it, the ground beneath the hooves of our equine friends is critical

Me?  No doubt that he is the real deal.

(The photo was taken at Churchill Downs several days before the Derby.  It had, I believe, rained earlier in the week)

Tiz the Law
americasbestracing

With 12 days to the Kentucky Derby, thought I’d

Northern Dancer
Doug Saunders photo

see how many horses in the field descended from Canada’s Northern Dancer.  If you guessed the entire 20 horses, you’d be correct. But then, according to Irish researchers, 97% of Thoroughbreds, world-wide, will find Northern Dancer in their family tree.

This fall marks the 30th anniversary of his death, yet the extraordinary dominance of this, the ‘little horse no-one wanted,’ continues.

Tiz the Law remains front and centre in my mission to report “feel good” horse stories during this, life in the time of covid.

Barclay Tagg
LA Times

Indeed, the backstory of Tiz the Law and his team has all the makings of a Disney movie.  Let’s start with his trainer, Barclay Tagg.   In 1961 he graduated with a degree in Animal Science.  He rode hunters and jumpers; worked as a farm manager in Pennsylvania and turned his talents to racehorses near the end of 1971.  

A self-professed horseman to his bones: “that’s all I do,” he explained, “I don’t play golf.  I don’t go bowling.  I don’t go to Disneyland.  I just take good care of the horses and wait for something good to happen.”  Tagg hit the headlines in 1972 as trainer of an unlikely Kentucky Derby winner named Funny Cide.

Almost five decades later Tiz the Law arrived in his shedrow.  However, had it not been for Robin Smullen, his partner in racing, and in life, this may not have happened.

As the story goes, Tagg and Smullen were at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearlings Sale and Tagg was interested in this colt out of the Tiznow mare Tizfiz.  He liked everything about him except for the white in his eyes – to some, an indication that the horse could be edgy or or possible future vision issues.

Tiz the Law winning Travers (Sarah Andrews)

Apparently Smullen asked Tagg if he would buy the colt if he didn’t have the white eyes. He said “yes.”   So Smullen said “buy him.”  So he did.  For $110,000 and his clients the Sackatoga Stable, the group of friends that had owned Funny Cide.

…to be continued

Tiz the Law
ABC news

When writing about HRH Queen Elizabeth and her efforts to save the Cleveland Bay, I thought I’d like to refocus this blog and search out stories that resonate among those of us who have spent a lifetime enamored with horses.

I did not have to look very far for my next “feel good” tale.  At the centre of the story is, of course, a horse.  In this instance, a magnificent horse named Tiz the Law.

I don’t follow North American horse racing a lot any more.  I do, however, track Northern Dancer descendants and this grand looking fellow has our Canadian hero in his family tree four times.   While last month Tiz the Law won the abridged Belmont Stakes with relative ease, it was this past weekend, when he cruised to Travers victory at Saratoga in upstate New York, that he really got my attention.  Saratoga, coincidentally, is the stomping grounds, of his owners, Sackatoga Stable, which started out with a group of childhood friends, five of whom went to high school together in Sackets Harbour, a small town on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario.  Each of the friends invested $5000.

You may remember them as the owners of Funny Cide, winner of the 2003 Kentucky Derby.  While most of the big-shots arrive at Churchill Downs in chauffeur-driven limos, the Sackatoga gang arrived at USA’s most glamourous horse race in a yellow school bus.  Now, with Tiz the Law headed to Kentucky Derby starting gate in a few weeks, rumour has it the Sackatoga team will be arriving, once again, in the yellow school buses.

Their trainer, then and now, is Barclay Tagg.  He brought them Funny Cide.  And now, Tiz the Law.  Years ago, Ray Paulick, former Blood-Horse editor wrote of  Tagg, “He has some characteristics uncannily like “Silent” Tom Smith, the trainer of Seabiscuit.

“He takes care of his horse, doesn’t rush into anything or run him when he shouldn’t.  I like that about Tagg.  Like Tom Smith, he’s his own man and will put the horse first.  I wish we had more trainers out there like him.”

High praise.

to be continued..

“Look back into your mighty ancestors”  Henry V by William Shakespeare

Enable

I have watched the video of Enable’s recent King George victory dozen times.  To me, she’s the perfect racehorse:  beautiful, bold, and with a brilliance stride.  I know that my former employers, Eddie (EP) and Winifred Taylor would certainly agree.  And, I suspect they would be pleased to see their great stallion, Nearctic, appearing in Enable’s family tree a total of 4 times.

Nearctic is, of course, sire of the Taylor’s Northern Dancer and these  two Canadian stallions dominate the Thoroughbred bloodlines like no other.

Enable’s sire, Nathaniel, is a great-grandson (Galileo, Sadler’s Wells) of Northern Dancer.  His dam, Magnificent Style,  is a granddaughter of another Nearctic son, Icecapade.

Icecapade

Like Northern Dancer, Icecapade is son of a daughter of Native Dancer.  His dam, Shenanigans, was also dam of Ruffian.  During 2 brief seasons – 1974-75 – Ruffian was declared the greatest filly in US Thoroughbred sport.

Icecapade won 13 races.  His son, Wild Again, was winner of the 1984 Breeders’ Cup Classic. In 1997, Elmhurst, a son of Wild Again, won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.  My personal favourite of this lineage was Whiskey Wisdom.  He was standing at stud during my tenure working for the Taylor family at Windfields.  Whiskey Wisdom, like Enable was elegant and possessed a beautiful, seemingly effortless stride.

One of the most fascinating, and rewarding, aspects to writing biographies of horses, especially the exceptional ones, is discovering their essential natures.  Hence, what made them stand out.  For starters, I found that they are often independent.  For example: Nearctic, sire of Northern Dancer, according to Bill Reeves, Windfields broodmare manager:  “..he had the look.  He would stare at you – as if to say ‘I am king.'”  Nor did he  follow his mom, Lady Angela, around the field: “… instead he would be standing at the gate, on his own.” (Dark Horse: unraveling the mystery of Nearctic)

Interestingly, years later, his Northern Dancer was often found at the gate on his own.  Indeed, that, and his diminutive size, were the first things that drew Winifred Taylor to their cheeky little bay colt.  In later years, Mrs. Taylor would reign as the sole human this highly independent  horse would actually tolerate and like.

Nearco

Northern Dancer’s paternal grandsire, Nearco, was also extremely independent: “…Tesio (Nearco’s breeder/owner) was an exacting trainer…but no matter how severely he tested Nearco’s superiority, the grand colt barely turned a hair… Nearco was neither bad-tempered nor difficult.  At the sound of the starters pistol he simply galloped off and won with coolness and detachment..”

Nearctic’s grandsire, Hyperion, also trotted to his own drummer: “…His rider didn’t have much faith in Hyperion…while the other young horses snorted and kicked up their

Hyperion

heels as they scampered over Newmarket’s lush turf, Hyperion seemed content to amble along.  He was in no way affected by the antics of the others.  He also had the habit of coming to a complete halt whenever and wherever the notion struck him..”

Hyperion would, of course, win the English Derby and be leading stallion in Great Britain in six different years and twice leading sire of broodmares.

Meanwhile back inside the book, Dark Horse: unraveling the mystery of Nearctic.  Let’s face it, writing a book is not only hard work, but it takes forever.  Start to finish, Dark Horse was particularly challenging.  Still, in retrospect, I learned so much.

For example:  while Thoroughbred racing is often referred to as the ‘sport of kings,’ I would discover that the actual designation was the ‘sport of the King.’  Singular.  The monarch behind the saying was Charles II.  Indeed, Thoroughbred racing, as we know it today, began with the ascension of to the British throne of Charles II.

Highly visible at Newmarket, he could be found riding in a race, surveying the gallops from his pavilion at the top of the hill, or hacking around on Old Rowley, his trusted riding  horse.  (The 8 furlong Rowley Mile, site of British classics, 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas, derives it’s name from the King’s mount.)

An accomplished rider, Charles II, must also have been physically fit, for he frequently rode his own horses in races conducted over 3 heats.  He was also reputed to enjoy dancing and partying long into the night.  In 1671, English diarist, John Evelyn, described Newmarket’s post-race festivities: “I found the jolly blades racing, dancing, feasting, and reveling, more resembling a luxurious rout, than a Christian court.”

In the midst of all this cavorting, the world was inching toward the establishment of the Thoroughbred, as Charles II commissioned his Master of the Horse to procure the finest bloodlines in order to improve the quality of his running horses.

Nearctic, sire of the mighty Northern Dancer,

Nearctic

rules as patriarch of the most dominant sire line in the long history of the Thoroughbred.

How was it so little was known of this horse?

To uncover the answers, I ended up on an extraordinary journey.  Along the way I met a remarkable cast of characters: rogues and royalty, gamblers and charlatans.   I was also introduced to the ‘who’s who’ of outstanding horses: from Nearco and Hyperion to Pretty Polly and Old Bald Peg.  Nearctic, I would discover, in many ways represented the sum total of Thoroughbred brilliance.

Dark Horse: unraveling the mystery of Nearctic was published in the fall of 2001.  Shortly thereafter, General Distributing, the warehouse containing Dark Horse and countless Canadian books, was caught up in a lawsuit following the bankruptcy of Stoddard Publishing.  Our books were collateral damage.  It wasn’t until the following spring that the legal and financial haggling came to an end.  By then book stores were making way for the new spring titles.   Dark Horse and an entire generation of Canadian books lost their place in the sun.  That was almost 20 years ago.  And, for me, several books ago, but I am still not ready to quit.

The manuscript of my next book is out with the “readers,” so while I await their opinions, I plan to embark several projects: one of which is to encourage Thoroughbred owners and breeders and aficionados to take the time to explore the life of Nearctic.

…to be continued

At the core of long-distance, or book, writing there is stubborn determination fueled by an

Nijinsky as a yearling.
Peter Winnants photo

innate curiosity.  Hence, when I could find no information on Nearctic at Windfields,  I phoned Bill Talon, editor of the Daily Racing Form, and asked to use their library.  Nearctic raced from 1956 to 1959.  Life before the internet.  Instead, copies of the “Form” were bound into giant books each weighing at least 20 pounds.

It wasn’t long before I was lured into a maze of questionable events and circumstances.  I also began to suspect why great chunks of the story had vanished.  My interest peaked, I ended up going through every Daily Racing Form of the 4 year period Nearctic raced.  Because of the bulk of the bound editions, and the fragile condition of the paper, I could not photocopy anything.  Instead I made notes of every mention of Nearctic: performance charts and articles.  While I didn’t know it at the time, these notes, ultimately, would form the skeleton of Dark Horse.

Still, I didn’t plan on writing yet another book.

I had been writing my Supreme column for Weekly Gallop for several years.  Despite the pressure of having to file a story once a week, 52 weeks of the year, and the intricacies of writing for translation to Japanese, I quite enjoyed the assignment.  I particularly liked working with my translator, Jiro Ohara.

Then one gloomy day, our editor-in-chief, Kunio Serizawa, was removed from his position at the helm of Weekly Gallop. Members of his team, myself included, were considered collateral damage.

When this occurred Canada’s Nijinsky had been the subject of my column.  Tall, elegant, he bore no resemblance to his sire, Northern Dancer.  Instead, I began to realize that he reflected his grand-sire, Nearctic: the horse no-one seemed to know much about.  Or, as I would discover, did not wish to talk about.

I was the self-appointed president of the Nijinsky fan club.  When he raced I was at the helm of Canadian Horse, the country’s Thoroughbred magazine, and I followed Nijinsky’s every hoof print with uncommon devotion.  So when the Weekly Gallop assignment came to an end, I thought I’d look more closely at his grand-sire, Nearctic.

I still did not consider writing yet another book…. to be continued

I thought accessing information on Nearctic would be relatively simple.  I had, after-all, written both E.P.Taylor: horseman and his horses, and Northern Dancer: the legend and his legacy.  I had worked for the Taylor family as rider-in-residence at their Windfields estate.  Taylor’s daughter, Judith Mappin, was a close friend and business partner in our  publishing company, Beach House Books.

I began my research at Windfields.  Office manager, Loraine O’Brien, had catalogued, filed, and stashed every scrap of paper pertaining to the farm, its horses, and employees.  Everything was stored in large cardboard filing boxes in a locked storage room above the old stud barn.  On top of each box she had methodically listed the contents.  Loraine looked up Nearctic and the corresponding box number and off we went.  Hence was confident I would easily find the answer to any and all questions regarding Nearctic very quickly.  That done, I would return to writing my column for Japan’s Weekly Gallop.

The storage room was small and hot, the air was close and stale.  After several hours we had come up with one slim file folder containing Nearctic’s registration, the cover of the June 1959 US Jockey Club Racing Calendar featuring a photo of Nearctic, and copies of a couple of press clippings.

It didn’t seem possible.  Nearctic was the sire of Northern Dancer, grand-sire of Nijinsky.  Genetically, he was not only one very important animal, he was the most exquisitely-bred horse ever born in Canada.   Furthermore, he raced for years.

I, of course, had no intention of writing a book about Nearctic.  Not then.  I just wanted answers.   …. to be continued.