Tiz the Law
 

I could not be higher on this horse. He stumbled at the start but still broke a length in front, was throttled back by Franco and taken to the inside (not a good idea for a rank horse), ran up on heels on the backstretch, had to wait coming to the top of the stretch, and then made a GIANT move to blow past the leaders and win for fun.

Barclay Tagg, as we've seen, knows how to win big races- he did a fine job managing Funny Cide.

This horse also has distance breeding- he's got Tapit and Tiznow in there.

He's the real thing.

Toss up between Tiz The Law and Maxfield for best race of the weekend. I thought TTL might have been geared down at the end. Maxfield made a big move of his own. Interesting to see what figures they both earned. Both caught my attention for sure.

Barclay looks frail.........

I wish him all the best. I enjoyed the ride on Funny Cide

How did you ever make the wright?

Not sold on Tiz the Law.

He is a cool story. Was extremely visually impressive in the Champagne winning drive.

It was awesome. Hope that he does prove to be a Derby-trail type of 3yo.

Interesting bypassing a chance at a Championship to maybe run in a race 7 months away. We will see how it works out but I think you take your opportunities when they exist.

I think Maxfield beat better and did it in better fashion, but depending on the odds I get in the Juve I might go with TTZ and would be glad to be proven wrong.

It shows you how warped out of proportion the TC has become. A 2 year old championship means nothing in comparison to a Derby win, even for connections who have already won the Derby!

One of the things that shows a sport is not healthy is when only periodic super-publicized events carry any importance. For instance, you can trace the decline of track and field, a sport I care about immensely, by the fact that the only meets that draw any attention anymore in the US are the Olympics and to a far, far lesser extent the World Championships.

When horse racing was healthy, a lot of things mattered, and winning the 2 year old championship was a really valued thing. Indeed, 2 year olds used to race 10+ times to win races and win the thing.

Now the only thing that matters is the Derby.

might be the 8 rings factor, seems like very few are moving onto the BC race, where essentially if you win you earn an eclipse award.

Sadly, because of what you outlined in your 2nd paragraph, the super-publicized BC pretty much becomes the only thing that matters for many of the championships, including the 2YOs.

I don't think they want to go to the BC because they would prefer not to ship to CA. Not that surprising.

Disappointing is the word, not that hard to ship. Caladonia Road did it two years ago and won a championship.

Kind of hard to blame anyone for avoiding Santa Anita currently though.

I think the SA deaths are overblown and every track has them. I think I saw in another thread that Saratoga had 16 in a short time which would be more extrapolated than SA and their 6 month meet (do not know if that is accurate reporting)...and Santa Anita runs a cheaper group of horses overall. There is always risk running any horse and it does make for a good excuse if you are predisposed to not shipping out west which is hard to do.

http://www.paceadvantage.com/forum/s...ghlight=deaths

It isn't just the deaths, it is the whole situation and how it has been handled. Would you want to be the guy that had a horse break down at SA right now? I know I wouldn't. I wouldn't want that anywhere of course, but it is tenfold there right now.