Top Contenders For 2011 Breeders' Cup Classic - Tizway Looks Like The Current Favorite

By Author: Lee Lane-Edgar
Total Articles: 365
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In taking the Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney Invitational Handicap by three lengths at Saratoga on August 6, 2011, Tizway established himself at the top of the Male Handicap Division. Coming into the win from the prestigious Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile Handicap, he entered the 1 1/8 mile Whitney as the tepid 4-1 favorite.

Tizway has blossomed relatively late as horses go. The six year old is entering his prime at an age when most talented horses have long since retired. It is rare these days to see a really talented horse that is not a gelding race past his five year old season.

His connections did not rush him and point him for the Triple Crown series. Instead they let him develop and mature fully before racing him.
He finished third in last year’s Met Mile but suffered an injury in that race which deterred him from participating in the Whitney. He returned in the Kelso to romp by five lengths which set him up as one of the favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs, a race in which he faded to fifth place, beaten over four lengths.

His sire Tiznow, won the Breeders’ Cup Classic ...
... in consecutive years, in 2000 and in 2001. Now his son Tizway has a chance to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic like his father.

His trainer James Bond always considered him a miler, but in the Whitney he showed that he can handle two turns and win decisively at 1 1/8 miles. In 2009, he had lost ground in the stretch in both the 1 1/8 Whitney and the 1 ¼ mile Jockey Club Gold Cup, which raised concerns about his distance limitations. His win in the Whitney should erase any doubts that he can get the 1 ¼ distance of the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Whatever opinion Bond had of him in the past, he now believes he can run all day, even two miles in fact.

He has run so well at Belmont Park and now Saratoga, but one concern is that he often doesn’t show up with his best performance at other tracks, such as at last year’s Breeders’ Cup at the afore-mentioned Churchill Downs. He also fared poorly in the Group 1 Japan Cup Dirt at Hanshin in December 2009, finishing twelfth of sixteen runners. He is an improved horse since then but one has to wonder if he is an East Coast track type of horse, and if so, how will he handle the Santa Anita dirt track?
Next en route to the Breeders’ Cup for Tizway is the Jockey Club Gold Cup, a Grade 1 race at 1 ¼ miles on October 1st at one of his favorite tracks, Belmont Park.

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