Wachtel and Partners Acquire Parx Maiden Winner

by Alan Carasso

Owner Adam Wachtel, along with his regular partners Nils Brous and Gary Barber, have teamed to purchase recent Parx maiden winner Tiz Shea D (Tiznow) for an undisclosed sum in a deal brokered by Bradley Weisbord’s BSW Bloodstock. 

A$67,000 Keeneland November weanling purchase in late 2012, Tiz Shea D was bought back twice as a yearling before being knocked down to owner Daniel Shea for $65,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Midlantic juvenile last May. Turned over to trainer Jason Servis, Tiz Shea D trained forwardly over the Belmont training track, but made the trip down to the Bensalem track for his debut run Feb. 7. Sent off as the 8-5 favorite from a morning line of 6-1, the attractive bay looked to be spinnning his wheels a bit in the early stages of the 5 1/2-furlong test, but began to hit his best stride while wide on the turn, descended on his rivals very smartly in upper stretch and kicked home to score by four lengths (video). The effort caught the attention of many and Wachtel and team emerged the winning suitors. 

“Just watching the replay, you could tell he had a big, long stride,” he explained. “I was really impressed with the way he extended and coming for home, it was clear he was much the best. The way that he did it and the way that he looked and he changed his leads right on cue, I guess there was nothing not to like about it.” 

He continued, “It was an impressive debut, especially for a horse that isn’t bred to run 5 1/2 furlongs. By Tiznow and out of a distance dirt dam who was very good. I felt that if he could do that at 5 1/2 furlongs, what’s going to happen when he gets to seven furlongs or a mile or even longer?” 

Tiz Shea D is a son of Ender’s Sister (A.P. Indy), winner of the 2004 Florida Oaks and runner-up to Yearly Report (General Report) in that year’s GII Delaware Oaks while trained by Rusty Arnold for owner Richard Masson. The latter bred Tiz Shea D under his Green Lantern Stables banner. 

Wachtel and partners were all ears following the race, even if there were some question marks. 

“I guess he was a bit of a buzz horse at Belmont and he’d been breezing pretty well,” he recollected. “I wondered why they had run him at Parx, and then I went and looked at the charts to see if there was a race in New York, and sure enough there was one the same day. Servis had one in that race and they were training partners, so they decided to split them up.” 

That stablemate, Tiz the Moment (Tiz Wonderful) was a well-backed third behind well-regarded Pletcher trainee Lord Commander (Giant’s Causeway) at Aqueduct that same afternoon. 

Wachtel confirmed that Tiz Shea D was moved over to the barn of trainer Bill Mott Friday afternoon, but that plans remain fluid for the monent. 

“We don’t have a specific plan for him right now,” Wachtel admitted. “At some point, we’re going to want to stretch him out. I don’t know if that will be his next start or not. I’m a sheets guy, and he ran a very good Ragozin number, good enough to compete in stakes quality. He’s a gorgeous colt, well put together, good size, but there’s a lot of class about him, he has a very good disposition. Nothing bothered him.” 

Tiz Shea D was not an original nominee to the Triple Crown, and time will tell if he is supplemented to the series at the $6,000 second closing stage Mar. 23. 

“It’s a little late to that party and I’m not sure that’s realistic, unless his next race is even more impressive than this one,” Wachtel offered. “It’s hard to get a horse to make a debut to start thinking about those kinds of races. I was actually thinking a bit further down the road.” 

In a variety of partnerships, Wachtel has campaigned MGISW Ron the Greek, Al Khali, Amira’s Prince and Long On Value. It waits to be seen whether Tiz Shea D ascends to similar heights, but in the meantime, Wachtel, Brous and Barber will look forward to their colt’s next run. 

“It’s always interesting at this time of the year: what do you do with a 3-year-old that has shown some talent? Do you throw them right into a stakes race, do you put them into an allowance next? We’ll discuss that with Bill and come up with a plan that makes sense. Hopefully around four weeks from now, you’ll see him running again, probably in New York. We really haven’t talked about a game plan yet.”

Seems a good problem to have.