Constitution

While it briefly looked like he was finding similar traffic trouble to what he faced when a disappointing third in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. Nov. 30, last year's leading juvenile colt Tiz the Law (Constitution) kicked off his sophomore season Saturday with an impressive tally in Gulfstream's GIII Holy Bull S. Drifting up to 6-5 at the off as well-connected Toledo (Into Mischief) took late action, the blaze-faced bay broke like a shot but rider Manny Franco took a hard hold of him to concede the early advantage...

The last time Sackatoga Stable and Barclay Tagg were on the GI Kentucky Derby trail together, it was with a relative no-name, at least until the First Saturday in May, when the entire racing world became aware of their future superstar Funny Cide (Distorted Humor). This time around, 17 years and some gray hairs later, all eyes will be on them and their charge from the jump, as Grade I winner Tiz the Law (Constitution) gets his highly-anticipated 3-year-old campaign underway as a heavy favorite in Saturday's GIII Holy Bull...

You've heard the name: Twin Creeks. But what you might not know is the racing stable and farm has been involved in some monumental deals in the past decade. Add in their current involvement in one of the hottest freshman sires on the planet and one of his Derby-bound sons, and you're likely to hear a whole lot more about Steve Davison and Randy Gullatt's Twin Creeks in the future. Originally established in 1992, Twin Creeks Farm was founded by the two old school friends from Louisiana. Davison and Gullatt...

Tingling with a bit of pride at the final rankings of the 2019 Freshman Sires, we're crossing our fingers that things will remain steady in the future. That's because six of the Top 10 were listed as the ones we liked best based on various biomechanical programs which DataTrack uses to project such possibilities. Our task is to lay the odds on how the sires of these youngsters are likely to compete over the long term. We began to assemble statistics to see if there were any discernible trends in...

The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton So which 3-year-old ran the more impressive GI Kentucky Derby prep race last week? You're forgiven if you want to grade two of the three stakes as "incomplete" because they more or less equated to public workouts won by heavy favorites who had short fields at their mercy. But there were enough nuggets of intrigue to spark decent debate, even at this early stage of the season. Authentic Goes Green The 7 3/4-length beatdown administered by Authentic (Into Mischief) in Saturday's GIII Sham...

Independence Hall (Constitution) kicked off his 2020 path towards the Triple Crown as expected Wednesday, airing by open lengths in Aqueduct's Jerome S. as the overwhelming 1-9 favorite. Last away, he rushed up outside of rivals to press a longshot through a :23.79 opening quarter. He took over after a half in :47.47, with only New York-breds Bourbon Bay (Bayern) and Prince of Pharoahs (American Pharoah) appearing to have any chance to collar the chalk from there. Independence Hall turned very wide into the straight and presented Prince of Pharoahs...

Though a constellation of three unbeaten 2-year-olds did emerge glittering from the Breeders' Cup, the GI Juvenile itself appeared only to send meteors careering out of their projected orbit. Obviously there's plenty of time for these burnouts to renew their lustre next year. Dennis' Moment (Tiznow) didn't have a prayer after genuflecting as he exited the gate; while Eight Rings (Empire Maker) must be a city block better than he ran, for his trainer to have encouraged clients as important as Coolmore to invest in breeding rights in the days...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The two-day Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearlings Sale couldn't match up to its record-setting 2018 renewal, but when the dust settled Monday evening at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion, the auction had seen its fourth straight record-priced yearling. The record bid came from Larry Best, who said he had only seen the filly two hours before he spent $775,000 to acquire the daughter of Malibu Moon from the Winter Quarter Farm consignment. In all, 186 yearlings sold during the 2019 New York sale for a total of...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY--The Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearling Sale opened Sunday evening with a session of steady action capped by a son of Constitution who sold for $340,000 to trainer John Terranova. "It was a solid opening session to the New York-Bred sale," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. "There was lots of interest across the board. We continue to see the strength of the New York-bred market. It was on display again tonight." The two-day auction has a slightly different format this year, with Sunday evening's somewhat abbreviated session of...

5th-Saratoga, $78,000, (S), Msw, 8-8, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 1:18.02, ft. TIZ THE LAW (c, 2, Constitution--Tizfiz {GSW, $410,944}, by Tiznow) blew past the favorite a furlong out and cruised home a much-the-best winner on debut Thursday at Saratoga, continuing a strong start for his freshman sire. Showing a strong local worktab, highlighted by a bullet five furlongs from the gate in 1:00 2/5 (1/30) July 27, the $110,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-Bred graduate was backed as the 7-2 second choice and came away well to stalk the pace from a...

As the TDN Rising Star Amalfi Sunrise drew off for an easy six-length success in the GII Sorrento S., I was reminded of a commission I received in the fall of 2015. With the Breeders' Cup bandwagon due to roll into Lexington and Keeneland, WinStar wanted to promote its extensive team of stallions. I was asked to write 250-word summaries for each of them, including three which were scheduled to be added to the roster in 2016. Strangely, those three--Constitution, Commissioner and Daredevil--were respectively responsible for Amalfi Sunrise, Powerfulattraction and...