The last few years have witnessed some close battles for the title of leading freshman sire, and we might well have another in 2024. As the summer turned to fall, Tiz the Law vaulted to the top of the table when his son Tiztastic captured the $1,000,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile Stakes on Sept. 8. It was just a few days earlier that McKinzie had launched his bid when his son Chancer McPatrick became the first offspring of a 2024 freshman to annex a grade 1, with a last-to-first success in the Hopeful Stakes (G1).
The freshmen were on fire again over the latest weekend. McKinzie in particularly enjoyed a stellar 24 hours or so. First, on Friday, his daughter Quickick took second in the Alcibiades Stakes (G1). Then, the following day, another daughter, Scottish Lassie, broke her maiden with a nine-length win in the Frizette Stakes (G1) during the Belmont at the Big A meet at Aqueduct Racetrack, with Chancer McPatrick scoring in the Champagne Stakes (G1) for his second top-level success in the very next race at the New York venue. Finally, McKinzie Street, who had already followed a stylish maiden victory with a second in the Del Mar Futurity (G1), earned third in the American Pharoah Stakes (G1).
Those efforts would have placed McKinzie neck and neck with Tiz the Law had not that one struck back with pair of new graded winners of his own—Non Compliant was successful in the Oak Leaf Stakes (G2) on Saturday, and Scythian won the Miss Grillo Stakes (G2T) on Sunday.
The leaves Tiz the Law currently $274,540 to the good on the freshman table, not a lot given the potential representation of McKinzie going into the Breeders' Cup World Championships. Nor should we overlook the leader among this group by individual winners, Vekoma . He sits just $12,867 behind McKinzie, and he added a black-type winner with Mi Bago running off with Saturday's Algonquin Stakes at Woodbine.
Given his race record, it's no great surprise to see Tiz the Law rise to the vanguard of this cohort. The New York-bred son of Constitution was quick to stamp himself as one of the leaders of his own crop at 2, taking his maiden by 4 1/4 lengths in a state-bred event at Saratoga Race Course on his debut, and following up with a four-length tally in the Champagne Stakes (G1). The year did end with a setback, though. As odds-on favorite for the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2), Tiz the Law was unable to find as much as expected late and could only check in third, beaten by nearly a length.
Tiz the Law began his classic season with a comfortable, three-length win in the Holy Bull Stakes (G3), and followed with an even more impressive effort in the Florida Derby (G1), where he had 4 1/4 lengths to spare. Those efforts would have seen Tiz the Law become a likely favorite for what would normally have been his next target, the Kentucky Derby (G1). Tiz the Law did start as favorite for the first classic of the year, but that race wasn't at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.
At the same time Tiz the Law was having his penultimate workout for the Holy Bull, the Centers for Disease Control reported the first case of the novel coronavirus, better known as COVID-19, and the racing world, along with the world at large, was about to be turned upside down.
Ultimately, there was a Triple Crown contested in 2020, but a very unconventional one. The series started with a nine-furlong Belmont Stakes (G1) the third week in June, which Tiz the Law won by 3 3/4 lengths. His next start, which didn't come in a classic, appeared to anchor Tiz the Law at the top of the division. He won the Travers Stakes (G1) by 5 1/2 lengths, running the race at its normal time of year and distance. Thus, Tiz the Law duly started as favorite for a Kentucky Derby run in September as the second leg of the Triple Crown. He ran well, stalking the front-running Authentic until drawing alongside that one at the top of the stretch, and possibly even taking command for a few strides, but couldn't contain the renewed rally of the pacesetter, eventually going down by 1 1/4 lengths. Favored to reverse that defeat in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), Tiz the Law never really threatened, checking in sixth, beaten 5 1/2 lengths by Authentic. That was his last start, as he retired to stand at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky., at a $40,000 fee.
The first of Tiz the Law's weekend graded scorers, Non Compliant, has a rather unusual pedigree in that she is the first stakes winner under her first four dams, but three of her first four dams did earn black type. Her dam, Sensitively, a daughter of Street Sense , won four races, and took second in the Adoration Stakes (G3) and Desert Stormer II Stakes. The second dam, Dressmaker (by Elusive Quality), also won four times, and she is out of Scarlet Velvet, a Red Ransom daughter who took second in the Tetrarch Stakes (G3) in Ireland. The fourth dam, Satin Velvet, was black-type placed in England, and she did boast an impressive pedigree, as she was an El Gran Senor half sister to Martial Law, winner of the Santa Anita Handicap (G1), and to Satin Flower, who took the Jersey Stakes (G3) at Royal Ascot and was second in the Queen Elizabeth II Invitational Challenge Cup (G1) at Keeneland among her placings.
Subsequently, Satin Flower produced Lujain, who won England's premier juvenile sprint the Middle Park Stakes (G1), and group 3-placed stakes winner Lilium. The family goes back to Broodmare of the Year Lea Lark, ancestress of more than 50 group 1 and grade 1 winners, among them Echo Zulu, Mastery, Blue Prize, Echo Town, Speed Boat Beach, Champagne Room, and Miswaki. Non Compliant is one of two starters for Tiz the Law out of Street Sense mares, and his only starter out of a mare by Street Sense's sire, Street Cry, is stakes winner Out on Bail.
Sunday's graded winner, Scythian, is out of the Empire Maker mare Dean Henry, who won the Saratoga Dew Stakes, a restricted event for New York-breds. She was half sister to the talented performer Read the Footnotes, winner of the Nashua Stakes (G3) and Remsen Stakes (G2) at 2, and the Fountain of Youth Stakes (G3) at 3.
Dean Henry's dam, Baydon Belle, was purchased for just 20,000 guineas via John Walsh Bloodstock at the 1998 Tattersalls December Sales by Scythian's owner/breeder Lawrence Goichman. A daughter of Al Nasr, she was unplaced but was a half sister to the black-type winning and group-placed Airport. Baydon Belle's dam, the Vaguely Noble mare Vague Prospect, was closely related to the Florida Derby winner Royal and Regal, and was also a half sister to the Vernons Sprint Cup (G1) victor Dowsing, and to Fire the Groom, whose three graded stakes wins included the Beverly D. Stakes (G1T), and who subsequently produced European champion sprinter Stravinsky.
Inbred 3x5 to Unbridled, Scythian is bred on the same Empire Maker cross that has provided graded stakes winners Amalfi Sunrise and Glass Ceiling for Tiz the Law's sire, Constitution.
