Tizway proved himself in the 2011 G1 Whitney

Tizway entered the 2011 Grade 1 Whitney Invitational Handicap from a sharp score in the one-mile Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap in May at Belmont Park. Though the nine-furlong distance in one of Saratoga Race Course’s most prestigious races posed a major question, Tizway answered emphatically in what would be the final start of his career.

On Saturday, the 98th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney, a nine-furlong main track test for older horses, offers a “Win and You’re In” berth to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic in November at Del Mar. First post on the 13-race card is 12:05 p.m. Eastern.

William L. Clifton, Jr.’s Tizway, a dark bay son of 2000-01 Breeders’ Cup Classic-winning Hall of Famer Tiznow, was trained by H. James Bond. He was a $140,000 purchase at the 2006 Keeneland September Yearling Sale out of the Dayjur mare Bethany. His second dam Willamae produced Will’s Way, who Bond conditioned to win the local 1996 Grade 1 Travers and 1997 Grade 1 Whitney.

Tizway, bred in Kentucky by Whisper Hill Farm, certainly had the pedigree, but it took him six starts to graduate. He debuted in November 2007 as a juvenile and finished a distant sixth going one-mile at Aqueduct Racetrack. Tizway then made four consecutive starts early into his sophomore campaign going nine furlongs on dirt at Gulfstream Park, his best finish a pacesetting third that April. The charts for those efforts were riddled with trouble, including “off slowly,” “lugged in,” and “stumbled start” but Tizway graduated at the same distance over the Woodbine Tapeta to cap his 2008 season.

“Myself and Equix Biomechanics actually picked him out as a yearling. We did a lot of stride and heart measuring, and that horse ticked every single one of the boxes. He was unbelievable,” said Bond. “It took him a little while, but you could just tell with the way he moved, that he was very efficient. I had to take him to Canada to run on the all-weather as a maiden. He had Dayjur on the bottom, and I thought it was a smart move because he won.”

When returning as a 4-year-old, Tizway caught attention when romping by 7 3/4 lengths in a one-mile allowance at Aqueduct and uniting with jockey Rajiv Maragh, who’d pilot his last 14 starts.

“Before I ever sat on him, the connections believed he had been underachieving, and they still had really high expectations for him,” said Maragh. “My first race aboard, he was magnificent. He showcased that he was a horse on the rise. I believed he was one of the most powerful horses I had ever ridden. He had strength. He was just super powerful and masculine.”

Two starts later, Tizway won an optional claimer by 7 1/2 lengths going the same distance at Belmont Park, earning a 102 Beyer Speed Figure and stamping himself as a player in the older dirt division.

“He started running huge,” Bond said. “We had him in Florida at Palm Meadows before and he was training like a monster. There was no doubt when I shipped him back to New York that he would win. He was a different horse.”

Tizway stretched back out to nine furlongs to run a prominent fourth to Bullsbay in the 2009 Grade 1 Whitney Handicap ahead of a pacesetting third in the 10-furlong Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park and a misfire in the nine-furlong Group 1 Japan Cup Dirt to close his campaign overseas at Hanshin Racecourse.

“Although he didn’t win, the day I saw his full strength come out was in the Japan Dirt Cup. Unlike in America, where we have a pony to take us out to the track, you are by yourself there. In the warmups, I tried to keep him contained and he literally ran around the track almost two times,” said Maragh. “I used all my strength to try to stop him, but he was just a powerhouse. That was the moment that showed me how strong he really was.”

Tizway’s 5-year-old season featured a 4-2-0-1 record with a one-mile score in the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap and a third to Quality Road in the 2010 Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. One year later, Tizway returned to that race and posted a top performance.

Breaking from the outermost post 11 under Maragh in the 2011 Met Mile at Belmont Park, Tizway pressed the pace set by Tackleberry through a half-mile in 45.47 seconds on the fast dirt.

“The Met Mile is a premier race that I always wanted to win as a New York jockey. I thought we had a really good horse, but it is always a challenging race. I couldn’t overdo it early, because I’d pay the price late,” Maragh said. “He ran from start to finish. He was a part of the fast pace, absorbed that pressure, put away the speed horses while pulling away from the closers.”

Tizway picked it up in the turn to put one length in front through three-quarters in 1:08.66, and he kept finding more to put a four-length gap back to Caixa Eletronica, Tackleberry and Haynesfield at the stretch call. Rodman closed from deep, but could only settle for second as Tizway finished a much-the-best 2 3/4-length winner in a final time of 1:32.90. That time was only .09 seconds behind the then stakes-record 1:32.81 set by Honour and Glory in 1996, which was broken by Frosted in 2016.

“He showed that he was becoming a superstar,” Maragh continued. “After winning the Met Mile, I firmly believed he could stretch out. I started setting my sights on the Breeders’ Cup Classic, personally, because he had great speed and sustained it.”

The victory came at the same one-mile distance as his five-length Kelso triumph, and earned a berth into the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, but Bond preferred pointing Tizway to the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

One way to find out if Tizway could handle the top class two-turn dirt event was taking another shot at Saratoga’s Grade 1 Whitney.

“First, his Met Mile was tremendous, which led up to the Whitney, but I was still very scared for the race that day,” Bond said. “There was rain in Ballston Spa and it was raining hard. We stayed dry up until right after the race. I was so happy because he really did not like the mud. He had some flat feet.”

The race drew an evenly matched field of 11, including dominant Grade 2 Suburban Handicap-winner Flat Out, Grade 1 Donn Handicap-victor Giant Oak and Grade 1 Carter Handicap-winner Morning Line. In addition to Tizway [$1.3 million], the Whitney featured career millionaires in Flat Out [$3.6 million], Duke of Mischief [$1.9 million], Rail Trip [$1.5 million], Giant Oak [$1.4 million], Mission Impazible [$1.2 million] and Morning Line [$1.2 million].

“You could do any strategy with that horse,” Bond said. “Tizway was a true racehorse. In my opinion, he was a horse that with no pace, he could be there. When you got pace, you could sit a bit. Rajiv fit him like a glove.”

Tizway broke from post 5 sharply and sat just off of Friend Or Foe and Morning Line who dueled for the lead through an opening quarter-mile in 24.31 seconds on the fast dirt. Tizway remained close to the leaders in third position in the first turn and down the backside through a half-mile in 49.11 and three-quarters in 1:13.85. He drew up alongside in the second turn and quickly held a clear advantage as the field came to the top of the stretch.

“Coming from one-mile, most people would anticipate or expect that he would blast off early and might fade late. I didn’t have that worry because I felt like he was a horse that would do whatever I asked of him,” Maragh recalled. “I didn’t feel the need to go fast early, I let two horses go, tracked them, and I remember Bond said beforehand, ‘You’re better off moving too early because he is not going to get tired.’ I made our move midway in the turn.”

After covering one mile in 1:39.32, Tizway charged to the wire for a commanding three-length victory over the rallying Flat Out in a final time of 1:52.43. It was 3 1/2 lengths back from Flat Out to Giant Oak, with Friend Or Foe, Headache, Mission Impazible, Rail Trip, Rodman, Apart, Duke of Mischief and Morning Line completing the order of finish.

“He was such an easy horse to ride in the regard that you could move earlier than on another horse who may become leg-weary,” Maragh said. “I’d say, ‘You know what? He’s not going to get tired, so if he gets rolling and opens up on the field, they’re pretty much never going to catch him.’ I just tried to regulate him a little bit early, and he’d do the rest.”

In his Whitney victory, Tizway earned his first win in seven dirt starts at nine furlongs, while registering a 111 Beyer– just two ticks shy of his career-best 113 earned in the Met Mile. He stamped himself as a leader among the older horse division.

“He was just an amazing horse. He threw his heart out and chased it,” Bond said. “He was just a running machine and unfortunately we didn’t make it to the Breeders’ Cup with him.”

Bond believed Tizway was atop the division with the Breeders’ Cup Classic looming as his last major goal. Unfortunately, Tizway developed a strained ligament during his training that forced him to miss the race and into retirement.

“After winning the [1996] Travers, I got beaten by a nose in the race for the following two years. However, I think Tizway not being able to participate in the Breeders’ Cup Classic was tougher. There was no doubt in my mind that he was going to win,” Bond said. “It was a borderline call, I brought four veterinarians in, but the horse was too good to all of us. I credit Mr. Clifton, he was a great man to train for. I explained what the injury was and he said, ‘let’s retire him sound.’”

Tizway stood for 13 years in America, Australia, South Korea and Turkey, where he passed away last year at age 19. A sire of multiple graded stakes-winners, Tizway left his mark around the globe, but perhaps no place greater than Saratoga Race Course.