Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap winner
Tizway continues to train forwardly for his next engagement, the Grade 1
Whitney on August 6, working five furlongs in 1:00.08, handily, over the
Oklahoma training track Friday morning.
The move, his fifth since the Met
Mile, was the fastest of four at the distance.
Tizway will be bidding for his
second career Grade 1 victory in the Whitney, a race in which he finished
fourth in 2009 and missed last year with an injury. Long troubled by foot
issues, Bond said those problems seem to be behind the 6-year-old son of
Tiznow.
“He’s always had issues but for the
first time in his life he’s like a baseball player or a football player for
whom everything has come together,” said Bond. “Now, I can train him really
hard. I’m very, very excited about the race.”
Tizway is on the brink of becoming a
millionaire, having earned $909,274, with a record of 6-1-5 from 19 starts. All
but one of those victories has come at a mile or less, but Bond doesn’t think
the Whitney’s 1 1/8 miles will be a problem.
“He was beaten three lengths to
[runner-up] Quality Road in the Jockey Club Gold Cup going 1 ¼ miles, and I’d
have to think if Quality Road were in this race he’d been 2-1 or less, that’s
my opinion,” said Bond. “It’s going to be a great race with a lot of the top
players. I believe he can do it, Rajiv [Maragh] believes he can do it; he’s got
to prove it.”