Classic winner Tiz the Law retired to Coolmore

Edited Press Release

Sackatoga Stable’s Tiz the Law, New York-bred Horse of the Year and champion 2-year-old in 2019 who continued his ascent in 2020 with three Grade 1 wins highlighted by the Belmont Stakes, has been retired to stand at Coolmore America’s Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., for 2021.

Coolmore said in a statement Wednesday that the 3-year-old son of Constitution was “retired from racing on veterinary advice.”

“From day one when he broke his maiden at Saratoga we have been watching Tiz the Law closely and he has everything you look for in a stallion prospect,” said Coolmore America manager Dermot Ryan. “He has an outstanding race record, he’s a very good-looking individual and he boasts a strong pedigree. Barclay Tagg, Robin Smullen and their team have done a fantastic job with him and we are also grateful to Jack Knowlton and his partners in Sackatoga Stable for letting us be a part of him.”

Tiz the Law returned to serious training in late November into December at Tagg’s winter base at Palm Meadows Training Center. He breezed five times, including a half-mile in :51.60 on Christmas Eve, in preparation for what would have been a start in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Jan. 23 at Gulfstream Park.

“The entire Tiz The Law team is deeply disappointed that Tiz the Law will be unable to race as a 4-year-old as planned,” said Sackatoga Stable’s Jack Knowlton. “He has provided the 35 owners a unique opportunity to compete and succeed at the highest level of Thoroughbred racing.

“His impressive victory in the Grade 1 Travers at Saratoga Race Course was particularly rewarding for the Saratoga-based stable. Sackatoga Stable is looking forward to the next chapter of his career as a stallion.”

Tiz the Law heads to stud with six wins in nine starts and $2,735,300. He won four Grade 1s during his career – the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park in 2019 and Florida Derby at Gulfstream, Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes at Saratoga in 2020. He also finished second in this year’s Kentucky Derby and sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland in his final career start.

“While it is unfortunate that Tiz’s racing career has been cut short, we have been extremely fortunate and blessed to have had him in our lives,” Tagg said. “Robin and I were able to pick him out and train him to win the Grade 1 Champagne as a 2-year-old and three Grade 1 races (Florida Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers) as well as run second in the Kentucky Derby this year.

“He has taken his owners and Barclay Tagg Racing Stable to places that most owners and trainers only dream about. We look forward to his career as a stallion with Ashford Stud.”

Tiz the Law’s stud fee will be announced shortly and he will be available for inspection starting Jan. 4. Tiz the Law, who figures to be a finalist for champion 3-year-old honors in 2020 along with another expected haul of New York-bred champion awards, is out of the graded stakes-winning Tiznow mare Tizfiz. Knowlton purchased Tiz the Law for $110,000 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/12/30/classic-winner-tiz-the-law-retired-to-coolmore/

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Name Changer retires to stand at Kaz Hill Farm

Graded stakes winner Name Changer became the latest son of emerging sire of sires Uncle Mo to join the stallion ranks in New York this week when he retired to Peter Kazamias’ Kaz Hill Farm in Middletown, N.Y. for the 2021 season.

The 7-year-old out of the stakes-winning Northern Afleet mare Cash’s Girl will stand for $2,500 live foal, stands and nurses, as property of Kaz Hill Farm. A limited number of lifetime breeding rights are available.

“Anyone paying attention to the leading sire lists knows something big is happening when it comes to Uncle Mo,” Kazamias said. “Not only does Uncle Mo himself have 14 graded stakes winners in 2020, more than any other stallion in the United States, but his sons Nyquist, Laoban and Outwork rank first, second and fourth on the North American leading first-crop sire list. With a powerful build reminiscent of his sire, and his undeniable racing class, it’s easy to imagine Name Changer carrying on that tradition.”

Laoban previously stood in New York before relocating to WinStar Farm in Kentucky for 2021. King for a Day, another stakes-winning son of Uncle Mo, will enter stud in New York next year.

Name Changer won eight of 24 starts with two seconds and eight thirds for $567,080 in earnings. Bred and raced by Richard Santulli’s Colts Neck Stables and trained during his career by Alan Goldberg and his successor with Colts Neck’s runners, Jorge Duarte, Jr., Name Changer won the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup Stakes in 2018 at Monmouth Park and finished third in the Grade 2 West Virginia Derby in 2016 at Mountaineer Park.

Name Changer won two other stakes during his career, the 2016 Richard W. Small at Laurel Park and the 2018 Queens County at Aqueduct, and placed in five other stakes including the Richard W. Small in his career finale Nov. 28.

“He always showed up – the way the best offspring of Uncle Mo do,” Goldberg said. “Colts Neck Stables retained some breeding rights, and we’re planning to send our New York-based mares to him.”

Bloodstock agent Michael Slezak, Kaz Hill’s manager of bloodstock, brokered the deal to purchase Name Changer. He said the parallels between Uncle Mo and Name Changer make him a strong stallion prospect.

“Uncle Mo’s maiden win going 6 furlongs at Saratoga as a 2-year-old, that has to rank as one of the greatest debuts in the history of the sport,” he said. “Similarly, Name Changer showed the ability to win first time out as a 2-year-old at the same 6-furlong distance – which really caught our attention. At the same time, Name Changer was still hitting the board in stakes company in November of his 7-year-old season – and that’s a big selling point for smaller operations who rely on New York State breeders’ awards and are trying to get runners who stay sound and competitive over multiple racing seasons.”

Slezak said he’d be scouting mares for Name Changer’s initial book at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale and the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky February mixed sale.

“Kaz Hill already has a very deep broodmare band, but we want to make sure Name Changer gets the best possible start at stud,” Slezak said.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/12/22/name-changer-retires-to-stand-at-kaz-hill-farm/

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Rojan Farms’ Ellen Bongard passes away

Ellen Bongard, a pioneer in the New York Thoroughbred industry whose family owned one of the oldest active breeding farms in the state, passed away suddenly Monday at the age of 77.

Born June 2, 1943 in New York City, Ellen Bongard was the daughter of the late attorney Bertram F. Bongard, who played a key role in the formation of the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund and New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. Ellen and her sister Barbara Bongard owned Rojan Farm in the Town of Northumberland near Saratoga Springs. Rojan Farm traces its roots to 1960, when the Bongard family bought the farm in Gallatin in Columbia County, about 90 miles south of Saratoga.

Rojan eventually moved north and became involved in several segments of the industry – breeding, raising, training, racing, selling and boarding. The Bongards also played a role in promoting and pressing for legislation that passed to help created the Breeding and Development Fund in the early 1970s.

“We realized we weren’t going anywhere until we got that going,” Ellen Bongard said in an article that appeared in The Saratogian in 2017. “Those people were the reason I stayed in the business. …

“I began my involvement in 1968, when I took my first yearlings to Kentucky. If you asked me about the view of New York breeding at that time I would call it miniscule. I mean, who bred horses in New York?”

Rojan stood stallions – including Santa Anita Derby winner An Act, Northern Dancer’s son Kick, Rare Earth, Back Bay Barrister and others – in the 1970s and 80s, and sold horses on the commercial market. The Bongards were also early supporters of offseason training at the Oklahoma Training Track in Saratoga, along with the Saratoga Trials conducted in June and July in the early 1980s at the Oklahoma.

A graduate of Scarsdale High School and Russell Sage College in Troy, Ellen Bongard is also credited with creation of The Bongard Room at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. The room is used for conferences and honors other pioneers and legends of the state’s breeding industry.

Among the top runners bred by the Bongard family in recent years include In Te Domine, bred by Rojan and Barbara Bongard and winner of the $100,000 Statue of Liberty division of the New York Stallion Stakes in 2010 at Saratoga. Rojan sold the daughter of Freud as a weanling for $11,000 at the New York Breeders’ Sales Co.’s October mixed sale. In Te Domine also finished third in that year’s Riskaverse Stakes at Saratoga.

Fight On Lucy, a homebred daughter of Musket Man who appeared in the Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with the Little Guys in the Sept. 2, 2018 edition of The Saratoga Special, would be Ellen Bongard’s final starter and winner.

The now 4-year-old filly finished sixth in the $100,000 Staten Island division of the New York Stallion Series Nov. 22 at Aqueduct. Fight On Lucy won a $55,000 allowance at 26-1 for trainer Pat Kelly and Ellen and Barbara Bongard and their partners Carla Skodinski, Ellen Petrino and Kathleen Condon.

Kelly also saddled Fancycase to a win at Saratoga Aug. 11, 2018 for the same partnership.

“She’s a homebred, probably one of the last ones,” Bongard said in the Aug. 12, 2018 edition of The Saratoga Special. “I happen to still own the oldest Thoroughbred farm in the state of New York. It’s been a great ride, interesting one, too. I liked every part of it and I’ve always said, take good care of the horse, keep horse breeding alive and open space. That’s what we’re losing the most. There’s a time for everything. After 65 years, don’t you think it’s time?”

Some of the same partners were also involved with Bongard when Rojan Farms homebred Saratiago won a 9-furlong turf maiden for state-breds at Saratoga in 2015.

“The nice people keep you going,” Ellen Bongard said in the 2017 article in The Saratogian. “Being a woman, it has never been easy. There are still a few who do breeding correctly. I fear they are dwindling. You must always keep in mind the horse, the land, and farming.”

 

 

Obituary from William J. Burke & Sons Funeral Home:

Born on June 2, 1943 in New York City, she was predeceased by a brother, Bertram Jr., her father, Bertram F. Bongard Sr. and her mother, Rojean R. Bongard.  She was a graduate of Scarsdale High School in Scarsdale, NY and Russell Sage College in Troy, NY.

Her father was a founding member of the New York Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund Corporation and with his family he raised and raced thoroughbreds.  In his honor the Bertram F. Bongard Stakes for New York-breds has been run annually since 1983.

Ellen operated Rojan Farms from 1968 to 2020.  Horses and golf were her favorite activities and she was a longtime member of the Saratoga Golf and Polo Club.

Ellen is survived by her sister, Barbara Bongard.

Services will be private and at the convenience of the family.

Contributions in Ellen’s name may be made to: TAKE2 Second Career Thoroughbred Program Inc., P.O. Box 21028 Floral Park, NY11002 or to New Vocations, 719 Dolan lane, Lexington, KY 40511.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/12/11/rojan-farms-ellen-bongard-passes-away/

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King for a Day retires to Irish Hill & Dutchess Views

Stakes winner King for a Day, the only horse to beat champion 3-year-old male Maximum Security to the wire in 2019, has been retired and will enter stud in 2021 at Irish Hill & Dutcess Views Stallions LLC in Saratoga.

The 4-year-old son of Uncle Mo will stand for $6,000 live foal stands and nurses.

Bred and raced by Stephen P. Brunetti’s Red Oak Stable and trained by Todd Pletcher, King for a Day won three of seven starts with a second and a third for $260,550 in earnings.

Brunetti plans to remain actively involved in King for a Day’s stallion career and will send several quality mares to him.

King for a Day finished third in his debut as a 2-year-old at Saratoga – behind eventual Grade 1 winner Complexity and Grade 2 winner Harvey Wallbanger – before breaking his maiden in his second start a month later at Belmont Park over a field that included eventual Grade 2 winner and Triple Crown standout Tacitus.

King for a Day raced exclusively in stakes-company from there and he started his 3-year-old season with back-to-back victories at that level. He won the Sir Barton Stakes on the Preakness Day undercard at Pimlico Race Course in his sophomore debut before a victory in the $150,000 TVG.com Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park. He pressed Maximum Security through the opening half-mile of the Pegasus before backing off briefly then putting in a brilliant, sustained effort to defeat the eventual Eclipse Award winner by a length in 1:42.59 for the 1 1/16 miles.

“King for a Day displayed big talent from day one,” said Pletcher, who also trained Uncle Mo. “He not only strongly resembles his sire Uncle Mo but, he had a great mind to go with the talent. King had a high cruising speed just like his sire.

“He was precocious to win at 2 a tough maiden special weight race at Belmont Park over Tacitus and others. His win over Maximum Security at 3 in the Pegasus elevated him to another level and there is no doubt in my mind that this horse had the ability to win Grade 1 races.”

King for a Day joins eight others on the Irish Hill & Dutchess Views roster for 2021 and becomes the latest – and now only – son of Uncle Mo to stand in the Empire State. Uncle Mo is emerging as a true sire of sires, with three of the top four leading North American freshman sires of 2020 including former the New York-based Laoban (second) and leader Nyquist.

King for a Day is out of the unraced French Deputy mare Ubetwereven, who is also the dam of stakes winner and $147,280-earner Feel That Fire and stakes winner and $258,454-earner Ima Jersey Girl. Feel That Fire is the dam of two-time Grade 1 winner and millionaire Mind Control.

For more information on King for a Day – including special incentives for breeders, multiple mare incentives, or to book your mare – please contact Rick Burke at rick@IrishHillCenturyFarm.com[3] or Moe Scavullo at info@IHDVstallions.com[4].

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/12/09/king-for-a-day-retires-to-irish-hill-dutchess-views/

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