Tizway sat in a perfect stalking position through mild fractions and bounded to the lead at the top of the stretch on his way to a relatively easy win in Saturday's Grade 1 Whitney Invitational Handicap. The rest of the field tried to rally in deep stretch but they were all on fumes at that point, leaving Tizway without any serious threats at the wire. Flat Out rallied to finish second, while Giant Oak finished 3rd.
Result Chart (via DRF.com)
The Whitney didn't come close to setting any records today in terms of raw time. The early pace was light, the middle fractions were light, and the finish was tepid. Nobody was really coming home all that fast in any race at Saratoga today, so perhaps the track was on the tiring side. The Whitney was the only two-turn race on the main track the entire day, which gives us nothing to compare it to. But even if the track was slow and/or tiring, I don't know that I'm eager to run to the windows in the Classic for anyone out of this field as none of them looked like they really wanted to go much further.
An nice win by Tizway who has now taken back-to-back Grade 1 races. The story at the DRF proclaims him frontrunner for Horse of the Year which is, sadly, an indictment on the lack of excellence we've seen so far this year.
In the race prior to the Whitney, Turbulent Descent won the Grade 1 Test.
Whitney Fractions:
1/4: 24.31
1/2: 49.11
3/4: 1:13.85
Mile: 1:39.32
Finish: 1:52.43
Whitney Internal Splits:
1/4: 24.31
1/2: 24.80
3/4: 24.74
Mile: 25.47
Finish: 13.11
Tizway Internal Splits:
1/4: 24.50
1/2: 24.87
3/4: 24.59
Mile: 25.37
Finish: 13.11