This Side Up: Tiz All About Momentum

You didn't know? Sure they do, every Travers weekend. All the Bluegrass stallions. They get together for a few bourbons at the country club, compare notes on the covering season. And it's not like the officers' mess, where no gentleman would bandy a lady's name. They guffaw when they discover that some notoriously ornery mare was sent to a naïve new subscriber; they drool enviously when one of the senior members reveals that he was favored with a visit from that gorgeous maiden who topped a session at the November Sale. Then they start asking how the kids are doing, and the grandkids in some cases; and finally they all settle round the television to watch the GI Runhappy Travers S., with much joshing between those with “skin in the game”.

This time round, the fixed smiles–the surface amiability not quite concealing a competitive resentment–will be between Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie) and Constitution (Tapit). It's a big day for the younger of the pair, with Tiz The Law looking to consolidate his standing in the crop a week after his premier rival on the opposite coast, at much shorter odds, failed to do the same. To do so, he will have to beat one of the most charismatic Californian sophomores in Uncle Chuck, whose sire is additionally represented by Caracaro.

And that's just the way both Uncle Mo and Constitution would like it. One has the chance to put the upstart in his place. The other? Well, what Constitution wants, more than anything else in the world, is to be Uncle Mo.

Because even if he were to emulate the Ashford stallion by producing a GI Kentucky Derby winner from his debut crop, there are not yet any guarantees. Last winter, Constitution saw Bodemeister (Empire Maker) led off the farm to board a plane for Turkey, hardly the destiny that beckoned after Always Dreaming won him the Derby at the first attempt in 2017–a year after Nyquist had similarly given Uncle Mo the perfect start.

Even before he won the Derby, Nyquist's juvenile championship had already made his sire the busiest in the land, with no fewer than 253 mares paying a fee promptly elevated to $75,000 from $25,000. That, frankly, is a quite appalling number. But they included the dams of Uncle Chuck, Caracaro and a couple with a Derby gate already secured in King Guillermo and Modernist; not to mention Pneumatic, also in the picture, and a filly who won three Grade Is last year in Bast. The next crop off the Uncle Mo carousel, conceived at £150,000, has already produced a TDN 'Rising Star' in Girl Daddy, impressive on debut for Dale Romans and Albaugh Family Stables at Ellis Park a few days ago, and a filly so well regarded by Doug O'Neill that she was thrown into the deep end Friday in the GII Sorrento S. at Del Mar.

Meanwhile eased slightly to $125,000, Uncle Mo's book of 241 last year was nationally exceeded only by two glamorous sons of Scat Daddy freshly launched by the same farm, Justify and Mendelssohn. Coolmore, of course, is perfectly willing to expose a stallion's percentages in exchange for sufficient volume to a) square the accounts in those commercially fervid opening seasons and b) yield up the headliners that can cover a multitude of sins.

WinStar themselves are often not averse to that model, and it's safe to say that the revolving door this spring went round rather more briskly for Constitution than was the case last year, when he served 85 mares. Though unable to match Uncle Mo's barnmate American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile) by earnings, he had meanwhile topped the rookies' table by winners, black-type winners and graded stakes winners, and was duly hiked to $40,000 from $15,000. That was a timely breakout for a farm whose heart-breaking loss of American Pharoah's sire, in his prime, had left the premier names on its roster all in the evening of their careers.

Through the first half of this campaign, American Pharoah and Constitution have exchanged the emphasis somewhat, Tiz The Law keeping his sire top on earnings while the Triple Crown winner has improved his spread of elite performers. That's no less than should be expected, given the relative quality of their opening books, but both are plainly consolidating in an era when stallions are given a ridiculously narrow window to promote their genetic wares. Because there is always a precarious margin dividing an Uncle Mo and a Bodemeister.

Uncle Mo was fortunate to emerge from a pretty mediocre intake overall, with only Twirling Candy (Candy Ride {Arg}) otherwise establishing a place in Kentucky's top tier. To me, the current group of second-crop sires looks much stronger, with quite a few of the slower-burning types still looking highly eligible to strengthen their profile through the support of those who breed or buy with the quaint notion of banking dough on the racetrack, rather than the sales ring.

Among those that look like they can build a sustainable career is Honor Code, albeit his poster boy was disappointingly laboured last weekend. Obviously a 20-runner stampede over 10 furlongs is more likely to draw out Honor A.P.'s reserves of stamina, and he couldn't be in better hands for a peak effort at Churchill next month. But, meanwhile, his sire has another arrow in his quiver for the Travers in Max Player.

Here is one of the diminishing crew, headed by Tiz The Law, that was actually ready to roll on the first Saturday in May, only to be left idle through the shutdown. His resumption behind the class leader in the GI Belmont S., or what must approximate to that Classic for this year, was plainly auspicious.

Uncle Mo's pair, in contrast, are profiting from the postponement of the Derby as relatively late bloomers. Caracaro, having disappeared for six months after winning a Gulfstream maiden in January, duly has obvious prospects of avenging his narrow defeat by Country Grammer–himself representing a second-crop sire with more to come, in Tonalist (Tapit)–in their recent rehearsal. Uncle Chuck, for his part, did not even make his debut until a regular Triple Crown season would have ended, but has since dealt with barnmate Thousand Words (Pioneerof the Nile) in a fashion that proved beyond Honor A.P. last week.

Uncle Chuck is bidding to extend a terrific run for his breeders at Stonestreet. Among their many recent accomplishments, they raised the phenomenal filly Gamine (Into Mischief) whose

GI Longines Test S. performance on the same card could yet nourish the idea that she is the true star of the crop. If so, and Uncle Chuck can beat Tiz The Law as well, a lot of people will be revisiting their notes on the Summerfield consignment at the September Sale of 2018. Gamine was a famous 2-year-old pinhook, but she was initially sold on the same day as Uncle Chuck.

Out of five foals to make the track so far, Uncle Chuck's dam has now produced three graded stakes winners plus an authentic freak in Maclean's Music (Distorted Humor). Now there's another guy who sired a Classic winner from his first crop, though that only put him seventh behind Bodemeister that year. And he's still very much in the game, having been represented by the impressive Jackie's Warrior in Friday's GII Saratoga Special S. while Sonic Brees carries the stallion's hopes in Saturday's GII Best Pal S. at Del Mar.

But who's this? Here's Bernardini (A.P. Indy), whispering to the country club steward that he'll take care of the tab. Travers weekend, after all, is when everyone remembers how classy he can be: a brilliant winner of the 2006 running, he then produced Stay Thirsty and Alpha from his first two crops. His grandson South Bend (Algorithms) may be up against it in this field, but a couple of years ago Catholic Boy (More Than Ready) contributed to Bernardini's dizzy rise as a broodmare sire.

To those prepared to listen, Bernardini will have some wise counsel. “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword,” he'll say quietly. “If the commercial market exalts you in months, it can discard you in minutes. You boys remember Bodemeister, and the way he swaggered in here only three years ago?”

And those youngsters hoping for many such reunions in the years ahead will reflect. Sure, Bernardini's had a quiet couple of years. But at 17 he is still probably the best-looking dude in the room; and his daughters, especially, are already guaranteeing him a lasting influence on the breed. No, he didn't have a Derby winner at the first attempt. Maybe he felt that was just too vulgar, too flash, and that's why he settled for consecutive Travers winners instead.

And while Constitution may be tempted to tease Bernardini that their fees have now met, through different trajectories, he might be well advised to keep his mouth shut pending Art Collector's appearance at Ellis Park on Sunday.