Tiz the Law Owner Fights Off Leukemia, Makes It To the Derby

Roger Sofer won't be at Churchill Downs Saturday to cheer on Tiz the Law (Constitution) in the GI Kentucky Derby, but he will be at home, watching, hoping and rooting for a horse he co-owns along with 31 other partners in the Sackatoga Stable syndicate. He's not complaining

Back in mid-March, right before the GI Florida Derby, Sofer got the chilling diagnosis that he had leukemia. He vowed to beat the disease but knew the odds were against him and he didn't know what the next few months would entail.

“Roger is a fighter,” said Jack Knowlton, who heads the Sackatoga team.

The fighter is still standing, and he will make it to Kentucky Derby day.

“We're moving in the right direction,” the 70-year-old Houston resident said. “It's just a very slow process and I am tired all the time. But I'm not complaining.”

Sofer exercised regularly and kept his weight down, so he wasn't too worried when he developed a rash in March. He had it checked out and the news was devastating. The doctors at MD Anderson Cancer Center told him that he had a rare and aggressive form of leukemia and there was no known cure for what he had. They gave him a year.

“It was staggering,” he said. “I woke up with a skin rash and there was nothing else wrong with me. I am someone who works out six days a week, and has weighed the same for 40 years. Turned out it was leukemia.”

He began treatment immediately, undergoing chemotherapy seven days a week. He was let out of the hospital just in time to watch the GI Florida Derby, getting home about an hour before the race.

The Sackatoga family had already endured one tragedy. In October, Tiz the Law partner Bruce Phillips passed away. Sofer vowed that his story would not end the same way.

“I am looking forward to beating the brains out of this thing,” he said.

At least he had something to take his mind off of his illness. When Tiz the Law won the Florida Derby and Sofer vowed that not only would he attend the Kentucky Derby he would bring the doctor from MD Anderson who had helped him through his ordeal. If not for COVID-19, those would have been goals he would have met. Then there was the GI Belmont S. and then the GI Travers S. Sofer watched them all from home from what became his lucky television and wearing the same clothes every time.

“Tiz has been great because he gives me something else to think about,” Sofer said. “The Houston press has been really good to me. My story has been in the papers here quite a bit. They got all the clippings up in the unit at the hospital, so everybody there  knows my story and everybody there is rooting for Tiz.”

It wasn't just the horse. He said Knowlton and the other Sackatoga partners have always done whatever they could to keep his spirits up.

“Roger is a tremendously caring guy,” Knowlton said. “He's a huge, huge supporter of horse aftercare. I can't say enough good things about Roger, and we were all really saddened by the situation he was in. We're hopeful the treatment will be successful and he'll be back with us watching the races next year.”

Sofer was born in Queens and had been a lifelong fan before deciding to go into ownership. He bought a few horses on his own and went in on a some others with the team at Hidden Brook Farm. He met Knowlton in 2008 and decided to give Sackatoga a try after watching the stable's Doc N Roll (Wheelaway) win the Cab Calloway S. for New York breds at Saratoga.

“To be involved with Tiz the Law you never think you're going to get lucky like we've gotten lucky with this guy. It's dream,” he said.

While Sofer was hanging in, his doctors were still concerned and told him that he would die if not getting a bone marrow transplant. With his son acting as the donor, Sofer got the transplant July 2, 12 days after Tiz the Law won the Belmont. He's convinced that the transplant has allowed him to turn another corner.

“We are going for the cure,” he said. “They don't want to just make you feel better. They're in the cure business here at MD Anderson.”

He is now receiving treatment just three days a week as an out patient and is not currently undergoing chemotherapy.

“The heavy lifting has been done,” Sofer said. “Thank God, I am doing well.”

His goal now is to stay that way.

“I really believe I'm going to beat these thing,” Sofer said. “I don't know if I'm going to beat it for 20 years. But, overall, if I can just stay normally healthy I'm going to be around long time.”

Which might mean watching Tiz the Law win a Triple Crown or have another standout season next year. Being part of a once-in-a-lifetime horse and winning a battle against leukemia, Sofer has come to believe that anything is possible.