Wonderful Enough

- While Nobiz Like Shobiz impressed us with his brilliance on Saturday, Tiz Wonderful did so with his grit. I had written that Tiz Wonderful would be not wonderful enough, and for a while there, it looked like I had the exacta cold with Any Given Saturday, the unexpected clear second choice, on top. Wild Tale, 5-1 morning line, went off at 11.80 to 1 and ran 7th by over 15 lengths; you gotta love this game.

Whereas fellow hyped two-year old Nobiz Like Shobiz impressed us with his brilliance, Tiz Wonderful did so with this grit, battling back when he seemed beaten, and holding off my pick, a very promising juvenile from Pletcher. The winner answered two big questions, winning around two turns and, showing heart when hooked late. Velazquez said: "He was a little bit delayed switching leads down the lane. Once he switched he got a good gear and went on." [Courier-Journal]

When Pletcher gets a good two-year old this time of year, one might start to wonder if he'll be the one. You know he's gonna win a Derby one of these days. Isn't he? Any Given Saturday proved he can run on real dirt in addition to Polytrack, and he certainly has the pedigree credentials to be a nice horse. Purchased as a yearling by Winstar for $1.1 million, I wrote about his pedigree the other day: He's a $1.1 million son of Distorted Humor, out of an AP Indy mare, and a half-brother to Bohemian Lady, a stakes winner at nine furlongs this year. His dam is a half to the graded winner Second of June. Going back a bit more in the distaff pedigree, I see that he's from the family of Golden Act and Highland Blade, a couple of horses that I remember as being particularly suited for long route races.

[And Highland Blade is the broodmare sire of Highland Cat, who is scheduled to return to the barn of Bill Turner next week. We've seen how much he's helped that pedigree.]