Tiz a Slam Will Need to Find Best to Defend Singspiel

The connections of Tiz a Slam hope for a turnaround in form from the multiple graded stakes winner when he attempts to win the CA$125,000 Singspiel Stakes (G3T) a second straight year Sept. 19 at Woodbine.

Last year Tiz a Slam delivered a frontrunning two-length victory in the Singspiel, then contested at 1 1/2 miles. This year the turf race for 3-year-olds and older will be contested at 1 1/4 miles. Last year's victory was sandwiched by frontrunning scores in the Louisville Stakes (G3T) at Churchill Downs and the Nijinsky Stakes (G2T) at Woodbine. The Chiefswood Stables homebred won the 1 1/2-mile Nijinsky for a second consecutive year, completing the distance in a course-record 2:25.14.

Video: Singspiel S. (G3T)

Trainer Roger Attfield is looking for answers from the 6-year-old son of Tiznow . Since that Nijinsky victory, Tiz a Slam has failed to earn a placing in four starts and enters Saturday's race off a sixth-place finish—more than 20 lengths back—in the Seagram Cup (G3T) on the Woodbine all-weather surface.

There are 10 horses entered, but Hoolie Racing Stable and Bruce Lunsford's Admiralty Pier, who has finished second in back-to-back grade 2 tests on the Woodbine course, may go in the $1 million Ricoh Woodbine Mile Stakes (G1T) later on the card.

After some success on the all-weather surface at Woodbine in his past two starts, Gary Barber and Lou Tucci's Skywire will give the turf a try in the Singspiel. The 4-year-old son of Afleet Alex  won the Eclipse Stakes (G2) July 4 before finishing second in the Seagram Cup. Trained by Mark Casse, Skywire failed to place in his two previous starts on the grass.

Making his Woodbine debut will be Al Shahania Stud America's Standard Deviation, who enters off a seventh-place finish in the United Nations Stakes (G1T) July 18 on the Monmouth Park turf. The son of Curlin —False Impression, by A.P. Indy, seems well suited to the 1 1/4-mile distance. 

Trained by Graham Motion, stakes winner Standard Deviation has twice placed in grade 1 events and this year finished second to French King in the HH The Amir's Trophy Presented by Longines (G1) Feb. 22 at Al Rayyan Racecourse in Doha, Qatar.

Motion also has entered Staghawk Stables' Nakamura, who two starts back finished third in the TVG Elkhorn Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland. The 5-year-old son of Animal Kingdom has placed in four stakes races but is looking for his first stakes win.

Trainer Gail Cox has entered a pair of runners for owner Sam-Son Farm in Say the Word, who last out rallied to an allowance-level victory on the turf at Saratoga Race Course, and Count Again, a son of Awesome Again who will make his stakes debut after winning or placing in his first five starts. 

Sam-Son's Aldous Snow won three editions of the Singspiel Stakes from 2014-17.