Derby Threats Smile Happy, Tiz the Bomb Resume Breezing

Two early favorites for the May 7 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) at Churchill Downs, Smile Happy  and Tiz the Bomb , recorded their first workouts Jan. 1 at Gulfstream Park since wrapping up their 2-year-old campaigns in the fall.

The newly turned 3-year-olds each had easy three-furlong moves for their trainer, Kenny McPeek, with Lucky Seven Stable's Smile Happy timed in :38.46 and Phoenix Thoroughbred's Tiz the Bomb clocked in :37.84. The former won the Nov. 27 Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) at Churchill Downs in his last start, a race from which McPeek scratched Tiz the Bomb due to a minor infection in his left front leg.

"Basic stuff, three-eighths. Just keeping them going," McPeek said of Saturday's works before adding they may work together next weekend.

The day after the Kentucky Jockey Club, Smile Happy closed at the favorite among 22 individual betting interests in the first round of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager at 8-1 odds. His odds dropped from 15-1 late when Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, the Houston furniture store owner who campaigned Smile Happy's sire Runhappy  , bet $10,000 to win on the 2-for-2 colt.

Tiz the Bomb (Hit It a Bomb  ), runner-up in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) but also a winner on dirt, closed as the 24-1 fifth individual favorite.

No Bob Baffert-trained horses, including Corniche , the likely 2-year-old champion of 2021 and the favorite with Las Vegas bookmakers, were offered in the betting. This past year, acting as a private property owner, Churchill Downs Inc. suspended Baffert through the middle of 2023. So Baffert trainees landed in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager field, or "all other colts and geldings from the 2019 crop," which closed at 3-5 odds. The field is regularly the heavy favorite in early Kentucky Derby Future Wager pools hosted by Churchill Downs.

McPeek said he has not yet settled on a specific racing schedule for Smile Happy and Tiz the Bomb, but indicated he would likely keep the two separated. He mentioned the Jan. 29 Southwest Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn Park and the Feb. 5 Holy Bull Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream as some of the races under consideration. The Feb. 12 Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs is yet another option. All three races are run over 1 1/16 miles.

The trainer's third leading Derby hopeful, Lucky Seven Stable's Rattle N Roll , unraced since winning the Oct. 9 Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1) at Keeneland, is still gearing up for his first breeze of the winter.

"Not ready to work yet, but he's coming. Maybe a couple more weeks," the trainer said of the Connect   colt, the 21-1 third individual favorite in pool one. 

McPeek is winless with six prior Derby starters, coming closest in 1995 when Tejano Run  was second. He has captured both the Preakness Stakes (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1).

While calling it good to have a promising trio of favorites a little more than four months removed from the start of the Triple Crown, he said he doesn't think about it often.

"You've just got to focus on the timing of each one of them and make sure they're doing well," he said.