Twisted Tom Proving His Worth for Biszantz

Gary Biszantz is quick to tell you about his success and even quicker to detail some of his gaffes—like the time he sold the mare Star of Goshen in foal to Empire Maker  , never once dreaming a future Triple Crown yielding sire was in utero, or when he thought he pulled off a nifty pinhook when he let eventual Eclipse Award winner Finest City go for $85,000 at the 2013 Keeneland September sale after paying just $50,000 for the City Zip   filly as weanling.

The owner of Cobra Farm can laugh about such instances now (sort of) because to him, that's the essence of what being a sportsman and, specifically, a participant in the Thoroughbred industry is about. You make gambles—good, bad, or indifferent—and you keep your nose in the game regardless of the outcome. Because every once in a while, something unexpected might hit. And the high of that moment doesn't get quantified by any monetary measurement.

So when Biszantz's longtime friend and agent, Steve Young, rang his phone last fall and said there was a promising 2-year-old who just won at Belmont Park that he thought Biszantz should buy, it was no-brainer that the 82-year-old owner, breeder, and businessman was all ears. Until he heard said horse was a gelding. A gelding who had just won on turf.

In that moment, Biszantz gambled that Young's astute eye wouldn't steer him wrong. More than nine months later, both men can now laugh they were a tad off when they evaluated what the strapping chestnut runner Twisted Tom could bring to the table. 

"I'm a guy who listens to all the good agents ... but I have to make the final decision," said Biszantz, who now owns Twisted Tom in partnership with Roger Weiss and Sol Kumin. "But in this case, I didn't. I trusted Steve. He called me and said 'I've seen a horse run in New York that I think you should buy... and I think you can buy him for $150,000.' I said, 'Steve, $150,000 for a gelding is a real risky thing.' And he said, 'No. I think this horse has some ability.'

"Now I can tell you he had no idea and I had no idea that he would ever get this good. I had no dream of that."

Let the record show that Young's core belief in Twisted Tom was actually spot-on. Unbeaten on dirt and now a multiple stakes winner since being transferred to the barn of Eclipse Award winner Chad Brown, the Creative Cause   gelding has a chance to become the poster child for outside-the-box thinking when he brings his form to the starting gate for the June 10 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1).

Given the ongoing parity of the sophomore male ranks this season, there would certainly be stranger things than seeing a New York-bred gelding take down the final leg of the Triple Crown in his graded stakes debut. Credit to Young— who also purchased Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) winner Always Dreaming as a yearling—for seeing in Twisted Tom upside beyond the obvious.

Beaten 9 1/2 lengths in his debut at seven furlongs on dirt, Twisted Tom was stretched out to a mile and switched up to turf in his second outing, where he prevailed by a neck for his previous trainer George Weaver. His first try for his new connections wasn't exactly a barn burner, however—a sixth-place finish on the Aqueduct Racetrack turf Nov. 25. 

When he returned for his 3-year-old debut over the inner track at Aqueduct Jan. 28, the addition of blinkers and some old-fashioned maturity meant Brown had a new type of runner on his hands. After taking an allowance test that day by a half-length, he handled his first venture in stakes waters when he rallied from midpack to capture the Private Terms by a nose at Laurel Park March 18.

"I thought he would run two-turn New York-bred races," Young said of Twisted Tom. "The first time they ran him, I think the turf was a little soft at Aqueduct and he ran OK but didn't run like he could. We left him (in New York) in the winter and he just went from strength to strength to strength.  

"As far as a horse like Tom, I'm not sure I would have liked him as a yearling. A yearling only has one way to sell himself, where as with a 2-year-old and a racehorse, you get their pedigree, their looks, how they move at speed. As a racehorse, he's got good mechanics. That's how I got to Twisted Tom.

Having already won over the Laurel track, Biszantz said they ran Twisted Tom back in the April 22 Federico Tesio Stakes with the thoroughly reasonable expectation of "we figured he'd get a part of it". When he won by 2 1/4 lengths in the 1 1/8-mile test, Brown said he knew he had at least one Belmont horse in his barn—even if his connections still needed convincing.

SHEA: Twisted Tom Takes Sloppy Tesio

"Chad called me on the phone and he said, 'I want to run your horse in the Belmont.'  And I said, 'Chad you just won the Preakness (G1, with Cloud Computing), you've got a horse who just won the (grade 3) Peter Pan Stakes (Timeline) ... and you're telling me you want to enter my horse?" Biszantz said. "He knows he's got the horse right, right now. We're coming in with a fresh horse that is training really well against maybe some tired horses or some horses who have had some disappointing races."

Brown has reached a point where, if he expresses confidence in a horse's chances, one better heed accordingly.

Where others may have balked at bringing a horse who was only a maiden winner into the second leg of the Triple Crown to face, among others, a brilliant-looking Kentucky Derby victor, Brown banked on Cloud Computing's fresh legs and improving ability to take the Preakness by head.

In Twisted Tom's morning outings, getting the gelding pulled up after his gallop has often been the toughest test for Brown's exercise riders. He was not Triple Crown nominated and had to be supplemented into the Belmont field for $75,000. But with champion Classic Empire out of the race because of a foot abscess, the door is open for Brown to go back to back in classic victories, and for Biszantz to have a new story to tell—of that time he let his friend talk him into a shot-in-the-dark purchase that ended up yielding a pinnacle result.

"If there was one race that fit as a chance to take a swing at something meaningful, it was the Belmont for this horse," Brown said. "Yes, it's a big class test for him, but when you're talking about the opportunity to run 1 1/2 miles on dirt, he's one of those rare horses that has enough stamina to do it effectively, I think."

"You have to have the courage to take the losses and the passion to stay in the game and want to do it again. But a lot of people can't do that. That's what is tough about Thoroughbred racing," Biszantz added. "Then out of the clear blue sky, Twisted Tom shows up and you think, 'It's worth it all'. If he were to happen to win the Belmont, can you imagine me standing in the winner's circle having that accomplishment? What would people pay to do that?"