Record-Setting Tiz Midnight Brave in Bayakoa
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Tiz Midnight (inside) outfinished Warren's Veneda to win the Bayakoa Stakes on Saturday at Los Alamitos. (BENOIT photo)
Tiz Midnight battled back gamely after she was passed by Warren’s Veneda in the stretch of the $200,000 Bayakoa Stakes on Saturday at Los Alamitos and drove to a determined victory in track-record time.
Ridden by Victor Espinoza, the bay 4-year-old filly by Midnight Lute completed 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.62 to establish a new Los Alamitos track record. She improved to four wins, three seconds and one third from nine career starts.
Hall of Famer Bob Baffert trains Tiz Midnight for owners Karl Watson, Mike Pegram and Paul Weitman, who raced Tiz Midnight’s champion sire (father) Midnight Lute.
ESPINOZA, PEGRAM AND WATSON
BENOIT photo
Watson and Weitman also raced Tiz Midnight’s dam (mother), Tough Tiz’s Sis, a two-time Grade 1 winner who earned $903,792 in her career.
Tiz Midnight was hustled along early by Espinoza and rated just behind pacesetter Yahilwa. Tiz Midnight launched her bid approaching the stretch and powered to the front, while Warren’s Veneda waited for running room behind the leading group.
Tyler Baze angled Warren’s Veneda to the outside early in the stretch and she briefly pushed her head in front of Tiz Midnight, but the winner would not be denied and fought back to get the best of her challenger in the closing strides.
“She always breaks a little slow out of there, so I had to put her in the race,” Espinoza said of his early positioning. “The long stretch kind of helped her because she’s such a big filly.”
Bred in Kentucky by Watson and Weitman, Tiz Midnight earned her first career stakes win in the Bayakoa and boosted her career earnings to $334,720 with the $120,000 winner’s share of the purse.
Tiz Midnight won three straight races earlier this season before the winning streak came to an end in a runner-up finish to champion Beholder in the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes in September at Santa Anita Park.
Tiz Midnight entered the Bayakoa off a sixth-place finish in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
For an Equibase chart, click here.
TIZ MIDNIGHT
BENOIT photo