Distractions and ‘rioters’ aside, Barclay Tagg hopes to make history Saturday

For someone who loathes the limelight, Barclay Tagg is the center of attention this Kentucky Derby week. For better or worse.

The better is the horse. Tagg has the one to beat. He trains Tiz the Law, the 3-5 favorite for Saturday’s 146th, if most unusual, running of the race. You have to go back to 1989 and Easy Goer to find a Derby favorite with shorter odds.

The worse is the spotlight. Why no sooner had the 82-year-old trainer arrived in Louisville than he found himself in the middle of a controversy. After Tuesday’s post-position draw, in which Tiz the Law drew the 17th post in the 18-horse field, Tagg was asked what he thought about the protesters in Louisville and what they might do on Derby Day.

“I don’t know what those guys are going to do, these rioters,” he told WDRB in Louisville. “Who knows? All I know is you’re not allowed to shoot them, and they’re allowed to shoot you. That’s what it looks like to me, so I don’t know what to think about it.”

News was made. Headlines happened. “Under fire,” said the New York Post. Ah, but that’s Barclay. As Jack Knowlton, head of Sackatoga Stable, which owns Tiz the Law, likes to say, “All Barclay wants to do is work.”

He’s won this thing before, Barclay Tagg. In 2003 with Sackatoga Stable, Tagg trained Funny Cide to an upset victory over Empire Maker. A former steeplechase rider who was assistant trainer for the legendary filly Ruffian, Tagg opened his own stable in 1971. It took him 32 years to get to the Derby. A gelding purchased for $75,000, Funny Cide was a 13-1 shot. A New York-bred had never won the Kentucky Derby. Until then.

Tagg has returned three times since. He trained Showing Up, who finished sixth in 2006; Nobiz Like Shobiz, 10th in 2017, plus Tale of Ekati who ran fourth and Big Truck who ran 18th in 2008. A trainer who has won over 1,500 career races, he hasn’t had a Derby horse since. Until now. With another New York-bred.

“He’s a good horse to train,” Tagg said of Tiz the Law, a $110,000 purchase by Knowlton at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Preferred New York Bred Yearling Sales in 2018. “He’s not overly excitable. He likes to run and he loves the competition.”

Tiz has won six of seven lifetime starts, including four Grade 1 races — the Champagne as a 2-year old, plus the Florida Derby, Belmont and Travers this year. Last time out, he dominated the Travers by 5 1/2 lengths on Aug. 8.

“The most impressive race he’s run was the last one,” said Bruce Lunsford, owner of Art Collector, the Blue Grass Stakes winner who unfortunately is skipping the Derby because of a foot injury. Of Tagg, Lunsford said, “Barclay’s like a phenom at 82.”

Tagg 2020 is much like the Tagg of 2003. He’s happy to talk horses if you catch him at the right time. Otherwise, he’d prefer to not be bothered. “This is all I do,” he said. “I’ve given up everything else in life practically to do this.”

Even now, Tagg gets to the barn at 4:30 every morning. He likes to oversee the horse himself, along with partner Robin Smullen. Tagg wants to feed them, watch them, check on them, almost at all hours. Knowlton says Tagg works seven days a week, 51 weeks a year. He and Smullen spend one week at an island in the Caribbean. That’s it.

Now, it’s the race every trainer works for and Tagg is the trainer with the best horse. And biggest worries.

“I couldn’t be anything else but very, very concerned,” he said last week of the protesters. “I don’t want my people hurt, I don’t want myself hurt, I don’t want the horse hurt. The world’s crazy right now, and hopefully we can pull it off without something disastrous happening.”

And if Tagg pulls it off, he will be the oldest trainer to win a Kentucky Derby, eclipsing Art Sherman, who trained California Chrome to victory in 2014 at age 77.

“I don’t like to talk about my age,” Tagg said. “I’m fit, sound, healthy. I’m blessed.”

Blessed enough to have the best horse in Saturday’s race. That, hopes Barclay Tagg, is all that matters.

This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 5:47 PM.

John Clay

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-472-4218

John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky, he covered UK football from 1987 until being named sports columnist in 2000. He has covered 20 Final Fours and 42 consecutive Kentucky Derbys. Support my work with a digital subscription