USA: The US-trained Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf runner-up Tiz The Bomb is being prepared for a tilt at the Cazoo Derby at Epsom on Saturday June 4.
Trainer Kenny McPeek has nominated the colt for the 243rd running of the £1.5m Classic – and he is considering running him in the Qipco 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket on the way to Britain's most valuable race.
“We’re very serious about it,” said McPeek. “He’s a top-level grass horse. His second in the Breeders’ Cup would justify that he’s good enough and we are working on a plan to get him there.
“He may run in the 2,000 Guineas first and then come back in the English Derby. We are really excited about it.”
Tiz The Bomb, a son of Aidan O’Brien-trained Breeders’ Cup winner Hit It A Bomb, features among 91 Derby nominations, which were published on Wednesday [Feb 23].
As many as 25 are owned by some or all of the Coolmore partners headed by winter favourite Luxembourg and Aidan O’Brien-trained stablemate Point Lonsdale. Charlie Appleby’s two-year-old champion Native Trail heads 13 Godolphin possibles, while Reach For The Moon (trained by John & Thady Gosden) is one of three entries who could bid to win the race for the Queen in her Platinum Jubilee year alongside Haydock maiden winner Educator and unraced Galileo colt General Idea.
Tiz The Bomb won three times on turf last year, including the G2 Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland, before finishing second to Godolphin’s Modern Games, trained by Charlie Appleby, at Del Mar. He was unplaced behind leading Kentucky Derby hope White Abarrio on dirt on his seasonal debut at Gulfstream Park earlier this month.
The pioneering McPeek’s record of challenging for major prizes in Britain goes back to 2004 when Hard Buck finished second in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot.
The trainer’s experience of Epsom was rather less positive with the filly Daddy’s Lil Darling having to be withdrawn from the 2017 Oaks after bolting on her way to the start. “That will never happen again,” said McPeek.
“Tiz The Bomb won at Kentucky Downs, which is equivalent to a European turf course with the uphill and downhill,” he added. “He should be able to handle the contour of Epsom. “My fingers are crossed that he will be 100 per cent and ready to go at that period of time. We are long way away, but we are excited.”
Tiz The Bomb raced in the US last year for Phoenix Thoroughbreds, who have been suspended from having runners in Britain since September 2020 when their racing accounts were frozen due to concerns over the organisation’s source of funding.
This followed the naming of group founder Amer Abdulaziz Salman in a New York court as an alleged money-launderer in a fake $4bn cryptocurrency scam. Abdulaziz has denied the allegations.
Tiz The Bomb is listed among the Derby entries as owned by McPeek’s Magdalena Racing. “The horse is going to be leased from Phoenix for both races,” the trainer explained.
Derby betting (Ladbrokes): 4 Luxembourg, 10 Native Trail, Point Lonsdale, Reach For The Moon, 20 Antarah, Bayside Boy, Coroebus, 25 bar.
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