Editor's note: Tiz the Law, owned by Sackatoga Stable, is the favorite for Saturday's Kentucky Derby. Jack Knowlton of Saratoga Springs is the operating manager of Sackatoga and will be sharing his experiences of Derby week with the Times Union, as told to Times Union racing writer Tim Wilkin
The weather is perfect. Finally. It’s beautiful out and it is supposed to be phenomenal on Friday and Saturday. I hope it will be phenomenal for other reasons on Saturday. It was awful Thursday morning. Pouring rain. Tiz went out with Barclay on the pony and he just led him around. He didn’t want him to do anything significant because of the track. It’s not a concern. The horse is fit. We schooled him in the Churchill Downs paddock after the fourth race.
I am anxious to watch our 2-year-old, Saratoga Flash, run in the second race at Saratoga Friday. It’s his first start. Ask me after the race is over what I think about him. If he runs to that work he had on Sunday (59.2 seconds for five furlongs) I’ll feel pretty good. I will watch it on TV down there or on the NYRA app.
We went to a wonderful Italian restaurant Wednesday night. My son, Aaron, and some other partners, Eric Kordsmeier and Steve and Chris Paskevich, also went. Trainer John Shirreffs, who has Honor A.P. in the Derby, was there and he bought our table a drink. I went over and talked to him for 10 or 15 minutes. It was just small talk. We didn’t talk about our horses at all. Did you know he has a house in Saratoga?
I talked to Bob Baffert at the track. It was horse talk. He said he is a fan of Tiz. A lot of people I have seen at the track are fans of Tiz. He is the hot horse.
Aaron, Jim Webb, another partner, and I are going to the VFW Post, which is right across the street from the track. We are going to go there and have a toast to Gus Williams, a partner in the Funny Cide days. Gus died 13 years ago and he always loved going to the VFW back home. He found this place down here and was always the life of the party when he went there. He is a legend at the VFW down here. People have talked to me about Funny Cide down here. And, no, I never get tired talking about him.
I have to do an interview with NBC’s Kenny Rice Friday in the infield at Churchill Downs. That is where the school bus is going to be parked. Is that a big story? Are you kidding me? When NBC was up in Saratoga, they were filming me making the phone calls to rent the bus. We had to screw around a little bit to find a bus company, but we found it. We are taking one bus to our event on Thursday and we will have two buses for the Oaks on Friday and two for the Derby on Saturday.
That is my world right now, getting back on the school bus. I didn’t have to take a bus to go to school in Sackets Harbor. But I took a lot of trips on them when I was playing basketball, baseball, track, tennis and football. I was a letterman in five sports at a school that graduated 43 people!
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Jack Knowlton's Kentucky Derby Diary - Times Union
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