Owners Bet He Is One of a Kind

Bud Straub was from St. Louis and went to a military school in Illinois. This was long before he cashed $10,000 worth of daily-double tickets at Del Mar and took some of the money to buy a horse.

“The way I heard it,” said Mike Cooper, who used to work for Straub, “Bud would cut drill practice and sneak off to the races.”

In Orange County, Straub, a relative of the Busch family of beer barons, ran a beer distributorship that now sells 10 million cases of brew a year.

Straub, who was 67, died after suffering a heart attack in 1975. But his widow Cee, at 83, is carrying on both the beer business and the racing stable. Cee Straub-Rubens, who remarried, arrived in Louisville on Thursday night, eager to watch her best horse, Tiznow, run Saturday in the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.

Tiznow, a big, powerful bay colt who likes to playfully gnaw on the jacketed right arm of trainer Jay Robbins around his stall, is 5-1 on the Classic’s morning line, reason enough for Straub-Rubens and Cooper, who manages the horse, to put up $360,000 to supplement him into the race.

Fusaichi Pegasus is the 8-5 favorite. After him come Tiznow and two other horses--Albert The Great and Lemon Drop Kid--that are bracketed at 5-1.

Robbins felt that Tiznow deserved a Breeders’ Cup chance after the late-developing 3-year-old won the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs and the Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita just two weeks apart.

But Straub-Rubens and Cooper, chief financial officer of the Straub Distributing Co., didn’t green light the trip until Chris McCarron, a significant cog in the colt’s arrival, recommended the race and agreed to ride Tiznow in the Classic.

“We needed Chris to go all the way with this horse,” Cooper said. “He didn’t just start working the horse in the mornings; he’d continue to work with the horse when he got off his back. The horse grew under Chris.”

Tiznow, a son of Cee’s Tizzy and Cee’s Song, horses that Straub-Rubens breeds, is a California-bred, which is a strike against any horse running in the Breeders’ Cup.

Since the Breeders’ Cup began in 1984, 46 Cal-breds have run, with no wins and only a smattering of in-the-money finishes. A Cal-bred--Fran’s Valentine--actually finished first in the first Juvenile Fillies at Hollywood Park but was disqualified for interference at the top of the stretch and placed 10th.

Two other Cal-breds--Arabian Light in the Juvenile and Notable Career in the Juvenile Fillies--are also running Saturday.

When the Cal-bred streak was mentioned to Robbins at the barn here a few days ago, he backpedaled out of the conversation. He has been to the Breeders’ Cup with Cal-breds before and has heard the rant about them.

Saddled by Robbins, Nostalgia’s Star was fourth in the 1986 Classic and seventh in 1987; his Flying Continental, 12th in the 1989 Kentucky Derby, was 11th in the 1990 Classic.

“I don’t know how much a win by Tiznow would do for the breeding program back home,” Cooper said. “But it would certainly make all of the breeders in California feel better. I think the breeding program in California is improving as it is. Some of the new stallions are coming to California. I think Bob Lewis and the Thoroughbred Owners of California have changed the atmosphere.”

For a time, it appeared that McCarron might have a tough decision in the Classic, riding either Tiznow or the mare Riboletta, who also would have been one of the favorites. But Riboletta’s owners, Aaron and Marie Jones, elected to run her in Saturday’s Distaff, and now McCarron can ride both horses.

“I never really asked Chris,” Robbins said, “but I think if it boiled down to that, he would have stayed with Riboletta. Aaron Jones just buys too many good young horses.”

Straub-Rubens breeds her own, to race rather than sell, through eight broodmares she owns.

Robbins was hired to train for Straub-Rubens when John Russell retired about seven years ago. An older full brother of Tiznow’s, Budroyale, made his first start and was claimed away from Robbins by Ted West for $32,000. He has earned about $2.5 million since, including $800,000 when he ran second at Gulfstream Park in last year’s Classic.

Budroyale didn’t show a lot when he was young, so Straub-Rubens, Cooper and Robbins are not bitter that they lost him. Tiznow, by contrast, showed promise from the start, but Robbins needed to bottle up the colt’s enthusiasm, and then there was a three-month layoff because of a fractured tibia.

“When he was a 2-year-old, he intimidated the exercise boys,” Robbins said. “So I put blinkers on him. He wore blinkers the first five times he ran, but he really didn’t need them, so they’re off now. He’s just a good-feeling horse. He’s not mean. He’s better when he’s outside his stall.”

Tiznow’s first race was on April 22 at Santa Anita. He finished sixth but hasn’t had a poor outing since. There were no $32,000 claiming races in this colt’s future.

After a second at Hollywood Park in May, he broke his maiden there three weeks later. Moving into stakes company, he quickly won the Affirmed Handicap, was second in the Swaps in July and then, ridden by McCarron for the first time, tried older horses in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar and finished second to Skimming. Wins in the Super Derby and Goodwood give him four wins and three seconds in eight starts and purses of $965,550.

The Classic will be Tiznow’s third hard race in five weeks, and until he could watch him after the Goodwood, Robbins feared that that might be too much racing for his colt. But Tiznow regained his considerable appetite a day or two after the Goodwood.

He drew the No. 13 post for Saturday’s 14-horse field, probably not much of a minus in a 1 1/4-mile race.

“It’s better than post 14, or post 1,” Robbins said. “We’ll be all right. It’s a long race, and I have a good pilot.”

Notes

If the weather forecast holds up, the turf is bound to be on the soft side for Saturday’s three grass races. Rain is predicted today and tonight, continuing into early Saturday. It may be clear by post time for the first Breeders’ Cup race, but the temperature isn’t expected to reach 60 degrees. . . . Tiznow likes to run on or near the lead. Golden Missile and Albert The Great might also set the pace.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Breeders’ Cup

Saturday at

Churchill Downs

10 a.m., TV: Ch. 4

The best finishes of California-bred horses with race and finish:

1984

Fran’s Valentine

Juvenile Fillies, 1st*

1986

Fran’s Valentine

Distaff, 2nd

1991

Bertrando

Juvenile, 2nd

1993

Bertrando

Classic, 2nd

1994

Soviet Problem

Sprint, 2nd

1997

Career Collection

Juvenile Fillies, 2nd

1999

Budroyale

Classic, 2nd

*--Disqualified and placed 10th.