AZERI S. (gr. III ), Oaklawn Park , March 16, 2013 , $150,000 Guaranteed , value of race $150,000 , 4 yo's & up , 1 1/16 miles , 1:45.26 Dirt FT .

Tiz Miz Sue followed a path strikingly familiar to 2012 when she won the March 16 Azeri Stakes (gr. III) at Oaklawn Park. It was the second consecutive victory in that race for the 6-year-old daughter of Tiznow, who is campaigned as a homebred by Carol Ricks’ Oklahoma-based Cresran.

Trainer Steve Hobby said like last year Tiz Miz Sue would probably stay at Oaklawn to contest the April 12 Apple Blossom Handicap (gr. I), a race in which she finished third in 2012.

The Azeri, named after the 2002 Horse of the Year who captured the 2002-04 runnings of the Apple Blossom, marked Tiz Miz Sue’s fourth career stakes victory. Overall, she owns a record of 7-9-4 from 30 starts, for earnings of $789,709.

Kentucky-bred Tiz Miz Sue is out of the graded stakes-winning Woodman mare Sue’s Good News, who scored her big win in the 2003 Singapore Plate Stakes (gr. III) at Arlington Park.

Mike Shannon, agent, purchased Sue’s Good News for $45,000 on Cresran’s behalf at the 2001 Keeneland September yearling sale from Eaton Sales, agent.

“I had picked her out based on pedigree…I was trying to find some horses that could improve our broodmares down the line,” said Cresran racing manager Ran Leonard, the grandson of Ricks. ”Mike said she was perfect for what we wanted…just a little behind the rest of them. She didn’t prep the best, was skinny, but he thought we could do some things to improve her, and the pedigree couldn’t be beat.”

Sue’s Good News’ second dam, stakes winner and multiple grade I stakes-placed runner Mochila (by In Reality), is a half sister to 1985 United States champion grass horse and 1996 leading sire Cozzene (by Caro). She is also a half sister to grade II winner Movin’ Money and to stakes winner Ivy Road (both by Dr. Fager).

Leonard suggested mating Sue’s Good News with Tiznow based on his positive impressions of him as a racehorse, plus the way the stallion’s first few crops looked in the sale ring.

“We also went that route because Sue’s Good News has a lot of Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer in her, so the thought was to get away from that as much as we could,” Leonard explained.

Sue’s Good News is boarded at Gabriel Duignan’s Foxtale Farm near Nicholasville, Ky., where she is due to deliver a full sibling to the Azeri winner soon. She is booked to Blame for 2014.

Tiznow, the sire of 43 stakes winners, stands for $75,000 at Kenny Troutt’s WinStar Farm near Versailles, Ky.—E.M.

APPLE BLOSSOM H. (gr. I ), Oaklawn Park , April 12, 2013 , $500,000 Guaranteed , value of race $500,000 , 4 yo's & up , 1 1/16 miles , 1:44.13 Dirt FT .

Winning at Oaklawn is a tradition that seems to be inherent in the family DNA of On Fire Baby.

At the 1998 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale, Anita Ebert-Cauley and her late husband Barry Ebert purchased a bay Gilded Time filly, whom they named Ornate, out of the winning Val de l’Orne mare Nile Chant for $80,000. Turned over to trainer Gary “Red Dog” Hartlage, Ornate proved a very useful runner, earning $177,972 from 29 starts in her three-year career. Her seven wins included the Pleasant Temper Stakes and a couple of wins at Oaklawn Park.

Having been retained by the couple when she failed to meet her reserve at the 2003 Keeneland November mixed sale in foal to Mr. Prospector’s grade II-winning son E Dubai, she produced a filly the following year. Also trained by Hartlage, the homebred High Heels won Oaklawn’s Fantasy Stakes (gr. II) and placed third in the Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) on her way to earning $484,636.

Ornate’s next foal, French Kiss, also a filly by a son of Mr. Prospector, Hussonet, assumed the familial black-type obligation by taking the Pippin Stakes at Oaklawn and finishing third in the track’s grade III Azeri Stakes.

In 2008, Ebert-Cauley chose Smoke Glacken for Ornate. The grandson of Mr. Prospector brought his own Oaklawn-winning tradition into the mix. The handsome gray had captured the Mountain Valley Stakes and the Southwest Stakes (gr. III) there in 1997.

With all of those Oaklawn stars aligning, On Fire Baby’s win in the April 12 Apple Blossom Handicap (gr. I), her season debut, should not have been a 12-1 surprise. Last year the Hartlage-trained homebred landed the track’s Honeybee Stakes (gr. III) on her way to a fifth-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks.

The nick of Smoke Glacken with Gilded Times’ mares has proved quite interesting. From five foals bred on that cross have come five starters, five winners, and two stakes winners (40%). The two stakes winners, Irish Smoke and On Fire Baby, both took home grade I wins.

A son of Two Punch, Smoke Glacken has sired 55 stakes winners. The 19-year-old stands at Gainesway near Lexington. His 2013 fee is $10,000.—T.H.