Grade I winner Tiz Miz Sue, a 6-year-old daughter of Tiznow who earned more than $1 million for the CresRan Racing operation of Carol Ricks, has been retired.
Ran Leonard, racing and breeding manager for Ricks, his grandmother, said Aug. 22 that the Steve Hobby trainee will be sent to Foxtale Farm near Nicholasville, Ky. Breeding plans have not yet been determined.
Tiz Miz Sue won her last race, the May 27 Ogden Phipps Handicap (gr. I) at Belmont Park, becoming Ricks' first grade I winner. She was initially slated to run in the July 20 Delaware Handicap (gr. I), a race she lost last year by just a neck to champion Royal Delta.
But bone bruising detected during a routine veterinary examination caused her connections to back off on that plan, and in preparing for her comeback in either the Beldame Invitational (gr. I) at Belmont or the Zenyatta Stakes (gr. I) at Santa Anita Park en route to a planned start in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I), she appeared to still have minor issues.
"She came out of Belmont and as far as we know everything was fine. We kind of backed off on her because we weren't planning on running her back until the Del 'Cap, but training for that she came up a little sore," Leonard said. "We saw our vets in Kentucky and they said it was minor, just give her a little time off. She spent time on the farm and then we brought her back up to Churchill, and this week is when we kind of started to gear down on her again. She just didn't respond like you want a horse to respond, and we had to make the decision today.
"She's as happy as she can be, she acts like she's perfectly fine, but Steve still gets on her every day and has every day he's had her, and he knows she's not quite the same."
Leonard said Tiz Miz Sue is still at Churchill Downs with her longtime trainer, but that she should be sent to Foxtale in the coming weeks. The dark bay mare, Ricks' first grade I winner, will remain in the family.
Ricks bred Tiz Miz Sue out of the Woodman mare Sue's Good News, winner of the 2003 Singapore Plate Stakes (gr. III) at Arlington Park as well as the Iowa State Fair Stakes at Prairie Meadows and the Instant Racing Breeders' Cup Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
"There's no way I could put into words how important she is," Leonard said of Tiz Miz Sue. "We purchased her mother, and obviously she had great talent. We have a big affinity for the family and had high hopes for the offspring of Sue's Good News. My grandmother traveled to watch every one of Tiz Miz Sue's races, and loved following her around."
Tiz Miz Sue retires with a 8-10-4 record from 32 starts, with earnings of $1,129,709. Her other graded stakes victories came in the 2012 and 2013 editions of the Azeri (gr. III) at Oaklawn. She was runner-up in the 2009 Arlington Washington Lassie Stakes (gr. III) in her third career start as a juvenile, won multiple listed stakes at Delaware Park, and placed in six other graded stakes including a runner-up finish to On Fire Baby in Oaklawn's 2013 Apple Blossom Handicap (gr. I).
Her yearling half sister, an Indian Charlie filly named Kateri, is scheduled to sell at the Keeneland September yearling sale from the Paramount Sales consignment as Hip 516.
"It's unfortunate, but this way we get to take her home safe, have her babies, and hopefully have a lot more fun with her over the next few years," Leonard said.