California Bred Hopeful: Tiz A Minister

Although expected to be one of the longer shots on the board, California racing fans will be hoping for big Kentucky Derby performance from Tiz a Minister, the only Cal-bred horse in the field. Trained by Paul Aguirre, the 3-year-old son of Minister’s Wild Cat was bred at Dahlberg Farms and is owned by S.A.Y Racing. Tiz A Minister sports a record of two wins, four seconds and two thirds from 11 lifetime starts, good for earnings of $327,000.

Tiz A Minister has uneven career so far

Although Tiz A Minister showed lots of promise early in his racing career – finishing 2^nd his very first time out – it then took him four more races to break his maiden. Since then, he’s had an up-and-down experience at the races, in a campaign that has covered a variety of distances and includes two tries on the turf. He comes into the Derby off a 4^th place finish in the Santa Anita, where he was beaten 12 ½ lengths by the speedy Goldencents.

Comes from a line of champions

While it’s likely that Tiz A Minister will have to run the race of his life to win the Derby, he does have some back pedigree to help him out. His sire’s grandfather was the 1981 Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old Deputy Minister, a half-brother to the 2000 Breeder’s Cup Mile winner War Chant. On his dam’s side, his grandsire Cee’s Tizzy produced Hall of Famer Tiznow.