OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Tizzy in the Sky continued her life-long love affair with Aqueduct and jockey Flavien Prat continued his magical year as they teamed to narrowly win Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Go for Wand Stakes.
Returning to the only track over which she has won and despite not having run in 182 days, Tizzy in the Sky dug in late to hold off odds-on favorite Occult by a half-length. It was a head back to Movie Moxy in third. Shidabhuti was fourth followed by Comparative, Rachel’s Rock and Stonewall Star, who stumbled at the start and never really got involved. Ain’t Broke scratched.
The win was the fifth from 13 starts for Tizzy in the Sky, all five wins coming at Aqueduct, where she previously won the Top Flight Invitational as well as her maiden and two allowance races. The Go for Wand was her first graded win, a timely victory as she is likely headed to the breeding shed in 2025 after potentially another race or two.
For Prat, the Go for Wand was his 79th stakes victory in 2024, equaling the single-year record for stakes wins set by Irad Ortiz Jr. in 2022. It was also Prat’s 54th graded stakes wins, putting him one win shy of the graded record of 55 set by Jerry Baily in 2003.
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“It’s been a great season, I’m very grateful, it means a lot to tie Irad,” Prat said. “When he did that, he had a hell of a year. Just looking back, it’s been a great season and hopefully we can get a few more.”
Prat thought Tizzy in the Sky could be the pacesetter in the Go for Wand, but longshot Rachel’s Rock, under Kendrick Carmouche, was faster, opening up a 1 1/2-length margin over Tizzy in the Sky through a quarter in 22.89 seconds and a half-mile in 45.75.
Tizzy in the Sky wrested the lead from Rachel’s Rock at the quarter pole and had a clear lead at the eighth pole. At that point, Occult, coming off a runner-up finish to Idiomatic in the Grade 1 Spinster, and Movie Moxy were gearing up for a run. But Tizzy in the Sky had more to give and held them off.
“When I turned for home, she was kind of looking around, I was hoping that she doesn’t lose too much momentum,” Prat said. “It looked like at the eighth pole they were coming, but she felt like she regrouped and went on. It felt like she could have gone another eighth and we would have been fine.”
Tizzy in the Sky (89 Beyer Speed Figure), a 5-year-old daughter of Sky Kingdom owned by Donald and Kimberli Orenstein and trained by Todd Pletcher, covered the mile in 1:35.64 and returned $8.20 as the second choice.
Pletcher, who won his fourth Go for Wand, said this race was the goal for Tizzy in the Sky after he stopped on her following a last-place finish in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps in June.
“We had to rush a little bit to have her ready, but she’s such a willing horse, she trains very well, her breezes are strong with good gallop outs,” Pletcher said. “I was worried inside the eighth pole after those fractions, if she could hold off some of the late closers. To her credit, that was a big effort.”
Donald Orenstein indicated that Tizzy in the Sky would have one more race before she is bred. It would only be fitting if that race came at Aqueduct, perhaps in the Ladies Stakes on Jan. 11.
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