It's been 17 years since Jack Knowlton and his Sackatoga Stable pals rode yellow school buses to the Belmont Stakes. It was a rollicking party on wheels for the group that came to watch their horse Funny Cide try to sweep the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.
It didn't happen that day.
Now, the ownership group that buys just one or two New York-bred colts a year is back to try again with Tiz the Law. He's the star of a 10-horse field for Saturday's Belmont Stakes, perhaps the biggest sporting event in the United States since the coronavirus pandemic shut down competition in mid-March.
"I still wake up and kind of pinch myself," Knowlton said, "and say it looks like lightning really has struck twice."
Tiz the Law is the early 6-5 favorite for the Belmont Stakes, which will kick off what Knowlton calls a "backwards Triple Crown." Instead of completing the series of three races that usually starts in early May and is run over five weeks, the Belmont is getting things started for the first time. The Kentucky Derby follows on Sept. 5 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, with the Preakness Stakes finishing up on Oct. 3 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
The post time for Saturday's race at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, is set for 5:42 p.m. NBC's coverage of the race, which will not have fans or owners present due to coronavirus restrictions, begins at 3 p.m.
Tiz the Law is the only entry in the race with Grade 1 stakes victories. He'll try to buck history as the first New York-bred horse in 138 years to win the $1 million race. His 82-year-old trainer, Barclay Tagg, is chasing a win that eluded him in 2003 after Funny Cide won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes only to lose his Triple Crown bid at the Long Island track.
"Tiz The Law has been the best 3-year-old since January, basically, and he remains that," retired Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey said. "He would have been favored in whatever Triple Crown race we ran first, so we have a superstar that we're going to see on Saturday."
This Belmont - rescheduled from June 6 - will be run at 1 1/8 miles, the first time since 1925 it won't be its usual grueling 1 1/2 miles. The top four finishers earn Kentucky Derby qualifying points, including 150 to the winner.
"He's a versatile horse. He can be there on the pace or sit off, so I can do whatever I want," said Manny Franco, Tiz the Law's jockey. "He's run here before and won, and I think he likes the track, so that's to our advantage."
Said rival trainer Mark Casse: "If you beat him, you win."
Casse will saddle 6-1 shot Tap It to Win, trying to become the first trainer to win back-to-back Belmonts in 24 years after taking the 2019 title with Sir Winston. Linda Rice oversees 15-1 shot Max Player; no woman has trained the winner of a Triple Crown race. Sole Volante is the early 9-2 second choice coming off a quick 10-day layoff, and Dr Post is the 5-1 third choice in the wagering.
Attendance at Belmont Park is usually capped at 90,000 for its biggest race, but there will be nothing resembling that sort of crowd this time.
Because of pandemic restrictions at tracks, Knowlton hasn't seen Tiz the Law race in person since Feb. 3 in Florida. Undeterred, he and his group plan to watch on a restaurant patio in upstate Saratoga Springs.
"There is always a Sackatoga party," Knowlton said, "in some way, shape or form."
However, there's no Charlatan, Honor A. P., Maxfield or Nadal in the field because of injuries and sudden retirement. There's also no Bob Baffert, the white-haired trainer of undefeated Charlatan and Nadal who has saddled the past two Triple Crown winners - American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018.
"In many ways I felt the Belmont was going to be the Kentucky Derby, the first time the best horses in training were going to be meeting each other," Knowlton said. "Clearly, with Bob's two horses and Maxfield out, there isn't quite the star power we all expected."
Without Baffert, fellow Hall of Fame trainers Steve Asmussen, Casse, Bill Mott and Todd Pletcher will saddle half the field.
"It's going to be a far different scene for sure," Pletcher said. "It's sad in some ways, but we're grateful we're getting an opportunity to run."
NBC Sports is calling several audibles on its coverage. The network is using seven cameras instead of its usual 25, augmented by cameras from the New York Racing Association. Three jockeys will wear microphones to enhance the racing sounds on a broadcast lacking crowd noise. Larry Collmus will call the race from a platform in the third-floor grandstand, about 40 feet below his usual glass-enclosed perch.
The network will have 50 people on site rather than the 200 who worked last year, including Collmus and reporters Kenny Rice and Britney Eurton doing roaming interviews with boom mics from a social distance of six feet. Host Mike Tirico and analyst Randy Moss will work from studios in Stamford, Connecticut. Bailey will check in from his Florida home, while Eddie Olczyk handicaps the race from his basement in Chicago.
With all the changes for horses and humans, Tiz the Law remains a calming presence.
Said Knowlton: "He seems to be the kind of horse that takes everything in stride."