DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — There's that age-old saying in the Thoroughbred business that a good horse can come from anywhere. Perhaps no equine athlete in training anywhere in the world embodies that axiom more than Tuz (Oxbow).
At the ripe old age of eight, the burly dark bay gelding–he stands 16.3hh–is in career form, arguably even better than when he won the 2024 G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen, and that's really saying something, as he kicked away from his rivals late on that occasion to dominate by a towering 6 1/2 lengths.
Bred by Calumet Farm, home to their 2013 Preakness-winning Oxbow, Tuz–an Apr. 26 foal–was consigned to the 2018 Keeneland September Sale by Mill Ridge Sales. Hip 4000 was stabled in barn 43 on the Keeneland backstretch at the top of the hill overlooking the training track and more than a handful of steps from the sales pavilion where he would fetch a mere $7,000 from Oracle Bloodstock's Conor Foley, acting on behalf of Russian-based clients, during session 12 of the 13-day auction.
“I actually remember him well, because that sale, it was like 95 degrees every day. And then the day we had to look at those horses, it was like 30 degrees, cold and rainy,” Foley recollected. “He was in one of the back barns and he just stood out. At that stage of the sale, there's still some good physicals in those books, they just don't have the pedigrees. He was one that just stood out enormously, just because of how good he looks.”
Brad Kelley acquired Tuz's dam Suede Shoe (Pulpit) for $42,000 in foal to then Bluegrass Hall (Kelley's operation that pre-dated his acquisition of Calumet) stallion U S Ranger at the 2012 Keeneland November Sale. A foal of 2008, Suede Shoe is a daughter of GII Dahlia Handicap heroine Grande Melody (Ire) (Grand Lodge) and the deeper female family includes Watership Down Stud's outstanding G1 Fillies' Mile heroine Crystal Music (Nureyev).
“He had a lot of Pulpit to him, and Oxbow, I think the jury was still out on him at the time,” Foley said. “But our client said, 'Just buy the best horse in the sale that day,' and he was easily that.
“I thought he would cost 80 [thousand]. So I remember him only costing seven [thousand] and being like, 'What?' You go back to the barn, and you make sure you didn't screw something up. Even the owner was like, 'How did he only cost that?' you said he was the best horse selling today. I was like, 'Well, we just got lucky.'”
Tuz made the first two starts of his career at Pyatigorsk in the south of Russia, winning those races by something in the vicinity of 40 lengths combined. In some circles, he was referred to as the 'Russian Frankel.'
What attributes must a horse have to succeed in that jurisdiction?
“You wouldn't want a light-boned horse,” said Foley, who has purchased any number of Russian winners for a variety of clients. “It's fun buying for those regions of the world. A small, tiny horse doesn't work. Physically, it's just probably a horse that just would have more dirt angles, so to speak. Horses that look like turf horses, they usually don't work.”
Having proved himself heads and shoulders above the competition on the small stage, it was time for a call up to major leagues, and Tuz joined the barn of Satish Seemar in Dubai. He was supremely game when runner-up in the Listed Al Bastakiya Stakes (1900m), a course-and-distance prep for the G2 UAE Derby, but he was denied that chance when the 2020 World Cup meeting was called off at the 11th hour in the early days of COVID-19.
“He probably would have won it, too,” Foley insists.
Tuz getting topped off for Saturday's Dubai Golden Shaheen. Stands 16.3 as related to @LauraKingDXB by trainer @BhupatSeemar pic.twitter.com/ZpkWU3OGnf
— Alan Carasso (@EquinealTDN) March 31, 2025
A listed winner over 1600 meters at the back end of his 4-year-old season, Tuz was never dangerous in the G2 Godolphin Mile the following March, and when the new season dawned in the Emirates in late 2022, his new trainer Bhupat Seemar–nephew of Satish and a one-time assistant to Bob Baffert–tried to teach the old dog new tricks, electing to forgo longer races for sharper ones.
“I always thought he had speed to burn. He's an unbelievably quick horse,” Seemar said. “He was classy enough that he could get a distance, but I was of the opinion that if you bring him back in distance, you're going to find the best of him.”
Indeed, the turnaround was nothing short of dramatic, ultimately if not immediately. Winner of the 2023 G3 Al Shindagha Sprint, Tuz was a reasonably close seventh behind Sibelius (Not This Time) in that year's Golden Shaheen, one of just two finishes outside the top three in 1200-meter events at the tracks of the Emirates Racing Association.
But since finishing well down the field in the 2024 G3 Riyadh Dirt Sprint 13 months ago, Tuz has not so much as been tested. His current five-race winning streak commenced with his thrashing of his world-class rivals in last year's Golden Shaheen and his average margin of victory is better than five lengths, a massive distance over a trip as short as six furlongs. His latest defeat of Japan's American Stage (Into Mischief) in the G3 Mahab Al Shimaal on Mar. 1 completed the set of major sprints in Dubai, a feat never before accomplished.
Seemar added, “He does things so easy, he can go 10 and change all the way down, plus he's got stamina, so we're not afraid to rock and roll and keep going and see what happens.
“Horses don't know what kind of price they cost or where they are. He's a gorgeous-looking horse, gorgeous-looking animal. Seven-thousand to however many million now.”
Tuz's success since dropping back to sprints isn't all that surprising to Foley either.
“Sprinters really don't get good until they're older,” he offers. “I look at sprinters like a weightlifting competition–a senior's always going to beat a freshman. You can be quick, but to win these big sprints around the world, you've got to be fast, and then you've got to be able to call on a couple of runs within the race.”
Foley actually has two rooting interests in this year's Dubai Golden Shaheen.
“I actually want him to run second to Straight No Chaser, because I did the [Godolphin] Flying Start course with Dan Blacker, he's like a little brother to me,” Foley said. “So I'm actually rooting for Straight No Chaser. If Tuz hadn't won the race last year, I'd probably feel differently.
He continued, “Tuz winning again is not going to change my life, but it would definitely change Dan's. I suspect that Tuz will probably run his race. It wouldn't be ideal [for Straight No Chaser] to go from California to Saudi, where he ran big and then come to Dubai. It's going to be, probably to me, one of the top two races of the night. I'm probably looking forward to that race probably more than the World Cup.”
Tuz translates into English as 'ace.' From the very humblest of humble beginnings, Tuz has been that and much, much more to his connections and to the racing world at large.
The post Tuz: A Sprinting ‘Ace’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
