Meeting Tiznow

A personal highlight from 2015 was meeting Knight’s sire Tiznow while I was in Kentucky for Rolex. The two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, now a stud at WinStar Farm, is quite a character. Here’s an excerpt from the January stallion issue of Sidelines magazine titled “Tiz A Celebrity Sighting.” It details my time with the A-list celebrity stud. Enjoy

Living in Southern California, once in awhile I cross paths with notable individuals. Like the time I saw Kobe Bryant at my fitness center working out. Another time I was shopping and I kept looking at a fellow shopper, a woman I was convinced I knew. I couldn’t quite place her, but she was so familiar. Was she a friend of a friend? Did she go to my church? Then I realized, “That’s Rita Wilson!” As soon as I made the connection, I remembered who her famous husband was, glanced at the tall man wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses standing next to her, and inwardly freaked out, “That’s Tom Hanks!!!”

I am not the kind of person to go up to a celebrity and fawn all over him or her. I try to have appropriate boundaries to give them privacy as well as to protect myself from looking like a weird groupie. I had a celebrity encounter last spring that was more thrilling than Kobe, Rita, and Tom. And I might have acted like a teenager, just a little. What made the celebrity encounter all the more sweet was knowing that we’re family. In a way. Let me back up several months.

Tiz My New Horse

When I bought my ex-racehorse Knight about a year ago it was love at first email sight. I remember his downloaded image filling in slowly and as the dark brown body began to fill in on the screen, followed by the adorable face with the white blaze, I was hooked. I knew his name was Tiz A Knight. I thought the name was cute, but that didn’t mean anything to me.

Somewhere in between meeting Knight the first time for my test ride and his pre-purchase exam, I discovered that he was sired by a celebrity! Knight’s dad is the famous Thoroughbred stallion Tiznow, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, back to back years in 2000-2001 (still the only horse to have won that race twice). I got the chills when I Googled “Tiznow” and realized he had a lengthy Wikipedia entry, not to mention a captivating documentary “Tiznow Wins it for America.” I saw the online image of the prominent dark bay with white on his face that was so similar to my own horse. The family resemblance was undeniable.

I did a little more Internet digging and discovered Tiznow. . . (click here to read the rest of the article)

Your Turn: Have you ever bumped into a famous horse or human? What was that like? I’d love to read your experience in the comments section. 🙂

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