Tivis, a 3 yr old filly by Tale of Ekati out of the Pulpit mare Preseli’s Pulpit upset the 2-5 favorite and 2020 Ohio 2 yr old Champion filly Esplanande in winning Saturday’s running of the black type Southern Park Stakes by four widening lengths.
Tivis was bred in Ohio by her owners, Hillburn Racing (Josh Mikesell, Brad Barker, and Ike and Kyle Cooper), trained by Bob Gorham, and confidently ridden to victory by jockey Christian Pilares. Tim Hamm’s Esplanande finished second and Rock Star Lady trained by Kris Nemann rallied for third. Tivis paid $13.60 to win.
Gorham said the filly was a bit of a late developer so they gave her some time and put her into serious training in the fall. She stumbled a bit out of the gate in her first start but roared home to win by 5. “Well, you know how it can be sometimes with first time starters. They need to get the feel of it. She ran good so we decided to go in this spot. We’re sort of glad we did…” Gorham added with a smile in his voice.
Hillburn Racing and Tivis in particular are a true “family affair”. Ike and Kyle are Josh’s uncles and Tivis is actually an old family name of theirs. It can be risky when you name a horse after someone close to you but this time, Tivis more than held up her end of the bargain and did the family proud!
Tale of Ekati stands at Darby Dan Farms in Kentucky. Darby Dan is one of the biggest supporters of the OTBO Annual Stallion Auction every year and last year they did provide a season to Tale of Ekati in our sale. This year’s online auction will be held Dec. 6-9, 2021 so plan accordingly to acquire another potential Ohio Stake winner at a very fair price!
The Southern Park Stakes kicks of the 2021 Ohio Stake schedule which features 43 races including a Best of Ohio Day at each of our tracks. Check out the schedule on this website and in our annual Stakes Brochure which is on the way to all OTBO members this week.
Congratulations to all the connections of Tivis!
Here is a link to today’s race courtesy of Mahoning Valley Racecourse: (race#6)
https://www.hollywoodmahoningvalley.com/racing/racing-video-and-replay
