ELMONT, N.Y. — Barclay Tagg was the perfect man to win the big race on Belmont Park’s Silent Saturday.
The taciturn Tagg, 82-year-old trainer of dominant Belmont Stakes winner Tiz The Law, detests hoopla, dislikes crowds and disdains media attention. If anyone in thoroughbred racing was made for quarantine life and empty racetracks, it’s him. He acknowledged the need for fans to sustain the sport, but also said he enjoyed “the quietude” of the day, when a Triple Crown race was won and about a dozen people scattered around the stands tepidly clapped.
It was so quiet that when Tiz The Law cruised past the wire, jockey Manuel Franco’s celebratory “Yeahhhh!