Twisted Tom (NY)
Chestnut Gelding
Trainer: Chad C. Brown
Jockey Last Start: Feargal Lynch
Owner: Cobra Farm, Inc.
Breeder: Dr. William B. Wilmot & Dr. Joan M. Taylor
Foaled: April 1, 2014
Sire: Creative Cause
Dam, Dam Sire: Tiffany Twisted, by Thunder Gulch
Auction History: RNA Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga 2015 New York Bred Preferred Yearling Sale, RNA Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall 2015 Yearling Sale
Record: 6-4-0-0
Earnings: $209,040
Highest Beyer Speed Figure: 78
Comments: Thought not nominated to the Triple Crown, Chad Brown’s charge can give his conditioner a second straight victory in the series if he follows up Cloud Computing’s Grade 1 Preakness Stakes score with a victory in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on June 10 at Belmont Park. Twisted Tom, who was supplemented to the Belmont for a $75,000 fee, brings a three-race win streak into the final classic.
The gelding started his perfect season by taking a state-bred optional claiming contest at Aqueduct on Jan. 28 and then won two listed stakes at Laurel Park — the Private Terms on March 18 and the Federico Tesio on April 22. He captured the latter over a sloppy course and earned the highest Beyer Speed Figure of his career, a 78, in the process.
Twisted Tom began his career racing for trainer George Weaver and owner Thomas Brockley. He debuted on Aug. 26 with a fourth-place effort in an off-the-turf maiden race for New York-breds at Saratoga and came back to get his picture taken on Sept. 22 against similar company on the Belmont Park grass. He was sold privately after that race to current owner Cobra Farm, Inc., who raced him twice in partnership with R R Partners, and moved to Brown’s barn.
He remained on the turf in his first start for his new connections but showed little in a sixth-place effort in an Aqueduct state-bred optional claimer on Nov. 25 and subsequently switched to the dirt for his sophomore campaign. Bred well for the Belmont’s mile and a half distance, Twisted Tom is by young sire Creative Cause, who was a multiple graded stakes winner and third in the 2012 Preakness. His dam, Tiffany Twisted, is a daughter of 1995 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes hero Thunder Gulch.
Twisted Tom completed preparations for his graded stakes debut with a five-furlong breeze at Belmont Park on June 3. Jockey Javier Castellano, who teamed with Brown to win the Preakness, will be aboard the gelding for the first time in the Belmont.
