Tiz the Law, the horse currently favored to win the rescheduled Kentucky Derby on Saturday, has several direct connections to a farm in southern Chester County, writes Kevin Shelly for Play Pennsylvania.

Robin Smullen, an assistant trainer of Tiz the Law, grew up on Laurel Hill Farm on Scroggy Road in Oxford. She started working for Tiz’s trainer, Barclay Tagg, at New York’s Sackatoga Stable in 1997. Since then, she has assisted in training several award-winning thoroughbreds, including Funny Cide, which nearly won the Triple Crown in 2003.

Smullen’s niece, Heather, who also grew up on Laurel Hill Farm, assists in Tiz’s training as the exercise rider.

Robin often refers to Heather as a “mini-me” version of herself who “feels the same things I feel. Sometimes she feels more than what I feel, and I feel a lot when I’m on a horse.”

Heather echoed her aunt’s statement, noting that the two grew up learning “from the same people, the same stuff.”

Read more about Tiz the Law from Play Pennsylvania here.

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