Caulfield: Exciting Times for Tapit

These are exciting times for Tapit. Not only does the Gainesway star hold a substantial lead on the general sires’ list, but he also tops just about every category on the TDN’s table. With six individual graded winners already in the bag this year, he has at least two more than any other North American stallion, and he also has more winners, more black-type winners, more black-type horses and more graded stakes horse. 
What is especially exciting is the thought that this could be just the tip of the iceberg. In the immediate future, he can be expected to mount a serious challenge for the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Kentucky Oaks. His brave GI Florida Derby winner Constitution ranks joint-second with 100 points, while his GII Tampa Bay Derby winner Ring Weekend and his GIII Southwest S. winner Tapiture are, respectively, 11th and 13th. Then there’s his daughter Untapable, who has a sizeable lead on the Kentucky Oaks points table, thanks partly to her victories in the GIII Rachel Alexandra S. and GII Fair Grounds Oaks. 
By the time these 3-year-olds were conceived in 2010, Tapit’s potential was already flashing in neon lights, thanks to the Grade I-winning exploits of his first-crop daughters Stardom Bound, Careless Jewel and Laragh. These three, together with a solid support team from Tapit’s first two crops, helped raise Tapit’s fee to $50,000 in 2010, from an initial $15,000. 
It is well worth adding that Tapit’s third and fourth crops were sired at only $12,500, yet the third contained four Grade I winners and the fourth produced two. 
So what can we expect from Tapit’s next few crops? His current 2-year-olds are off a fee of $80,000, with his yearlings and foals being the result of a $125,000 fee. Now, of course, Tapit is standing at $150,000, which means he shares with War Front the distinction of being North America’s highest-priced stallion. The future, therefore, looks positively rosy for the 13-year-old son of Pulpit. 
And the future should also be full of potential for Constitution, as he was making only his third start when he showed such determination to take the Florida Derby. But can he follow in the footsteps of Thunder Gulch, Monarchos, Barbaro, Big Brown and Orb in adding the Kentucky Derby to his Florida victory? 
Tapit also won one of the major trials–the Wood Memorial–before finishing a disappointing ninth in the Derby (though an earlier illness may have taken its toll). His sons have yet to make a sizeable impact on the Kentucky Derby, his only representatives so far being the champion 2-year-old Hansen and Normandy Invasion. Hansen faded to ninth in 2012 and Normandy Invasion weakened into fourth place after leading into the stretch last year. 
This raises the question of how Constitution will cope with the extra furlong at Churchill Downs, especially when the last three furlongs of the Florida Derby were the slowest of the race. I think we can say he should just about last the distance, but it mustn’t be forgotten that the brisnet chart states that Constitution “was rank under restraint around the first turn and into the backstretch.” Much may depend on how he reacts to the hurly burly of Derby day. 
If you want the details, there are only four colts among Tapit’s 12 Grade I winners, but one of them, Testa Matta, won the Japan Dirt Derby over a mile and a quarter before becoming a Group 1 winner over a mile. One of the Grade I-winning fillies, Careless Jewel, registered her best win in the Alabama S., also over the Derby distance. 
With A.P. Indy and Unbridled as his grandsires and Seattle Slew and Nijinsky among his great-grandsires, Tapit is well equipped to get winners over a mile and a quarter, and he has also sired Headache, winner of the GII Hawthorne Gold Cup over that trip. However, his 3×4 inbreeding to Mr. Prospector has to be taken into account and Constitution has an extra line to this outstanding stallion, making it 4x5x4. This is balanced by two lines of Seattle Slew (4×5) and three to Northern Dancer (5x5x5). 
Tapit’s other graded winners inbred 4x5x4 to Mr. Prospector include Dance Card, Zazu and her brother Flashback, Bandbox and Ring Weekend, plus the GI Travers S. runner-up Rattlesnake Ridge. Then there’s the mile-and-a-quarter winner Headache and the smart filly Teen Pauline, who are inbred 4x5x3 to Mr. Prospector. 
Perhaps the nearest equivalent to Constitution is Dance Card, as she too gets her third line through Mr. Prospector’s son Forty Niner. She went back to sprinting after enjoying Grade I success over a mile and an eighth. Constitution’s broodmare sire Distorted Humor has a Kentucky Derby winner to his credit in Funny Cide, plus a GI Belmont S. and GI Breeders’ Cup Classic winner in Drosselmeyer and a Travers S. winner in Flower Alley (sire of Derby winner I’ll Have Another). Perhaps we have to forget that Distorted Humor himself was fast enough to set a track record over seven furlongs at Churchill Downs and that speed was his main asset, even though he finished second in two graded stakes over a mile and an eighth. 
Distorted Humor has played a significant role in the fortunes of Constitution’s family, siring good runners from the colt’s second and third dams. His dam Baffled went some way towards justifying her $350,000 price tag as a yearling by finishing third of 20 in the Albany S. over six furlongs at Royal Ascot. She later won over 8.3 furlongs in the U.S. Baffled’s younger brother Surfer has proved very progressive in the UAE, to the extent that he contested the G1 Dubai World Cup three days ago. He has solid form at up to a mile and a quarter, but has yet to match the success enjoyed by Awesome Humor, the filly Distorted Humor sired from Constitution’s third dam, Horns Gray. 
Awesome Humor proved herself one of the best juvenile fillies in the U.S. in 2002, winning the GIII Debutante S., GII Adirondack S. and the GI Spinaway S. during an unbeaten campaign. One of her subsequent efforts was a second in the Alabama S. 
As Awesome Humor finished out of the first two only once in an 11-race career, she was clearly tough and talented. Her dam Horns Gray was also tough–a veteran of 52 starts during four years on the track. She won minor stakes at two, three and five, racing mainly in Nebraska. Horns Gray is one of three minor stakes winners produced by Cox’s Angel, an unraced Cox’s Ridge mare who cost $240,000 as a yearling, partly on the strength of being a half-sister to the Grade I juvenile winner All Fired Up. 
The most interesting aspect of Horns Gray’s pedigree is that she was a gray daughter of Pass The Tab. This winner of the GI Carter H. was the product of two gray or roan parents and three of his four grandparents were gray, including The Axe, who sired Tapit’s very successful fourth dam Foggy Note. Pass The Tab was inbred 3×4 to Mahmoud. 
When I first wrote about Tapit, after his daughter Stardom Bound had won the GI Oak Leaf S., I pointed out that: 
“Tapit isn’t the first notable stallion produced by his female line, as his third dam Moon Glitter was a stakes-winning sister to Relaunch. Relaunch sired the Breeders’ Cup winners Skywalker and One Dreamer and his son Cee’s Tizzy was responsible for the dual Classic winner Tiznow…. 
“Relaunch and his sister were gray, inheriting their color from the dam Foggy Note, whose grandsire, Mahmoud, ranks as one of the few grays to have won the Epsom Derby in the last 75 years. 
“Of course Stardom Bound and Tapit are also gray, as are Tapit’s first four dams. Indeed there are an unusual number of grays in Stardom Bound’s pedigree. This $375,000 2-year-old is out of My White Corvette, a gray daughter of the gray stallion Tarr Road. Grey Dawn, the sire of Tarr Road, was another who owed his coat color to Mahmoud, who sired his dam Polamia. 
“My White Corvette’s broodmare sire, the GI Santa Anita Derby winner Marfa, was yet another gray. Marfa inherited his gray coat via his female line, his first three dams being grays. The third dam Singing Witch was by Royal Minstrel, a gray grandson of one of the Thoroughbred world’s most famous grays, The Tetrarch. It was The Tetrarch’s brilliant daughter Mumtaz Mahal who ranked as the second dam of Mahmoud, so all three gray lines in Stardom Bound’s pedigree trace to The Tetrarch, who earned superstar status during an undefeated juvenile career 95 years ago.” 
My next chance to write about Tapit came when Laragh took the Hollywood Starlet S. 
“Significantly, Laragh is also out of a gray mare with a pedigree featuring Mahmoud and The Tetrarch. Her dam, the unraced Rose of Summer, is by El Prado, a stallion who is inbred 5x5x4 to Mahmoud, through Almahmoud, Mr Trouble and Ghazni. 
“Then there’s Laragh’s second dam Cherokee Crossing, whose sire Cherokee Colony has four lines of Mahmoud in the first six generations of his pedigree, through Boudoir, Grey Flight, Almahmoud and Flushing II. 
“As Mahmoud was born as long ago as 1933, anyone can be forgiven for being unaware that this record-setting Derby winner shared the same female line as two other tremendously influential imports to America. As mentioned earlier, Mahmoud was a grandson of The Tetrarch’s exceptional daughter Mumtaz Mahal, who produced three outstanding broodmares in Rustom Mahal (dam of the brilliant English sprinter Abernant), Mah Mahal (dam of Mahmoud) and Mumtaz Begum (dam of Nasrullah and second dam of Royal Charger)… 
“It could be a worthwhile exercise to delve back into the further reaches of the pedigrees of any potential mates for Tapit, to see whether they show a similar accumulation of Mahmoud, Mumtaz Mahal and The Tetrarch.” 
This suggestion has proved valid over the subsequent five years or so. For example, Pass The Tab was sired by Al Hattab, a gray son of The Axe with 4×4 inbreeding to Mumtaz Mahal. Al Hattab was also responsible for the third dam of the Grade I winner Dance Card, whose dam has several lines of Mahmoud, while Pass The Tab also sired the second dam of the Grade III winner War Echo.