Tapit

By Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis The 100th anniversary of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale, delayed a year due to the global pandemic, kicked off with a lively session of trade at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion Monday evening. "It was a very solid opening session of the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. "It was certainly a very healthy market. It was very similar and reminiscent of the 2019 marketplace. Overall, we are off to a very good start." A colt by Uncle Mo brought...

A Tapit filly from the deep female family of A.P. Indy, et al. gave the million-dollar mark a scare midway through the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale Monday night when she brought $990,000 from West Point Thoroughbreds, Scarlet Oak Racing and John Ballantyne. Consigned by Denali Stud, Agent VIII as hip 61 on behalf of WinStar Farm and Winchell Thoroughbreds, the Mar. 28 foal is half to unbeaten 'TDN Rising Star' Carribean Caper (Speightstown). West Point and partners bought the $1.5-million co-topping First Captain (Curlin) here two years ago. The 'Rising Star'...

There have been several horses over the past 100 years of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale to summon big price tags, eclipsing the $500,000 mark, in the Humphrey S. Finney pavilion and then go on to be quite successful on the racetrack. The siblings of four such Thoroughbreds are part of the catalogue for the famed auction's centennial edition to be held at the Spa Aug. 9-10. The 2017 GI Belmont S. winner Tapwrit (Tapit) summoned $1.2-million at the Saratoga Sale back in 2015 from a partnership comprised of Bridlewood Farm,...

Intangibles make good horses great horses. Consigned to the widest trip of any of the five runners left for Saturday's GII Jim Dandy S. at Saratoga, Godolphin's 'TDN Rising Star' and reigning 2-year-old male Eclipse Award winner Essential Quality (Tapit) was under the pump fully a half-mile from home, but--as he has demonstrated on more than one occasion during a season that appears again to be on a championship trajectory--the gunmetal gray colt looked a rival straight in the eye, wagged his finger Dikembe Mutumbo-style and willed himself to the...

As the leader in a contentious 3-year-old division, all eyes will be on Godolphin's champion Essential Quality (Tapit) Saturday at Saratoga, but the race itself may lack for drama, as the gray lays over his five rivals in the GII Jim Dandy S., the Spa's traditional prep for the Aug. 28 GI Runhappy Travers S. Then again, stranger things have happened at the "Graveyard of Favorites". Sewing up his Eclipse Award as the top 2-year-old male via a three-for-three campaign that culminated with a score in the GI TVG Breeders'...

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this Saturday running at Niigata Racecourse: 3rd-NII, ¥9,680,000 ($88k), Maiden, 3yo, 1800m MOZU LOTUS LAND (c, 3, Tapit--Sacred Feather, by Carson City), a $425K Keeneland September acquisition by the owner of MG1SW and now Japanese sire Mozu Ascot (Frankel {GB}), was a debut sixth...

Best Time (Tapit), a 3-year-old maiden colt out of champion 2-year-old filly Take Charge Brandi (Giant's Causeway), topped Keeneland's July Digital Sale Tuesday on a winning bid of $29,500. The regally bred gray was consigned by Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency as hip 6, and was purchased by trainer Steve Asmussen's KDE Equine. The Hall of Fame conditioner has been training Best Time for Phoenix Thoroughbred III and co-breeder Hill 'n' Dale. Third in maiden special weight sprints at Indiana and Ellis to begin his career, the colt was most...

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this weekend running at Hakodate and Niigata Racecourses: Saturday, July 24, 2021 1st-HAK, ¥9,680,000 ($88k), Maiden, 2yo, 1800mT FIFTY CHEVY (c, 2, Tapit--Stopchargingmaria, by Tale of the Cat), a debut fourth going this distance at Tokyo June 13 (video, gate 2), attracted a final...

A total of 210 yearlings by many of the world's top stallions have been cataloged for the 100th renewal of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, to be held Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 9 and 10, in Saratoga Springs, NY. Evening sessions begin each night at 6:30 p.m. The Saratoga Sale is the first major North American yearling sale to be held as many as 100 times. The boutique event was canceled last summer owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, marking the first time since World War II that the sale had not...

After 'TDN Rising Star' Essential Quality's sound victory in the GI Belmont S., his sire Tapit became one of only two stallions in history to produce four winners of the Classic test. In doing so, the champion sire did one of his other Belmont-winning sons, this one also a fellow Gainesway stallion, a favor by reinforcing the market's every-growing esteem for Tapit bloodlines. The achievements of Essential Quality and Tapit came at just the right time for Tapwrit (Tapit -Appealing Zophie, by Successful Appeal), who will have his first crop...

In a crowded and often fickle stallion landscape, one North American sire at Gainesway Farm has stood out above all the rest for over a decade strong now. He may not win the general sires title every year, but no stallion in this country has produced the consistent excellence of Tapit since he went to stud in 2005, and Saturday was yet another elite-level reminder when his champion son Essential Quality streaked across the wire as his remarkable fourth GI Belmont S. winner. Wednesday morning, Gainesway's director of stallion sales...

Gainesway's Sean Tugel joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to talk on the growing legend of Tapit after he became the second sire in history to produce four Belmont S. winners.