By Ben Massam
Owner Ron Winchell won't hesitate to tell you that Untapable (Tapit)'s championship sophomore season of 2014 was a hard act to follow, but after a 2015 campaign that lacked closure, the 43-year-old entrepreneur said his mare has a bit of “unfinished business” to settle in the new year. The bay logged her fifth workout of 2016 Wednesday morning at the Fair Grounds, breezing five furlongs in 1:00.60 [4/18]–a move that drew high praise from trainer Steve Asmussen.
“She worked [Wednesday] morning, and Steve texted me one word, which was, 'beautifully,'” Winchell said. “So I think that pretty much describes where we are at this point. We're hoping to make [Oaklawn's Mar. 19 GII] Azeri as her first start back. After that, we'll follow up with the [Apr. 15 GI] Apple Blossom. That's the immediate goal, and then after seeing how it goes from there, we'll figure out the next goal after that.”
Untapable parlayed a narrowly beaten runner-up finish in last year's Azeri to the fifth Grade I success of her career in the Apple Blossom, but was unable to find the winner's circle in four subsequent tries. Although the homebred demonstrated remarkable consistency in those efforts, Winchell said his champion was behind the eight ball from the beginning after missing valuable training time during the winter months. The season ended with Untapable being forced to scratch from a title defense in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff when she developed a fever earlier in the week.
“The big difference between this year and last year is that last year she missed about 12 days of training due to weather,” Winchell explained. “We were always a little bit behind after missing that training early, and never got her to where we wanted her to be. We felt like we were coming into the Breeders' Cup where we wanted to be, and then fate dealt us a bad turn there, so we couldn't run.”
In the aftermath of the scratch, a decision was made to bring Untapable back to eye similar goals in the 2016 season. According to Winchell, the GI Kentucky Oaks winner's training has already been markedly better than last year's comparable body of work.
“I think there's a little bit of unfinished business that helped persuade us to bring her back this year,” Winchell acknowledged. “This year we haven't had any of those issues. I think she probably has a really good base in her when you do a comparison between this year and last year.”
Winchell, who operates Winchell Thoroughbreds in partnership with his mother Joan, added that he firmly believes Untapable can return to deliver top performances at the highest level. As such, the decision to return Untapable to the races outweighed the uncertain option of retiring her to breeding shed.
“The other thing that's always in your mind when you have a horse of her caliber is if you retire them and breed them, all you're trying to do is replace what she's doing now,” the owner/breeder said. “And part of you goes, 'Well if we're doing it now, why don't we just keep doing it?'”
While the return of Untapable is understandably of great significance to Winchell, he also has a number of promising younger horses in the pipeline–most notably Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}), who vaulted to the top of the GI Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with a score in Saturday's GII Risen Star S. Winchell said he is relieved that Gun Runner earned his first graded stakes win to establish his value within the 3-year-old crop, allowing Asmussen to target larger goals, such as developing the colt into a Classic contender.
“He's always been an extremely well thought of and talented horse, and it always comes down to actually going out there and realizing that,” Winchell observed. “It's nice when he won that race because the feedback we were getting and what we thought about him was validated. It's a good position to be in at the moment.”
Winchell said he also looks forward to seeing Adore (Big Brown) compete in the Mar. 26 GII Fair Grounds Oaks. The chestnut, who sold for just $15,000 as a Keeneland September yearling, has quickly earned a reputation as an overachiever after earning her second victory from three starts in a Feb. 21 optional claimer at Oaklawn.
And as for the crop of newly turned 2-year-olds? The Winchells recently gave a name to a certain champion's full-sister… Untapped.
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