Tapit

Look through the rolls of honor for the Del Mar Debutante and the Oak Leaf S. and you’ll find that four fillies have managed to complete this difficult double in the last 10 years. The first to do so--Chilukki--went on to finish a creditable second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Next came Halfbridled, who proved too good for Ashado in the 2003 Juvenile Fillies, and a year later the same treble was achieved by Sweet Catomine, who had nearly four lengths to spare on Breeders’ Cup Day. So the omens look very good for the aptly named Stardom Bound, who took the Debutante by more than four lengths and now the Oak Leaf by three and a half.

Stardom Bound’s impressive exploits have helped promote her sire Tapit to second place among the freshman sires, with extra help coming from Retap, runner-up in the GIII Kentucky Cup Juvenile S. three days ago. These two rank among 14 winners from Tapit’s first crop of 96 foals.

Tapit started out at a fee of $15,000 at Gainesway in 2005 after a racing career which showed the occasional flash of high-grade ability. A wide-margin maiden victory at Delaware had set him up nicely for the GIII Laurel Futurity, in which he used his excellent acceleration to overcome traffic problems. This highly encouraging victory was good enough to earn Tapit a weight of 114 on the Experimental Free Handicap, and there seemed every reason to expect a colt by Pulpit out of an Unbridled mare to prove even more effective in his second season.

Unfortunately, the winter didn’t pass smoothly for the Winchell Thoroughbreds color-bearer, who was forced to miss a significant amount of work because of shin problems. Only sixth in the Florida Derby, Tapit came out of the race with a serious lung infection. Consequently, trainer Michael Dickinson was convinced his colt was some way short of peak fitness when he lined up for the GI Wood Memorial four weeks later. But, to Dickinson’s delight, Tapit stormed through from last to first in a style which suggested he would be well suited by the extra furlong on Kentucky Derby day. He duly started third favourite behind Smarty Jones and Lion Heart at Churchill Downs, but could finish only ninth. A four-month break failed to revitalise Tapit and his disappointing effort in the Pennsylvania Derby proved to be his last appearance.

With his fee set at $15,000, Tapit was some way down the pecking order among the new stallions of 2005, which also included Smarty Jones at $100,000, Pleasantly Perfect and Speightstown at $40,000, Medaglia d’Oro at $35,000 and both Lion Heart and Strong Hope at $30,000. In these circumstances, he did particularly well when his first weanlings reached the sales in 2006, with 13 selling for an average of $108,692 and a median of $87,000.

Buyers clearly liked what they saw and their enthusiasm translated into considerable demand for Tapit’s services in 2007. From a book of over 170 mares, he has nearly 130 live foals this year, so here is one stallion who should be immune to declining results with his third crop. He is bred to make a stallion, with a pedigree which features 3x4 inbreeding to Mr. Prospector and 5x3 to Nijinsky.

With a graded winner and a graded-placed horse, Tapit has already matched the juvenile achievements of the first crop by his sire Pulpit. Pulpit was the first son of A.P. Indy to retire to stud and he remains the champion sire’s most successful stallion son by a sizeable margin, with 20 graded winners to his credit, including six Grade I winners. Tapit is the first of those Grade I winners to sire a Grade I winner, but Stroll has also made an interesting start. This very smart turf performer started out at only $7,500 at Claiborne, but he was advertised to stand the 2008 season at a mere $2,500, having covered only 11 mares in 2007. Instead he was sent to Italy. Remarkably, his first crop has produced three stakes-winning fillies. Another of Pulpit’s Grade I winners,

Sky Mesa, may not have fulfilled the high hopes originally held of him, but he ranks third among the second-crop sires by 2008 earnings, with two graded winners.

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. Incidentally, this sire line was in magnificent form over the weekend, with Cee’s Tizzy adding a new Grade I winner to his tally when Cost of Freedom took the Ancient Title S. and Tiznow doing likewise with Well Armed in the Goodwood S.

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 wonthe 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 two-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.

Tarr Road is an unfamiliar name. He was only a minor stakes winner and his only graded performer was Stardom Bound’s dam My White Corvette, who was placed in a Grade II event at two and a Grade III at three.

My White Corvette’s broodmare sire, the 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.