Tapwrit Well-Represented by First Yearlings at Fasig-Tipton July
By Katie Ritz TDN
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 of yearlings hit the market this year.
“Certainly Tapit’s status in the Kentucky stallion ranks and the all-time ranks of stallions keeps getting elevated every year,” Gainesway’s Sean Tugel said. “He has produced four outstanding winners of the Test of the Champion, with Tapwrit being one of them, which was exciting because Tapwrit was able to break his maiden as a 2-year-old and be a 2-year-old stakes winner, but also carry that speed and precocity to go a mile and a half and win a very impressive Belmont S.”
Essential Quality and Tapwrit are Tapit’s only Belmont winners to also be stakes winners at two. The other pair, Tonalist and Creator, did not break their maiden until early in their sophomore year.
After selling for $1.2 million to partners Bridlewood Farm, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Robert LaPenta at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Sale, Tapwrit broke his maiden at second asking and then took the Pulpit S. at Gulfstream as a juvenile. At three, the Todd Pletcher pupil ran second in the GIII Sam F. Davis S. and took the GII Tampa Bay Derby before his eventual two-length win at Belmont Park.
Retiring after his 4-year-old season with earnings of over $1.3 million, Tapwrit joined his sire at Gainesway Farm in 2019.
But he wasn’t the only son of the Tapit to join the stallion ranks in Kentucky. Nearly ten young sires by Tapit had started their stud careers in the Bluegrass in the three years before Tapwrit came around. What set this newcomer apart?
“I think what separates Tapwrit from many other sons of Tapit is that he has that Grade I form on the bottom side,” Tugel noted. “His dam, Appealing Zophie (Successful Appeal), was a Grade I-winning 2-year-old. That gave him the precocity to run not only at Saratoga as a 2-year-old, but break his maiden and be a stakes winner.”
Of the nine sons of Tapit standing in Kentucky today, Tapwrit holds the distinction of the only son of a Grade I winner.
Appealing Zophie, a blowout winner of the 2006 GI Spinaway S., produced another top performer the year after Tapwrit hit the ground in Ride a Comet (Candy Ride {Arg}). The three-time graded stakes winner ran second in this year’s GI Maker’s Mark Mile S. at Keeneland. Meanwhile the mare’s 3-year-old filly Inject (Frosted), a six-length debut winner last year, recently took the Goldfinch S. at Prarie Meadows for Brad Cox.
“It’s a very active family and a very precocious family,” Tugel said. “And Tapwrit is the best in that family.”
The Classic winner’s propensity to combine precocity and the ability to stretch out as an older horse, Tugel added, is another indication of success at stud for Tapwrit.
“Over the last 15 years, Union Rags and American Pharoah are the only other [current sires] that have won a 2-year-old stakes race and also won the Belmont at a mile and a half. Those are two sires that have done well in their early careers, so if Tapwrit can follow suit, the sky is the limit for him.”