Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Tapwrit justifies big price tag
In August 2015, a colt by the continent’s leading sire and out of a Grade 1 winner stepped into the auction ring at FasigTipton’s Humphrey S. Finney Sales Pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and brought the hammer down for $1.2 million at the company’s boutique Saratoga selected yearling sale.
A year and a half later, Tapwrit is slowly paying back his owners. The colt won the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby on Saturday to push his career record to 3 for 5 with earnings of $313,902. Already the winner of the Pulpit Stakes at Gulfstream and the runner-up to McCraken in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes, he essentially locked up a berth in the Kentucky Derby with the 50 qualifying points he earned for Saturday’s victory.
Tapwrit races for the partnership of Bridlewood Farm, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, and Robert LaPenta – all notable owners who teamed up for the lofty purchase price, the third highest of the sale.
“He had everything we were looking for,” Bridlewood general manager George Isaacs said of the purchase. “We knew we were going to have to bid big, so we partnered up with guys that we were doing business with. Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners sends horses to Bridlewood to break and train, Robert LaPenta sends his horses to Bridlewood to break and train. It seemed like a nice, easy partnership.”
Tapwrit, who was consigned at Saratoga by Craig and Holly Bandoroff’s Denali Stud as agent, is out of the Successful Appeal mare Appealing Zophie. The mare’s biggest victory came in the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes as a juvenile; she went on to win the Grade 3 Silverbulletday Stakes the following season. It is the extended family of Grade 1 winners Super May, Croeso, Slewpy, and Top Corsage.
The most recent horse who sold for seven figures at public auction and went on to take the Kentucky Derby (in 2000) is Fusaichi Pegasus, who lit the board for $4 million at the 1998 Keeneland July yearling sale, a record price for a Derby winner.
In the years since, the most expensive Derby winner (2016) sold at public auction was Nyquist. A successful pinhook, the colt changed hands for $180,000 as a weanling and $230,000 as a yearling before ultimately going to Dennis O’Neill, acting as bloodstock agent for owner Paul Reddam and trainer Doug O’Neill, for $400,000 at the 2015 FasigTipton Florida sale of selected 2-year-olds in training.
More Than Ready in demand
More Than Ready is a solid and steady hitter on WinStar Farm’s deep roster of stallions. And in the past month, as the juvenile sale season has begun, he continues to hit home runs.
At this month’s elite FasigTipton Gulfstream sale of selected 2-year-olds in training, the veteran stallion was represented by a $1.1 million colt sold to Larry Best. The colt ranked among the top prices of the stallion’s career and was his first unraced horse sold for seven figures in the Northern Hemisphere.
More Than Ready has recorded one other seven-figure lot on this continent – Buster’s Ready, who was already the winner of the Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes when she fetched $2.4 million at the 2011 Keeneland November breeding stock sale as part of the record-breaking dispersal of the late Edward P. Evans.
More Than Ready has been represented by a handful of seven-figure lots in Australia, where the son of Southern Halo is an immensely successful shuttle sire. He had two top sellers at the 2008 Inglis April yearling sale, with Colour selling for $1,507,840 and Moojeh selling for $1,130,880. The broodmare Joie More brought $1,160,300 at the Inglis May breeding stock sale.
More Than Ready comes into this week’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March sale of selected 2-year-olds with the wind at his back. He is represented by the breeze show’s leader, a colt who worked a furlong in 9 3/5 seconds during Saturday’s session on the Ocala Training Center’s allweather Safetrack surface.
The colt, out of a Grade 3-placed Gone West mare and from the family of Grade 1 winner Teddy’s Promise, is scheduled to sell during Wednesday’s session. He is consigned as agent by Cary Frommer, who also consigned More Than Ready’s seven-figure lot at Fasig-Tipton.