Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Tapit’s influence looms large over 150th Belmont Stakes
A mile and a half around the biggest dirt track in America, with the whole world watching, carrying the weight of a century and a half of history.
“The supreme test is the Belmont Stakes, run over ‘Big Sandy,’ Belmont Park,” said Michael Hernon, director of sales for Gainesway Farm. “There’s nowhere to hide out there. The best horse, I think, consistently wins.”
While a different group of 3-year-olds vies for the victory in the oldest and longest American classic each year, one horse has been a consistent presence in the recent history of the Belmont Stakes, and that is Tapit. The Gainesway stallion has been represented by three winners in the last four editions of the Belmont, making him one of just five stallions to sire three or more winners, and the only sire in the modern era to do so.
A victory by Hofburg this Saturday would tie Tapit with the great Lexington for the most Belmont victories of all time. Hofburg is the second choice on the morning line behind Triple Crown hopeful Justify. Tapit has a further grip on this year’s edition as the broodmare sire of challengers Restoring Hope and Tenfold, who was third in the Preakness Stakes.
Tapit’s Belmont Stakes victories came with Tonalist in 2014, Creator in 2016, and Tapwrit last year. In the only year in this span he did not sire the Belmont winner, his son Frosted finished second, chasing home none other than Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Tapit also finished third in 2016 with Lani.
“He’s a very high-energy stallion,” Hernon said. “Great energy and strength. [His progeny have] great cardios, and I think this is the reason why he’s already sired three Belmont winners.”
Lexington, America’s leading sire 16 times despite his stud career at Woodburn Farm being interrupted by the Civil War, holds the all-time record as a Belmont Stakes sire. Lexington’s four victories came with General Duke in 1868, Kingfisher in 1870, Harry Bassett in 1871, and Duke of Magenta in 1878. Besides Tapit, he’s the only sire to win three editions of the race in four years.
Three other stallions have sired three Belmont winners. Lexington’s contemporary Australian, shipped to safe harbor in Illinois during the Civil War, won in 1872 with Joe Daniels, 1873 with Springbok, and 1879 with Spendthrift. Fair Play sired the great Man o’ War, who won the 1920 Belmont, along with 1924 winner Mad Play and 1927 winner Chance Shot. Man o’ War himself sired three Belmont winners in American Flag in 1925, Crusader in 1926, and Triple Crown winner War Admiral in 1937.
The feats of those four stallions came when the Thoroughbred breeding industry in America was entirely different than it is today. To achieve Tapit’s mark, his runners had to compete against exponentially larger foal crops sired by a larger number of stallions, due partially to an enhanced emphasis on commercial breeding, as well as the relative ease of shipping horses in modern times. To illustrate, Man o’ War sired 381 foals throughout his entire stud career. The busiest stallion in North America last year, Into Mischief, covered 235 mares in 2017 alone as one of 1,342 active stallions on the continent, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred.
Meanwhile, Gainesway limits the book for Tapit, who has stood for a fee of $300,000 since the 2015 season, to 125 mares, which has helped bolster his commercial reputation.
“Breeders can get to him in a timely fashion, and, of course, when the customer goes out into the market, there’s good representation, but not an oversupply of the product,” Hernon said.
Among the foals by Tapit conceived in 2014, some months before Tonalist began the sire’s run of Belmont dominance, was Hofburg. The Juddmonte Farms homebred finished second in the Florida Derby in just his third start, then was making up ground late to finish seventh in the Kentucky Derby.
“You’ve got to have a horse that really wants to [go the distance], genetically capable of doing it,” said Hofburg’s Hall of Fame trainer, Bill Mott. “That’s probably one of the main ingredients. Horses are made a little different, move a little differently, and some have the capacity to do it. Training is part of it, but I’d rather have a horse that is capable of doing that rather than one that is challenging as a miler trying to stretch it out.”
Restoring Hope, owned and bred by Gary and Mary West, is out of Tapit’s unraced daughter Symbol of Freedom. Tenfold is a homebred for Winchell Thoroughbreds, which campaigned Tapit and holds a major interest in his stallion career. The colt’s winning dam, Temptress, was a $190,000 yearling purchase by owner Ron Winchell in 2011.
“We were looking at a lot of Tapits at the time, trying to assess what they looked like and whatever,” said Winchell’s manager, David Fiske. “Every once in a while we’d stumble across one we liked and thought she might fit the bill. A lot of them are good looking, and it’s just hard to walk away from one. You know a lot about the stallion, you look at a lot of his offspring. We probably look at more Tapits than foals by any other stallion. [Temptress] compared pretty favorably with the ones we’d been looking at.”
Hernon feels that Tapit, who annually attracts some of the best broodmares in North America, will continue to grow his résumé as a broodmare sire, an aspect of his career that is in its early stages.
“He’s breeding mares of the highest caliber,” Hernon said. “And those that produce fillies, those fillies obviously have a ton of pedigree, and are most likely in good hands, and they’re going to be given good opportunities at stud. So I think here in the next few years, you’ll really see Tapit emerge as a very topclass broodmare sire.”