FROSTED LEADS CHARGE OF TAPIT’S SONS

Tapit has already proven his mettle as a sire on the racetrack, setting and then breaking his own seasonal record for progeny earnings while earning multiple leading sire titles, and in the commercial arena, with his stock constantly in demand. But the real work of building his legacy is still in a relatively nascent stage.

Tapit, whose oldest foals are relatively young at 13 this year, is beginning to emerge as a sire of sires and as a broodmare sire, both key to establishing the long-term dominance of his branch of the prominent A.P. Indy sireline. The Gainesway stallion, whose first grand-foals by his sons raced in 2014, is showing promise in this regard. Already with young sons at stud including Tapizar, the sire of Eclipse Award champion Monomoy Girl, Tapit has three sons in the top five on the earnings list in this year’s deep freshman sire class. All three – Constitution, Tapiture, and Race Day – have already recorded stakes winners.

Into the fray comes Frosted. A multiple Grade 1 winner who commanded the highest stud fee for any incoming stallion in North America in 2017, Frosted leads five sons of Tapit nationwide with their first yearlings this season. Frosted, who has already proven commercially popular, has a chance to make a major-market impact with 13 yearlings from his first crop chosen and cataloged for the FasigTipton Saratoga selected yearling sale.

A Grade 2-placed juvenile and a Grade 1 winner at 3 – when he also was second in the 2015 Belmont Stakes to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah – Frosted blossomed to post his best season in 2016. His signature triumph came in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park, as he romped by 14 1/4 lengths in the siremaking event. His final time was 1:32.73, missing the track record by .40 of a second. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 123, not only the top number of the year, but also the top number of sire Tapit’s stud career.

Frosted also won the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga and the Group 2 Al Maktoum Challenge in Dubai in 2016. He concluded his career with five stakes wins and six placings for earnings of more than $3.9 million. He retired to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s Darley at Jonabell Farm near Lexington, Ky., after successfully carrying the blue colors of Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation around the globe, commanding an advertised fee of $50,000 in his first season.

“It’s very special to retire a horse of Frosted’s caliber, but even more so in that he accomplished so much as a homebred, racing in Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin silks,” said Dan Pride, chief operating officer of Darley’s American operations. “His Metropolitan Handicap was one for the ages, and add to that his great pedigree and tremendous physical appearance and you’ve got all the pieces in place for a sire of the future.”

Frosted, who recorded an average price of $181,500 from 10 weanlings sold last year, was represented by a filly sold for $330,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky summer selected yearling sale, giving him the top price for a first-crop yearling sire at that market-kickoff auction. The filly was purchased by Let’s Go Stable. The ticket was signed by Danielle Bricker, bloodstock agent for trainer Todd Pletcher, who afterward said that she was impressed by Frosted’s weanlings last season.

“She just looked very athletic, huge walk to her, good angles overall,” she said. “I think she’s the perfect size. As soon as she grows up a little and fills out, she’s going to be what we want to see on the racetrack.”

Frosted’s 13 yearlings selected for FasigTipton Saratoga include a filly out of Grade 2 winner India, dam of Group 1 winner Mozu Ascot. Frosted’s group also includes half-siblings to Grade 1 winner Dance With Fate, Grade 2 winner Dancinginherdreams, Grade 3 winner Pleasant Prince, and multiple Grade 1placed Neolithic.

Tapit’s sons with first yearlings this year also include Anchor Down, standing alongside his sire at Gainesway. Anchor Down won the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap and Grade 3 Westchester Stakes at a mile at Belmont Park, and finished second to Frosted in his overwhelming Met Mile performance. Tapit also is likely to be represented in regional sales markets this season, as well as in Keeneland September, which tests various market levels. His other young sons with debut yearlings this year include Taprize in Indiana, Heaven’s Glory in California, and Juba in West Virginia.

This year’s diverse first-crop sire class also includes a pair of Kentucky Derbywinning Eclipse Award champions in California Chrome, who stands at Taylor Made Farm, and Nyquist, standing alongside Frosted at Darley. Both entered stud for a fee of $40,000, tying them behind Frosted for the second-highest incoming fees in their class.

Two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome is by the late Lucky Pulpit – who like Tapit was a son of Pulpit. California Chrome earned more than $14.7 million while winning 10 graded stakes, including the 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes and the 2016 Dubai World Cup. He also finished on the board in two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Classic. California Chrome has three first-crop representatives in the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga catalog.

Nyquist followed in the footsteps of his sire, Uncle Mo, by winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to secure a divisional Eclipse Award, and continued on to win the 2016 Kentucky Derby. He was represented by a $330,000 colt at Fasig-Tipton July to tie Frosted for the top price from a first-crop sire. They were followed by a $300,000 colt by Outwork and a $285,000 colt by Speightster.

Nyquist, who has nine yearlings in the Saratoga selected catalog, is one of several sons from the first crop of breakout young stallion Uncle Mo who will have their first yearlings at auction this year. The others are fellow Grade 1 winner Outwork; Laoban, who stands in New York and is well represented in the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred yearling catalog; Uncle Lino in Pennsylvania; and Uncle Vinny in Florida.

Outwork and Speightster, who each has three yearlings in the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga catalog, are part of a quartet of firstcrop yearling sires standing at WinStar Farm. The others are Exaggerator, who was a regular rival of Nyquist, winning the 2016 Preakness Stakes after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby, and 2016 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Tourist. Exaggerator has five yearlings in the sale.

Runhappy (standing at Claiborne Farm), the Eclipse Award champion male sprinter of 2015, has four yearlings in the Saratoga catalog. Big Blue Kitten (Calumet Farm), with a single representative, is one of two Eclipse Award champion male turf horses in this class, along with Flintshire (Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm).

The other first-crop yearling sires with yearlings chosen for the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected sale catalog are European champion Air Force Blue (Coolmore’s Ashford Stud) with three, and Grade 1 winners Brody’s Cause (Spendthrift Farm) and Mshawish (Taylor Made) and Grade 3 winner Not This Time (Taylor Made) with one each.

Other stallions of note in this first-crop class include Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Texas Red (Crestwood Farm); Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Tamarkuz (Shadwell); Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Hit It a Bomb (Spendthrift); classic-placed runners Firing Line (Crestwood), Ride On Curlin (Pleasant Acres), and Social Inclusion (Diamond B Farm); and Grade 1 winners Java’s War (Darby Dan Farm), Majestic Harbor (Harris Farms), Slumber (Calumet), Tamarando (Harris), and V. E. Day (Buck Pond).