Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Pope has patience; Tapit Trice may have other plans in Tampa
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Mandy Pope counts herself as a Derby dreamer, but she refuses to take it to the extreme.
“It’s very exciting to get caught up in thinking ahead to the Kentucky Derby,” Pope said this week by phone from her Ocala base, “but if I don’t have any horses in the Derby, I’m fine with that. I want to do what’s best for developing the horse in the long run.”
In partnership with Gainesway Stable, Pope co-owns Tapit Trice, who figures as a solid favorite Saturday in the annual Tampa Bay Downs showcase, the Tampa Bay Derby. Tapit Trice enters the Grade 2, $350,000 Tampa Derby off an eight-length allowance victory last month in a Gulfstream Park allowance for Todd Pletcher.
Pope has become very well known in the racing industry for assembling an all-star cast of broodmares over the last decade-plus. Her multi-milliondollar purchases during that time have included such outstanding mares as Havre de Grace, Songbird, Groupie Doll, Plum Pretty, Unrivaled Belle, and America’s Joy. She went to $1.3 million to purchase Tapit Trice at Keeneland September.
To date, Pope has had two Kentucky Derby starters – Mylute, co-owned with GoldMark Farm, was fifth in 2013, and her homebred Charge It was 17th last year. Tapit Trice, a gray Tapit colt bred by Gainesway, will be making his stakes debut in the 1 1/16-mile Tampa Derby.
Tapit Trice “certainly has been doing everything right,” Pope said. “Todd is very high on him. We hope he’s going to prove that he is a Derby contender, although he does have his work cut out for himself.”
Tapit Trice will have Luis Saez aboard when facing as many as 11 other 3-year-olds in the 43rd Tampa Derby, a 100-point qualifier (50-20-15-105) toward the 149th Kentucky Derby on May 6 at Churchill. It’s the only designated Derby prep on the continent this weekend or next, with the next round of major preps led by the Louisiana Derby on March 25.
Pope said if Tapit Trice runs well Saturday, the Blue Grass Stakes on April 8 at Keeneland could be his final stop before Louisville. Pletcher already owns the record for most Tampa Derby wins, five, with his first coming in 2004 with Limehouse and his latest in 2017 with Tapwrit.
Pletcher, based across the Florida peninsula at Palm Beach Downs in Delray Beach every winter, already has the top contender for the 2023 Derby in Forte, who made a smashing seasonal debut last Saturday in winning the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park by 4 1/2 lengths. The Hall of Fame trainer has won the Kentucky Derby twice, with Super Saver (2010) and Always Dreaming (2017).
Off his Fountain of Youth romp, Forte is now listed as a 4-1 favorite in both the latest Derby Watch rankings in Daily Racing Form and on the morning line for Pool 4 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager being conducted this weekend by Churchill Downs. Tapit Trice is listed at 15-1 in the latest Derby Watch Top 20.
Pletcher won the Sam F. Davis Stakes for a record seventh time here last month with Litigate, who, along with stablemate Kingsbarns, goes next in the Louisiana Derby.
The Sam Davis, like the Tampa Derby, is a 1 1/16-mile race, which has Mark Casse wondering why the Tampa Derby can’t be a little farther. Casse will be in Saturday from his Ocala training center to saddle Classic Car Wash and Champions Dream, the respective third- and 11th-place finishers in the Davis.
“The timing of this race is great,” said Casse, who won the Tampa Derby with Prospective in 2012 and Helium in 2021, “because it’s eight weeks before the Kentucky Derby. You can then run back four weeks later in the Blue Grass, Wood Memorial, or Arkansas Derby.
“Nobody asked me, but if I were management, I’d think about extending the Tampa Derby to a mile and an eighth. We’ve seen it happen with the Fair Grounds races and it’s worked pretty well,” referring to the Risen Star and Louisiana Derby having been lengthened in recent years from their traditional distances. “There’s no progression with the Tampa races, but I think it would serve a purpose.”
Peter Berube, vice president and general manager at Tampa, seemed somewhat intrigued by the idea of extending the Tampa Derby distance.
“I don’t really know if there’s been a need for it, but we will take a look at it,” he said.
The only horse to win both the Tampa Derby and Kentucky Derby was Street Sense (2007), whose interim prep resulted in a runner-up finish in the Blue Grass when Keeneland was still using Polytrack as its main racing surface. Seven of the last 10 Tampa Derby winners ran in the Kentucky Derby, with the best finish produced by Tacitus, who was elevated from fourth to third on the disqualification of Maximum Security in 2019.