Tapit’s birthday celebrated with two Derby prep victories

Tapit, one of North America’s perennial leading sires, turned 20 on Saturday. The Gainesway stallion celebrated by sweeping Saturday’s Kentucky Derby preps, as Eclipse Award champion Essential Quality returned a winner at Oaklawn Park and Greatest Honour continued his march through the Gulfstream Park prep series.

Godolphin homebred Essential Quality became the fifth individual Eclipse champion for Tapit last year, with wins in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He remained unbeaten in four career starts with a 4 1/4-length win in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes on Saturday on a sloppy, sealed track. It was the third consecutive victory at 1 1/16 miles for the colt, who is from the immediate family of Japanese Triple Crown winner Contrail and Eclipse champion filly Folklore.

Greatest Honour, a Courtlandt Farm homebred from the immediate family of Belmont Stakes winners Rags to Riches and Jazil, has also won three consecutive races at 1 1/16 miles. After winning his maiden, he took the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream, then continued on to win Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.

“He’s won twice down here now in stakes doing what he doesn’t want to do, and that’s a mile and a sixteenth,” trainer Shug McGaughey said. “Like [jockey Jose Ortiz] said, I’m glad these mile-and-asixteenth [races] are behind us. We’ll be looking forward to getting him stretched out. ... Hopefully as we keep going longer he’ll keep improving. The farther the better for him.”

Indeed, Tapit is the sire of three winners of the Belmont Stakes, the longest American classic at 1 1/2 miles, in Tonalist (2014), Creator (2016), and Tapwrit (2017). He is the only sire in the modern history of the race represented by that many winners, and one of just five stallions to sire three or more winners of the Belmont, the oldest American classic. The great Lexington holds the all-time record in the race, with four winners in 1868, 1870, 1871, and 1878. Three other stallions have sired three Belmont winners – Australian (1872, 1873, and 1879), Fair Play (1920, 1924, and 1927) and Man o’ War (1925, 1926, and 1937).

Tapit is also the sire of Tacitus, elevated to third in the 2019 Kentucky Derby before finishing second in the Belmont; 2015 Preakness third-place finisher Divining Rod; 2016 Belmont thirdplace finisher Lani; and 2018 Belmont third-place finisher Hofburg.

Godolphin blue flying high

Fresh off earning another Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding owner, the international Godolphin operation has started 2021 in strong fashion. Godolphin recorded three homebred graded stakes winners in the United States on Saturday alone, highlighted by Eclipse Award champion Essential Quality’s successful 3-yearold debut in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn. Mystic Guide gave the Godolphin blue a double at Oaklawn by winning the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap, and Antoinette captured the Grade 3 The Very One at Gulfstream.

Mystic Guide, a 4-yearold by Ghostzapper, came to hand in the second half of last year, winning the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga and finishing second in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup. He won the Razorback by six lengths.

“Look, it’s so rewarding with a horse like this that we were really patient with as a 3-year-old,” trainer Mike Stidham said. “We spaced his races, gave him time to develop. It’s really paying off now. That’s the best part of it all. [Godolphin’s] Jimmy Bell and Dan Pride are just always allowing us to do the right thing for the horse. Now it’s paying dividends.”

Mystic Guide is the first stakes horse out of Godolphin’s five-time Grade 1 winner Music Note, herself a half-sister to French classic winner and U.S. Grade 1 winner Musical Chimes.

Godolphin’s other two victors on Saturday are similarly well-bred. Eclipse champion Essential Quality, winner of the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, is by leading sire Tapit and from the immediate family of Japanese Triple Crown winner Contrail and Eclipse champion Folklore. The versatile Antoinette is by in-house stallion Hard Spun and out of the globe-trotting Shuruq, a group stakes winner in Dubai and Turkey and group placed in England. She added the The Very One to multiple turf stakes victories, including last year’s Saratoga Oaks. She was runner-up in last year’s Grade 1 Belmont Oaks on turf, and third in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks on dirt.

Godolphin is looking ahead to another big weekend. Undefeated Maxfield is expected to start as the highweight in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 6.

Cesario dead at 19

Cesario, a Grade 1 winner on two continents and the dam of two champions in Japan, died Saturday at Northern Farm in Japan of a ruptured artery. The daughter of Special Week was 19.

Cesario won 5 of 6 career starts and was named the Japanese champion 3-yearold filly of 2005. After winning her first three starts, including the Grade 3 Hai Flower Cup, she was second by a head in the Japanese 1000 Guineas. She rebounded to win the Japanese Oaks at 1 1/2 miles. Later that summer, she shipped to the United States to win another Grade 1, with a four-length win in the American Oaks going 1 1/4 miles at Hollywood Park.

As a broodmare, Cesario has produced nine winners from 10 starters to date, including two champions. Saturnalia, by Lord Kanaloa, was a Grade 1 winner as a juvenile who went on to win the Japanese 2000 Guineas and earn a divisional title at 3; the mare also produced champion 2-year-old Leontes, by Kamehameha. Cesario also is the dam of Japan Cup and Japanese St. Leger winner Epiphaneia, by Symboli Kris S; and Grade 2-placed Glove Theatre, by King Kamehameha.

Cesario’s sons have made a promising start at stud. Epiphaneia is the sire of four stakes winners to date, including 2020 Japanese Filly Triple Crown winner and champion Daring Tact. The stallion was recently selected as the first mating for champion Almond Eye. Leontes recently recorded his first stakes winner with Saudi Derby winner Pink Kamehameha. Meanwhile, Saturnalia entered stud this year.