Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
American Pharoah half-brother Triple Tap primed for debut
The works are quick, the race scenario is favorable, and his reputation is as big as it gets.
Triple Tap, a 3-year-old halfbrother to 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, will have his career debut in a maiden special weight race at seven furlongs in Saturday’s second race at Santa Anita.
“He’s ready to run,” trainer Bob Baffert said Thursday. “He’s got a great post. He’s got everything going for him. Luckily, we got a race for him.”
Triple Tap, owned and bred by Jane Lyon, who races as Summer Wind Equine, drew the outside post 5. Leading rider Flavien Prat has the mount on the colt, who is by Tapit.
In recent weeks, Triple Tap has worked quickly, including six furlongs in 1:11.20 on Feb. 27 and five furlongs from the gate in 59 seconds on March 7. Those were the fastest works at the distances on those mornings, and were not isolated. Triple Tap had equally quick workouts at times in January and earlier in February.
Triple Tap will be a heavy favorite against four modest rivals in a race for 3-year-olds and up. Trainer Dan Blacker runs two 4-year-olds that have been as close as second in maiden races earlier in their careers – the gelding Johan Zoffani, who has had eight starts, and the filly Eyes Open, who showed speed in her first two starts in 2019 and 2020 and will have her fifth race on Saturday.
Triple Tap has worked steadily since late November, first at Los Alamitos and at Santa Anita since the beginning of this year.
“Jane Lyon breaks them late and starts them late and lets them develop,” Baffert said. “He’s filling out. I’ve taken my time with him.”
American Pharoah, the 2015 Horse of the Year, won 9 of 11 starts and earned $8,650,300 in a two-year career. American Pharoah is out of Littleprincessemma. In recent years, Littleprincessemma has produced Chasing Yesterday, a four-time stakes winner bred and owned by Lyon and trained by Baffert, and the stakesplaced runners American Cleopatra and St. Patrick’s Day.
Chasing Yesterday, a fullsister to Triple Tap, won 5 of 7 starts and earned $488,650.
Fans could return in April
Santa Anita could host customers as soon as early April. Track officials are closely monitoring guidance from state government agencies related to when and how sports events in California can resume on-site audiences. The state’s Major League baseball teams expect to start their seasons on April 1 with a small number of customers in attendance.
Government officials have said in recent days that Los Angeles County, where Santa Anita is located, could move from the most restrictive purple tier of business conditions to the slightly less severe red tier in coming weeks, if vaccinations continue and the rate of positive cases continues a downward trajectory. A move to the red tier would allow some indoor dining in the county, which is currently not available.
Along with outdoor stadiums, the state’s popular amusement parks also have pressured government officials to allow them to reopen to some extent.
Santa Anita general manager Nate Newby said Santa Anita is developing several scenarios of how to reopen to a limited audience as early as April 2. The track hosts the popular Santa Anita Derby program on April 3, but attendance will be limited, if a crowd is allowed by that day.
The 2019 Santa Anita Derby program drew an ontrack audience of 30,713. The event was not held before the public in 2020 because of the pandemic.
Santa Anita has not had a sizable ontrack audience since Sunday, March 8, 2020, a program that drew a crowd of 5,169. In the following days, nearly all sporting events in the world were canceled because of the pandemic. Santa Anita raced for two more weekends without an ontrack audience before the track was ordered closed by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health because of the pandemic.
Racing resumed in mid-May with only vital track employees in attendance. Since last summer, a small number of owners with horses entered to race, and a select number of other participants, have been allowed to attend races at Del Mar and Santa Anita.
Newby said Santa Anita could have a limit of 20 percent capacity and was seeking more guidelines from county officials regarding a specific maximum.
“A venue of this size, 20 percent will be significant,” he said. “We could put on a good show. We have so much open space.”
When allowed to open, fans will be restricted to outdoor areas, such as the grandstand, box seats, and outdoor restaurants. The popular FrontRunner restaurant, an indoor facility that overlooks the track, would not be immediately available for use, Newby said.
Details regarding whether fans will need to make advance reservations and what food and beverage services will be available are under discussion, Newby said.
“We’ve started with multiple plans,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re ready.”
As of Thursday, Santa Anita was holding discussions with the Thoroughbred Owners of California regarding the number of racing days in April. There is a likelihood the track will eliminate racing on a few Fridays in April to preserve the turf course through the conclusion of the current meeting on June 20, Newby said.