Given their current trajectories, Tapit ($214.6 million) will soon be overtaken by Into Mischief ($205.2 million) as the highest-earning stallion in American history. In terms of volume, however, their respective output just now happens to be virtually identical: Into Mischief, with bigger books across four fewer crops, tallies 1,735 named foals and 1,440 starters against 1,718 and 1,447 for his venerable rival. And though Spendthrift's champion recently nosed ahead by stakes winners (170/166), his upgraded mares are still cycling through and Tapit for now remains clear in the elite indices: whether by graded stakes winners (105/82), graded stakes performers (199/158) or Grade I winners (32/22).
With advancing years, moreover, Tapit is meanwhile consolidating another dimension of his legacy. His daughters have so far produced 129 stakes winners, including a Horse of the Year in Cody's Wish, compared with just 33 for Into Mischief mares (who have, of course, so far largely emerged from earlier, cheaper books). So while Tapit is being managed with due care, confined to 79 mares last spring, his $185,000 fee ($300,000 in his pomp) plainly provides access to a precious residue of genetic gold.
That was reiterated last Saturday when both new GI Kentucky Derby contenders, Final Gambit (Not This Time) and Tiztastic (Tiz the Law), were out of Tapit mares-just like American Promise (Justify), who had stated his case the previous weekend.
While time may be running out for a son to complete Tapit's resumé with a blanket of roses-at least pending Sandman's GI Arkansas Derby bid-his daughters will surely not prove so dilatory.
In the meantime his male line continues to develop, with Essential Quality and Flightline entering competition with Constitution and company. And that makes the GII Louisiana Derby winner a particularly potent symbol of Tapit's prowess. For in emerging from the first crop of Constitution's son Tiz the Law, Tiztastic is inbred to Tapit as closely as 3×2.
A smart pinhook ($80,000 short yearling to $335,000 in the same Keeneland ring that September), Tiztastic was bred by Capital Bloodstock from the unraced Keesha (Tapit).
Keesha was culled by Brushwood as a 3-year-old at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale, to Horse France for $220,000. Brushwood had bred her from another unraced mare, Wile Cat (Storm Cat), who had evidently returned to the fold after going through the ring for as much as $1.3 million as a yearling.
Wile Cat did eventually pay her way, selling several foals well after her first daughter Shumoos (Distorted Humor) was beaten a whisker in the G2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot. None of the others fared quite so well on the track, however, and Wile Cat was eventually sold on. In fact her only other black-type performer, Steady On (Pioneerof The Nile), won for the first time since a turf stakes at Gulfstream a couple of years ago when claimed for $20,000 at the Fair Grounds on Sunday. A curious double, over the weekend, for this family!
But something has evidently percolated through these two unraced mares, who owed their expensive covers to next dam Strategic Maneuver (Cryptoclearance), winer of the GI Matron Stakes by a dozen lengths.
Wile Cat's yearling valuation additionally reflected the rise of her sister Cat Fighter, who had won the GII La Canada Stakes earlier that year and would bring $2.3 million in the same ring a few weeks later. Moreover their half-brother Ishiguru (Danzig) had been a seven-figure yearling who won a Group sprint at the Curragh.
So here we have a colt whose first two dams were unraced, and whose third dam owed her brilliance to parents who shared Mr. Prospector as grandsire. Some of the better horses in his pedigree were turf sprinters, and Tiztastic registered both his previous wins on that surface, too. Not, on the face of it, the most robust background for a Derby colt.
But in steps Tapit, twice over, backing up a sire whose first two dams are by Tiznow and Go for Gin. And you get a thunderous finish over a mile and 3/16ths of dirt!
As for Tiz the Law, sheer numbers just told against him in that incredible race for the freshman title last year, when Vekoma and McKinzie could respectively summon 154 and 150 named foals against his 89. Nonetheless he matched marginal champion Vekoma (and Complexity) with five stakes winners, and it's also worth noting that he has a much bigger second crop incoming.
Vekoma has again made volume count with his sophomores, with five stakes winners already in 2023 from 77 starters. Of the other freshman protagonists, Tiz the Law has two from 42; McKinzie, one from 64.
Arguably Tiz the Law is owed a Kentucky Derby, after the race's contentious rescheduling in 2020. Regardless, he's certainly the protagonist with the momentum now.
Gambit's Dirt Gamble
If you were seeking a Derby colt out of a Tapit mare a few weeks ago, you would probably have picked Poster (Munnings). It could yet happen, back on dirt, but their GIII Jeff Ruby performances instead switched attention to Final Gambit.
This colt represents one of the great Juddmonte families. Admittedly his dam Pachinko (Tapit) contributed just a maiden to its record, and even that only at the eighth attempt (started out in France before crossing the water). But she's a half-sister to several useful runners in Europe, notably G1 Prix Jean Romanet winner Announce (GB) (Selkirk). And their dam Hachita (Gone West), herself winner of a couple of races for Sir Henry Cecil, brings us towards Juddmonte royalty.
Final Gambit | Coady Media
For the next dam Choice Spirit (Danzig), a Listed winner in France, was half-sister to champion Zafonic (Gone West) and his sibling Zamindar, who was not quite so talented a runner but closed the gap at stud.
Their dam Zaizafon (The Minstrel) was acquired in utero with the Juddmonte foundation mare Mofida (GB) (Right Tack {GB}) in 1981. Mofida's first cover for the nascent program, Roberto, proved barely less crucial to its development: the resulting filly, Modena, produced elite winners Reams Of Verse (Nureyev) and Elmaamul (Diesis) plus the dam of another in Midday (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}).
All this quality, however, is accompanied by an obvious concern: the family is saturated with chlorophyll, with even a dam by Tapit reserving her one win for turf. And while Not This Time can get you literally anything, a fair amount of his anything has favored grass. Final Gambit having hitherto progressed on turf/synthetics, a Derby bid would have to draw on the various dirt strains that are certainly available across his pedigree, from the Florida speed of Not This Time's maternal family to the Classic brands carried by Tapit.
Final Gambit is only Pachinko's second starter and the first, by Arrogate, has won a couple of modest prizes on dirt. But among Pachinko's useful siblings is Mexican Gold (Medaglia d'Oro), another classy grass performer who was Classic-placed over a mile in France. And her mating with Tapit's son Constitution produced quite a contrast to Final Gambit in Pure Force, who looked a potentially smart dirt sprinter in his first two starts as a sophomore last year. Having disappeared after bombing out in the GII Amsterdam Stakes, it's good to see him back on the worktab now. But whatever Final Gambit might be, he's hardly a sprinter, so we'll just have to see how finite their kinship may prove in terms of surface, too.
A Route Worth Pursuing
But my favorite winner out of a Tapit mare last weekend? Hands down, that was Red Route One (Gun Runner), whose flamboyant GIII Essex Handicap success takes him past $2 million in earnings. His new rider certainly got a tune out of the veteran and, if they can get a similar pace set-up, the partnership surely warrants another roll of the dice in a Grade I. He hasn't tried that level since the Belmont, but certainly deserves to put that kind of seal on his fourth campaign.
And, who knows, perhaps a Grade I might prompt a stallion farm of sufficient imagination to replicate his old-school constitution? After all, while there are already plenty of Gun Runners open for business, few have a pedigree to match his.
His dam is an unraced sister to champion Untapable (Tapit), and also half-sister to another Grade I winner in Paddy O'Prado (El Prado {Ire}). Her only other foal, also by Gun Runner, is a stakes winner; so too, is Red Route One's sidekick Unload, another son of Gun Runner out of a sister to his dam.
Granddam Fun House (Prized) meanwhile sets a template by including a Grade II among five wins in 29 starts across four years; and she in turn was out of a half-sister to Olympio, himself never out of the first four in 16 starts (across 16 months, the last 10 all Grade I/II).
Olympio was the best runner out of the Winchells' foundation mare Carols Christmas (Whitesburg), but her six daughters included four producers of graded stakes winners, plus a GII winner who became granddam of one of Tapit's early stars, Tapizar.
The Winchells having been integral to the careers of sire and damsire alike, Red Route One must be one their most cherished horses. It would be nice to think that there are enough far-sighted breeders around eager someday to tap into that joint legacy.
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