Tap That: TAPIT Is Off To The Races with his First Crop

Every so often, a stallion comes along with a less-than-mainstream pedigree; they’re advertised as “outcrosses,” owing to the fact that they do not contribute multiple crosses of popular stallions to most mares.  Think Skip Away or Tiznow for recent examples.  Of course, outcrosses are not the norm.  Most of the top thoroughbreds today contain one or more crosses of either Northern Dancer or Mr. Prospector.  A decent number of American thoroughbreds also carry Seattle Slew, and many of those carrying Seattle Slew do so through his wonderfully talented son A.P. Indy.

Tapit, far from being an outcross, carries all of the aforementioned lines.  By Pulpit (a son of A.P. Indy out of a Mr. Prospector mare), he was produced from the Unbridled mare Tap Your Heels, who in turn carries Northern Dancer in her female family.  Unbridled is a son of Fappiano, himself in turn a son of Unbridled.  Far from being a horse that breeders look to compliment with disparate pedigrees, Tapit is a horse that will have to find his success with foals that will often be inbred to a much greater extent than the average stallion’s progeny.

Certainly, Tapit isn’t lacking in sheer racetrack talent to pass along.  The grey colt was a member of Pulpit’s 2001 foal crop, and although fans of the talented colt Purge (winner of the Peter Pan Stakes) may argue this point, Tapit is generally regarded as the most accomplished member of that foal crop. 

As a two year old, Tapit took down the Laurel Futurity, and turned heads for a few reasons.  First, he was visually impressive, motoring home in a manner rarely seen in two year olds.  It was a performance worthy of a D. Wayne Lukas or Bob Baffert trainee, but many educated race goers did a double take when they realized that it was in fact Michael Dickinson who was responsible for the conditioning of this phantom-colored phenomenon.  For those who don’t recognize the significance, let me digress and explain the mystique of Michael Dickinson.  Cast in the mold of European trainers, Dickinson is often referred to as a “mad genius” for his ability to translate unorthodox training methods into huge wins; Dickinson is most renowned for his work with horses coming off of extensive layoffs.  In arguably one of the greatest training jobs in history, Dickinson brought De Hoss, winner of the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Mile, to win the 1998 edition of that race.  As if training a runner who can maintain their form for three years isn’t enough, the remarkable part of the story is that Da Hoss had only one race between his Breeders’ Cup triumphs.  Other notable Dickinson trainees include Cetawayo (brought back multiple times from long layoffs) and A Huevo (winner of the DeFrancis Dash).  Dickinson, while a talented trainer, is the last man that anyone on earth would expect to have a good two or three year old.

As promising a two year old as Tapit was, he fulfilled that promise at age three when he took down the GI Wood Memorial.  Unfortunately, the imposing grey colt ran into the chestnut whirlwind that most of America came to know simply as “Smarty,” and his 9^th place finish in the Kentucky Derby is simply a footnote in history.  Retired to Gainseway Stud, where he warranted a $15,000 stud fee, he doesn’t jump out at first as one of the most exciting stallion prospects in recent memory, but a look at his pedigree goes a long way to explaining this author’s excitement over this colt.

Obviously, A.P. Indy is the heir apparent to Seattle Slew, and Pulpit in turn is A.P. Indy’s most accomplished son at stud, and Tapit may well have been the most talented runner that Pulpit has ever sired.  If anyone is ever looking for an example of a female family that is just plain fast, look no further than Pulpit’s: his family is responsible not only for Pulpit, a blazing fast colt himself, but also Tale of The Cat and Minardi, so there is plenty of speed to be found from the sire line. 

Complimenting his sire line beautifully, Tapit’s female family is filled with depth.  His dam, Tap Your Heels, is sired by Unbridled.  As a Derby winner by Fappiano, it makes sense that Unbridled developed into a very talented sire (even though his percentages of stakes winners to foals, like many other Mr. Prospector line stallions, was rather poor).  Just how talented, nobody realized.  Mostly known for his fillies, Unbridled was responsible for the fantastic fillies Banshee Breeze, Exogenous, Halfbridled, Manistique, Santa Catarina and recent GI winner Smuggler.  Anyone that wants a listing of their accomplishments is free to block out a few hours of their time one afternoon and pour over their race records; there is enough talent in that list of fillies to occupy and fan of the racing game for a good long while.  And Unbridled’s accomplishments get even more impressive when you consider that his colts did pretty darn well, especially given that Unbridled earned the reputation as a “filly sire.”  First, it was Grindstone taking the 1996 Kentucky Derby (over favorite Unbridled’s Song, who had won the BC Juvenile the previous year), then Red Bullet annexed the Preakness, and Empire Maker followed up with the Belmont Stakes.  In between, Anees won the BC Juvenile (giving Unbridled two victories in that race), Unshaded won the Travers Stakes, Niigon won the Queen’s Plate, Eddington won the Pimlico Special, and his sons accounted for the winners of another BC Distaff (Unbridled Elaine, by Unbridled’s Song) and Belmont Stakes (Birdstone, by Grindstone).

And Unbridled isn’t even the best part of Tapit’s female family.  Tap Your Heels is a half sister to champion sprinter Rubiano, who took down the N.Y.R.A. Mile (now the Cigar Mile), Carter Handicap, and Vosburgh Handicap in his championship season, and developed into a talented sire himself. Meanwhile, Secret Red, another half sister to Tap Your Heels, produced the talented colt Dubleo, by Southern Halo, who was one of his generation’s top 3yo turf colts.  Meanwhile, Ruby Slippers (dam of both Tap Your Heels and Rubiano) is a half sister to Glitterman, the versatile stallion who has made his reputation siring dirt sprinters (JJ’s Dream) and turf marathoners (Balto Star).  Finally, Moon Glitters (dam of Glitterman and Ruby Slippers) is a half sister to talented sire Relaunch.  Think there’s enough sire power in that female family?

Early breeding results from Tapit indicate that SIM breeders have astutely picked up on the beauty of crossing Northern Dancer line stallions back to Tapit: three of his winners are out of Danzig mares, while he has also had success to Storm Cat line stallions (carries Northern Dancer through Storm Bird), and to Kingmambo (interestingly enough, also a Mr. Prospector double-cross).  I would be interested in crossing Tapit to a Relaunch or Glitterman line mare, creating some extremely interesting breeding patterns as you dig deep into the pedigrees.  Additionally, Dixieland Band would be a beautiful cross: Chimes Band, a talented sprinter by Dixieland Band, is from Tapit’s family through his 4^th dam, and Dixieland Band is a stellar source of economically priced Northern Dancer blood.

So, SIM breeders everywhere have been served notice: tap into this potentially lucrative goldmine now, because Tapit’s got his dancing shoes on and he’ll be taping his way up the stallion lists shortly.