Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Tapwrit may be out for year
ELMONT, N.Y. – Tapwrit, the Belmont Stakes winner, came out of his fourth-place finish in the Travers Stakes on Aug 26 with an injured right front foot that will sideline him for the immediate future and potentially could end his 3-year-old season, co-owner Aron Wellman said Wednesday.
Wellman said Tapwrit shed his frog – the bottom part of the foot that acts like a shock absorber – on his right front foot and has been sent to Dr. Larry Bramlage at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., for further evaluation “so we can get a timetable on what he believes it will take for it to heal so that we can assess his status,” Wellman said.
Wellman is president of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which owns Tapwrit along with Robert LaPenta, Bridlewood Farm, Gainesway Farm, and Mandy Pope.
Tapwrit, trained by Todd Pletcher, was nominated to the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 23, but he definitely will not make that race, Wellman said. The Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup is on Oct. 7 at Belmont Park, but that sounded doubtful as well.
“The Pennsylvania Derby is definitely out of the question, beyond that we are taking it day by day, essentially,” Wellman said. “The horse is well, he’s happy, his energy’s good, he’s sending us all the right signals, but the frog is an issue we’re up against at the moment.”
Tapwrit will be brought back as a 4-year-old.
“At the end of the day, we’re just going to do what’s best for the horse,” Wellman said. “If he’s able to be at his best in a big race before the end of the year, then we’ll give him that opportunity. If not, we certainly think he’s a colt that’s only going to get more and more progressive into his 4-year-old campaign. Our goal is certainly to establish him as one of the top older horses next year, if not the top older horse next year.”
In addition to winning the Belmont this year, Tapwrit also won the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby. He finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby and was fourth, beaten eight lengths, in the Travers.
Wellman said that Destin, second by a nose to Creator in last year’s Belmont Stakes, is likely to make his next start in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Destin is coming off an allowance win at Saratoga on Aug. 23.
Wellman said the Awesome Again on Sept. 30 at Santa Anita is also an option for Destin.
“But we’re leaning more heavily toward staying home for the Jockey Club Gold Cup over his home track where obviously he’s performed well in the past,” Wellman said.
Defiant Honor to Sands Point
Trainer Jimmy Toner has eschewed the conservative approach he was going to take with Defiant Honor and has decided to run her in Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Sands Point Stakes, the first graded event of the Belmont Park fall meet.
Defiant Honor won the $100,000 Riskaverse Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 24. Afterward, Toner said he would likely wait for a race like the Pebbles on Nov. 14, a non-graded $200,000 stakes at one mile. The Sands Point is at 1 1/8 miles.
However, with no standout in the Sands Point, a lucrative purse, and his filly doing well, Toner decided to give Defiant Honor a shot.
“She came out of it really well,” Toner said. “I breezed her a little half-mile on Sunday, nice and comfortable. She’s doing well. It’s a little bit of a quick turnaround, but the time before [the Riskaverse] was a non-effort, and I brought her back and got a decent effort into her. You either do this or wait another month and go in the Pebbles.”
Because he made a late decision to enter the Sands Point, Toner lost rider Jose Lezcano to La Coronel. Toner has tabbed Nik Juarez, Monmouth Park’s leading rider who is trying to make it in New York, to ride Defiant Honor.
Defiant Honor will be facing a trio of runners from the Chad Brown stable – Fifty Five, Inflexibility and Uni – as well as Chastise, Empressof the Nile, Fault, La Coronel, and the European import Vue Fantastique.
Ballerina rematch possible
By the Moon and Highway Star, separated by a head in the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga on Aug. 26, could meet again in the Grade 2, $300,000 Gallant Bloom Handicap at Belmont Park on Sept. 24.
Trainer Michelle Nevin said she and owner Samantha Siegel “haven’t decided yet” whether to use the Gallant Bloom as a stepping-stone for By the Moon to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Last year, By the Moon finished second in the Ballerina and went straight to the Filly and Mare Sprint, where she finished fifth, beaten three lengths.
Meanwhile, trainer Rodrigo Ubillo said the Gallant Bloom “is probably the plan right now” for Highway Star despite Ubillo’s feeling the 6 1/2 furlongs may be too short for his 4-yearold New York-bred filly.
“We know she’s better at seven furlongs or a mile, but she’s going to run good no matter what,” Ubillo said. “She likes her job; she likes to run.”
Ubillo noted that Highway Star hadn’t run for 77 days in between her third-place finish in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps and the Ballerina. If she didn’t run in the Gallant Bloom, Highway Star would have 70 days before the Filly and Mare Sprint. If she does run, she would have six weeks to the race.