Tapiture 'more mature' since Derby defeat
Tapiture's camp was in no hurry to run back in the Preakness Stakes two weeks after finishing 15th in the Kentucky Derby, 17 lengths behind triumphant California Chrome.
As with his Kentucky Oaks-winning stablemate Untapable, Tapiture's owner and trainer wanted to give the youngster time to mature and grow into his frame. The payoff for that prudence came with victories in his next two starts, Churchill Downs' Grade III Matt Winn and Mountaineer Park's Grade II, $750,000 West Virginia Derby — preludes to Saturday's $1 million Pennsylvania Derby.
Untapable runs in the $1 million, Grade I Cotillion for 3-year-old fillies the race before on Parx Racing's showcase card, with Rosie Napravnik riding both horses.
What owner Ron Winchell and trainer Steve Asmussen didn't know when they plotted out Tapiture's post-Derby campaign is that California Chrome also would be coming to Parx, the track formerly known as Philadelphia Park, and before that Keystone.
But California Chrome is making his first start since his six-race victory streak and Triple Crown bid ended with a dead-heat for fourth in the Belmont Stakes, exiting with a chunk of flesh knocked off his right front heel and a gash on the leg.
"If you're going to run against him, run against him coming off a layoff and having to ship from southern California, where it's been 105, to Philadelphia," said David Fiske, Winchell Thoroughbreds' longtime racing and bloodstock manager. "The surface is different. We'll see. It's a million dollars, so what the heck?"
Tapiture is the 5-1 third choice behind even-money California Chrome and Haskell winner Bayern in the field of eight 3-year-olds. But look no further than last year with Will Take Charge — who used a Travers-Pennsylvania Derby parlay to spring him into a successful championship run — to see how a 3-year-old can change dramatically from spring to fall.
"Tapiture turned 3 on Derby Day, so he had kind of a late birth," said Winchell, who with mom Joan bred and races Tapiture and Untapable, both by their former racehorse Tapit, in whom they still own half-interest. "One thing I noticed in the West Virginia Derby — I hadn't seen him since the Kentucky Derby — is he just looked like a different horse physically. He just looked more mature, stronger and he seemed to finish off his race."
Which he certainly needed to in the West Virginia Derby. With no room to go through on the rail or between horses in mid-stretch, Napravnik had to take Tapiture back and to the outside, from where he ran down Pennsylvania Derby entrant Candy Boy to win by a nose.
"Obviously that stretch run was eye-popping," Winchell said on an NTRA conference call. "I didn't think he was going to get there, and somehow he got there and pulled off the victory…. I don't know if I'm looking forward to a rematch with California Chrome. But one thing we did discover with Tapiture is the time between races seems to be key. I think he's sitting on a very big effort."
Tapiture earned a career-best BRIS speed figure in the West Virginia Derby at 106, as did Candy Boy, who Joel Rosario comes in to ride.
"Everybody liked his talent early in the year, but everybody knew he was kind of young physically and mentally," Asmussen said of Tapiture, whose first win came in last fall's Grade II Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs. "Being older, time between races, he's a better horse. Is he that much better? We'll find out. Because there was a lot of room to make up in May, where we were. This will be a very true test of how far we've come."
Untapable, the Cotillion's 7-5 favorite, is in a somewhat similar position to California Chrome in being a strong favorite coming into the race off her first defeat of the year.
When Untapable won the Oaks, she appeared to be a stick-out in her division. That did not change when she captured Belmont's Mother Goose by 9-1/4 lengths in her next start two months later. Then she was drilled taking on males in Monmouth Park's $1 million Haskell Haskell, finishing fifth of nine after a bad start that left her having to play catchup over a speed-favoring track with Bayern pretty much alone on the lead with a moderate pace.
"We took a chance and it didn't work out," Fiske said. "So we'll go on. I don't think it diminished her stature or tarnished her image at all."
Contact Jennie Rees at 502-582-4042. Follow her on Twitter @CJ_Jennie, Facebook.com/CJJennie and courier-journal.com/racingblog.