It was a second stakes victory in two weeks for the TAPIT/Close Hatches pairing when Scylla won her third straight race in the Fleur de Lis Stakes (G2) on Saturday.
Coming into the race off a victory in the Shawnee Stakes (G3) on June 1, Scylla was last out of the gate in this 1 1/8-mile race and jockey Javier Castellano let her settle in that position. Racing just a few lengths behind the leading Free Like a Girl, Scylla didn’t change her position until they reached the far turn.
It was at that point that Scylla went five wide around the time to fly past her rivals and charge toward the lead. She joined a four-horse duel at the top of the stretch with some bumping happening among the group before she put most of the horses away.
Shotgun Hottie wasn’t going to make it too easy on the homebred and raced her down to a neck at the line.
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Trained by Bill Mott, Scylla has won five of her seven starts with two other top three finishes for $721,045 in earnings.
She is a full sister to last week’s Ohio Derby (G3) winner Batten Down and to the multiple graded stakes winner and Grade 1-placed Tacitus. TAPIT is also the sire of Hail, a half-sister to this trio’s champion dam Close Hatches.
In all, Close Hatches has four runners by TAPIT with each of them winning at least one race.