Godolphin homebred Coliseum entered his Nov. 17 racing debut at Del Mar with unusually high expectations for an unraced 2-year-old, and the gray son of Tapit delivered on the hype with a stunning 6¾-length victory while barely being asked for run.
Tapwrit’s seven-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher noted the success of the Belmont Stakes as a stallion-making race.
Against one of the deepest fields of the Breeders’ Cup weekend, 3-year-old Tapizar filly Monomoy Girl stamped her authority over the filly and mare division with a sensational victory in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs.
Two-year-old Tapizar colt Solidify circled the field to capture the Oct. 21 Grey Stakes (G3), the card’s featured stakes event over 1 1/16 miles on the main track at Woodbine.
Belmont Stakes (G1) winner and millionaire Tapwrit has been retired from racing and will enter stud at Gainesway for a $12,500 stud fee in 2019.
A colt from the first Gainesway crop of Empire Maker brought a final bid of $1.35 million from Phoenix Thoroughbreds during the Sept. 11 second session of the Keeneland September yearling sale.
Gainesway homebred Eskimo Kisses charged from last to score an emphatic 6½-length victory in the prestigious Alabama Stakes (G1) Aug. 18 at Saratoga Race Course.
Gainesway stallion Empire Maker was represented by a $550,000 colt and a $420,000 filly during the Aug. 6 opening session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale. These were the first North American yearlings to be offered at public auction since Empire Maker returned to Kentucky for the 2016 breeding season.
Tapit’s champion filly Unique Bella won her second straight Grade 1 in the July 29 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar, securing an automatic berth in the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) and capping a huge weekend for her sire, who was represented by six winners July 27-29 including three stakes winners, two graded, and a new “TDN Rising Star.”
Prominent classic sire Empire Maker, who returned from Japan to stand in Kentucky starting with the 2016 breeding season, is set to have his first Gainesway-sired yearlings offered this summer.