Tapit’s brilliant and well-bred miler Anchor Down—a multiple graded stakes winner on the New York circuit who blazed 1:32 4/5 in the Kelso Handicap (G2)—has impressed us with his strong and athletic first foals of 2018.
Tapizar filly Monomoy Girl made a successful 3-year-old debut Feb. 17, winning the Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G2) by 2½ lengths to announce herself as a leading Kentucky Oaks (G1) candidate.
The first foals by Anchor Down, a top miler son of champion sire Tapit, have begun arriving in the Bluegrass.
Tapit’s 2017 champion female sprinter Unique Bella showed why there’s more than sprinting in her future as she crushed an overmatched field by nine lengths in the 1 1/16-mile Santa Maria Stakes (G2) Feb. 10 at Santa Anita.
Don Alberto Stable’s Unique Bella was crowned 2017 champion female sprinter at the 47th annual Eclipse Awards ceremony Jan. 25 at Gulfstream Park. The imposing gray joins Stardom Bound (2-year-old filly in 2008), Hansen (2-year-old colt in 2011), and Untapable (3-year-old filly in 2014) as Eclipse champions sired by Tapit.
Multiple graded stakes winner Anchor Down, a miler by leading sire Tapit, was represented by his first reported foal Jan. 16, a gray colt born at Phoenix Farm near Georgetown, Ky.
Don Alberto Stable’s 3-year-old Tapit filly Unique Bella, already a four-time graded stakes winner going into the Dec. 26 La Brea Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita, gamely defeated Paradise Woods in the seven-furlong event to become her sire’s 24th Grade 1 winner.
First-crop weanling sire Karakontie jumped out to a fast start when his first three November offerings averaged $163,333, more than 10 times the stud fee they were bred on.
Gainesway has released stud fees for its 2018 roster, and Tapit, the leading North American sire in 2014, 2015, and 2016, will again command a $300,000 fee and his book will be limited to 125 mares.
Monomoy Girl, a 2-year-old Tapizar filly who had impressively won her first two outings on the grass, made an impressive shift to the main track for her stakes debut Oct. 29, romping by 6½ lengths to capture the $82,670 Rags to Riches Stakes at Churchill Downs.