With his dominating 3¼-length victory in the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita, Cupid became the 21st Grade or Group 1 winner by Gainesway’s three-time leading sire Tapit and earned a 106 Beyer Speed Figure.
A colt from the second crop of Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) winner Tapizar brought $250,000 during the May 23 session of Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training.
Gary and Mary West’s 3-year-old Tapit filly Actress made a splash, literally and figuratively, when she broke her maiden in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico May 19, her third career start.
The dream did indeed come true for the owners and connections of Always Dreaming in the 143rd Kentucky Derby. As the appropriately-named 3-year-old powered to a decisive 2¾-length triumph May 6 at Churchill Downs, it was a career-defining achievement for a colt whose preeminent classic sire line keeps finding roses.
With the final entries taken and post positions drawn for the 143rd Kentucky Derby, five contenders for the May 6 Churchill Downs classic have ties to Gainesway stallions.
A pair of high-priced Tapit offerings added fuel to a record-setting OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training that set records in gross and average price.
Gainesway’s young stallion Tapizar has had quite a good run of late, siring five winners in eight days. The most exciting of these might have been American Pastime, whose brilliant debut March 11 at Santa Anita Park earned “TDN Rising Star” designation and a 91 Beyer Speed Figure.
Tapwrit tossed his hat into the spring classics ring March 11 with a brilliant performance in the Grade 2 $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby, dispatching a field of nine other hopefuls. The handsome, muscular gray son of leading sire Tapit set a stakes record for the 1 1/16-mile major prep for the Kentucky Derby and also earned 50 Kentucky Derby points.
Though Tapit has led the general sire list for three consecutive years with record earnings in each, siring three graded stakes winners on the same day, March 4, was a noteworthy accomplishment even for him.
Gainesway’s repatriated stallion Empire Maker continues to leave his mark on his former home of Japan, where the sire picked up a trio of 3-year-old maiden winners March 4 in consecutive races at Hanshin Racecourse.