Tapit’s exceptional turf runner Ring Weekend set a course record at Saratoga on Labor Day, Sept. 5, in the $250,000 Bernard Baruch H. (G2), capping off the three-day weekend that saw Tapit’s 2-year-old fillies Pretty City Dancer and Sweet Loretta dead-heat for the win in the Spinaway S. (G1) and Scuba capture the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup.
Ring Weekend needed every bit of the Saratoga stretch to get the job done in the Baruch. Breaking from post 2 under John Velazquez, Ring Weekend hugged the hedge in fourth through the first half-mile in :46.59.
Ring Weekend began to edge closer on the far turn, then swung wide to take up the chase of pacesetter Take the Stand. Ring Weekend was joined by Jay Gatsby, and the trio raced as one in the final furlong, with Ring Weekend coming up a neck to the good over Jay Gatsby in 1:38.29, a new course record.
“He settled a little bit better than last time out here (Grade 1 Fourstardave, Aug. 20), that was the key right there,” Velazquez said. “He broke better, settled better, and that was the difference today. And then when I asked him to run, he responded very easily.”
Bred in Kentucky by Gainesway, Ring Weekend was a $310,000 Keeneland September yearling sale purchase by his owner West Point Thoroughbreds. With the win, Ring Weekend upped his earnings to $1,305,410; his six victories include five graded stakes.
