Highland Falls, Tapit Trice square off in Blame Stakes

Godolphin and trainer Brad Cox have the likely favorite, First Mission, for the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Stakes later on June 29. They also have the likely favorite, Highland Falls, for the local Stephen Foster prep, the $275,000 Blame, the last of six stakes Saturday at Churchill Downs.

Highland Falls is one of 11 entered in the Grade 3 Blame Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile dirt race in which Tapit Trice, a leading 3-year-old of 2023, races for the first time since finishing third in the Travers Stakes last August. Tapit Trice is listed at 3-1 on the track’s morning line, Highland Falls at 5-2, which feels about right.

Highland Falls, a 4-year-old by Curlin out of the excellent racemare Round Pond, didn’t debut until Aug. 23 of his 3-year-old season but has since kept to a steady racing pattern while consistently improving. After winning consecutive allowance races in November at Churchill and January at Fair Grounds, Highland Falls was sent to California for the Santa Anita Handicap. He finished a creditable fourth in that weak Grade 1, and probably would’ve won had he produced the performance he put forth April 20 in the Oaklawn Handicap.

There, Highland Falls stalked a moderate pace and came out for the stretch run to chase Skippylongstocking to the wire. Skippylongstocking, another leading Foster hopeful, got first run on Highland Falls, who turned in the race’s fastest final furlong, 11.94 seconds. His 104 Beyer Speed Figure was a career best and is higher than any figure in the Blame.

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Tapit Trice as a 3-year-old hit the 100 Beyer mark finishing third in the Belmont and the Travers. The colt did lose four in a row after winning the Tampa Bay Derby and the Grade 1 Blue Grass and has questions to answer in his belated 4-year-old debut.

Tapit Trice was scheduled to race in the Alysheba Stakes earlier this month but shed a frog, trainer Todd Pletcher said, requiring a short break for that foot issue to resolve.

Pletcher said no particular injury led to Tapit Trice’s extended layoff, that the decision was made to freshen the colt and point to his 4-year-old season. Tapit Trice makes his second start in blinkers, though Pletcher doesn’t believe the equipment led to “an enormous change” in the Travers.

“He’s been training well, and his works all have been good. It’s a tall task, a mile and an eighth off this kind of layoff, but he’s a true route horse, and we need to get a race into him hopefully to move forward into the Stephen Foster,” Pletcher said.

Pletcher’s other entrant, Dreamlike, is the better play Saturday. Dreamlike finished third, beaten a head, racing as a maiden in the Wood Memorial, and in September popped up with a strong second-place finish behind the talented Saudi Crown in the Pennsylvania Derby. An even eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Dreamlike returned from a winter break with a good second to Blame starter Cagliostro in a highly rated Keeneland allowance.

“Dreamlike can be a little inconsistent,” Pletcher said. “He’s out of a Tapit mare, and I’ve found some of them to be ADD sorts. He was very studdish as a 2-year-old and still a bit at 3, but I think he has matured at 4. With some solid works in him and the race under his belt, he should be in a position to move forward.”

Cagliostro started for the first time since September when he held off Dreamlike by a head at Keeneland while racing for the first time in blinkers. Trainer Cherie DeVaux waited more than three weeks to work Cagliostro after the race, giving him ample recovery time. Cagliostro was sold after his last start to Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani’s Wathnan Racing.

“He’s bounced back now. He had one of his best works this past week in company with Vahva,” DeVaux said. “He should have a forward move in his wheelhouse.”

That might or might not be sufficient to win the Blame.

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