Irish Aces gets past Nineeleventurbo at wire in Tapit Stakes

Irish Aces could not quite win a second-level allowance race July 13 at Saratoga, but on Thursday he took down a much richer prize, getting up in the final strides to win the $500,000 Tapit Stakes on opening day of the brief Kentucky Downs meeting.

Irish Aces scored the second win on the card for Brendan Walsh, leading trainer at the 2023 Kentucky Downs meeting. While Irish Aces never had raced over the tricky, European-style course, Walsh predicted his charge would take to it and was proven correct.

The lightly raced 4-year-old got a lot of help from jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who saved ground around part of the sweeping far turn, came outside pacesetting Nineeleventurbo for the long homestretch run, and offered extremely vigorous encouragement to his mount. In many cases, a rider’s heavy urging seems to make little impression on his mount, but Gaffalione, switching late from a right-handed to left-handed crop, used a combination of his stick and his strength to carry Irish Aces past a game Nineeleventurbo by a head.

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The Tapit, contested over a mile and 70 yards and open to horses who hadn’t won a stakes race during 2024, drew an overflow field but scratched down to nine runners. Among those coming out was morning-line favorite Funtastic Again, one of several entered back in a $500,000 handicap on the Sunday card.
Absent Funtastic Again, Chasing the Crown went off the 4-5 favorite but failed to land a blow while fourth. The top two were much the best, well clear of third-place Siege of Boston.

Nineeleventurbo, trained by California-based Neil Drysdale but in from Colonial Downs, where he’d most recently finished a distant second behind talented Integration on a July 13 trial for the Arlington Million, has not been a pace player during his career. But Florent Geroux broke him from post 1 and quickly established a clear lead, one that Nineeleventurbo did not care to relinquish. Irish Aces had aim three-sixteenths of a mile from the finish but needed the length of the stretch to pass.

Winning for the third time in 10 starts, Irish Aces paid $8.66 and was timed in 1:41.71 over a course rated firm, the temporary rail set at 50 feet. Owned by Pocket Aces Racing, Irish Aces, a $40,000 sales purchase, is by Mshawish out of Nimble Foot, by Danehill Dancer. He came into the Tapit a gelding on the brink of stakes success yet winless in four starts this year and came out of it with the $298,800 winner’s share of the purse.

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