My Miss Tapit stays perfect in Game Face
My Miss Tapit, a daylight winner of her career debut nearly six weeks ago, duplicated that performance Saturday to defeat another second-time starter, Actress, in the $75,000 Game Face Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Gulfstream Park.
Ridden by Emisael Jaramillo for trainer Todd Pletcher, My Miss Tapit ($5.60) got a nice setup as Jakobs Rocket Girl and 13-1 outsider Rashette battled through early fractions of 22.57 and 45.78 seconds.
Approaching the turn in the seven-furlong sprint, Actress, runner-up against maidens following a start in which she got bumped and broke last of 11, and My Miss Tapit closed in on the leaders with Acrtress taking a narrow lead at the top of the stretch. My Miss Tapit put her head in front at the eighth pole and slowly edged clear, winning by 1 1/4 lengths and completing the distance in 1:22.93. Rashette checked in third, two lengths behind the runner-up.
My Miss Tapit, a daughter of Tapit owned by Mathis Stable, was a $550,000 purchase at the Keeneland September sale in 2015.
“We’ve been patient with her. We’ve had some setbacks along the way,” said owner Bill Mathis. “She ran a big maiden race here not that long ago and we thought we’d take a shot to get some black type, and we did. We’ll see how she comes out of the race and see what Todd thinks might be the next best spot, but we’re over-the-moon happy for the moment.”