Tagg making plans for promising juveniles

ELMONT, N.Y. – After a terrific Saratoga meet where he won 7 races from 19 starters, trainer Barclay Tagg was back at Belmont Park on Thursday making fall plans for many of those runners.

Three of Tagg’s winners were 2-year-olds: Realm, Tale of S’avall and Highland Sky. Realm, who got the meet rolling with a 1 3/4-length victory July 25, came out of the race with a few minor issues and has only recently resumed training.

Tale of S’avall, a son of Tale of Ekati who won a Travers Day maiden race by two lengths, is being pointed to the Grade 1 Champagne on Oct. 3.

“I think he’s a pretty nice horse,” Tagg said. “He had a nice, clean trip. He didn’t dominate them like Ruffian.”

Highland Sky, who won a turf maiden race going 1 1/16 miles, likely will make his next start in the Pilgrim Stakes on Sept. 26.

Tagg said one reason why he was more effective with 2-year-olds this summer was because they came to him in April as opposed to June or July.

Tagg said he thinks he may have some other nice 2-year-olds to run at the Belmont fall meet, including Tale of Mist, a half-brother to the Grade 1 winner Tonalist; Tale for Ruby, who finished fifth in her debut at Saratoga; and Beaukati and Royal Ekati.

The Tagg-trained Speightstown Time, a debut-winning son of Speightstown, was one of nine 3-year-olds entered in Sunday’s $100,000 Allied Forces Stakes going six furlongs on turf at Belmont.