Tap It to Win will shorten up to seven furlong in Grade 1 Jerkens

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – Tap It to Win was back on the work tab Monday for the first time since his fifth-place effort in the Belmont Stakes 23 days ago, breezing an easy half-mile in 48.00 over the main track at Saratoga.

Tap It to Win set the pace for the opening mile before tiring to finish 14 lengths behind Tiz the Law in the Belmont Stakes, which was shortened to 1 1/8 miles and run as the opening leg of the Triple Crown this year on June 20. The lightly raced son of Tapit earned a berth in the race after winning a first-level allowance race by five lengths going 1 1/16 miles while earning a 97 Beyer Speed Figure two weeks earlier. John Velazquez rode him in both races.

Trainer Mark Casse said Monday he intends to run Tap It to Win next in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens at seven furlongs here on Aug. 1.

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“Johnny said he wasn’t the same horse in the Belmont that he was in the previous race,” Casse said. “The fractions were really not crazy. Maybe the previous race took a little too much out of him. You never can tell.

“So now we’ll just regroup. We don’t have a lot of choices. I don’t want to be running him in the Travers or Haskell or races like that, so we’ll try him sprinting. He won very impressively at six furlongs over this track last summer, so we’ll shorten him up next time and see.”