Tapit breaks his own single-season record for progeny earnings

With more than a month remaining in 2016, two-time reigning leading sire Tapit has again broken his own single-season progeny earnings record for a North American stallion.

The 15-year-old Pulpit horse, who stands at Gainesway Farm in Lexington, Ky., came into Saturday with earnings of $18,371,097. His runners on Saturday included Divining Rod, who earned $100,000 for finishing a close second in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct. That effort pushed Tapit’s seasonal earnings past his previous record of $18,397,691 for 2015.

Tapit led the North American general sire list for the first time in 2014, when his seasonal earnings of $16,813,536 shattered the previous record of $14,358,570 set by the late Smart Strike in 2007.

Tapit, who is the most expensive stallion in North America at an advertised fee of $300,000 for 2017, surpassed the $100 million mark in career progeny earnings earlier this year, and his bankroll currently stands at more than $107.2 million. The stallion’s 88 career stakes winners are led by Eclipse Award champions Untapable, Hansen, and Stardom Bound.

His top-level performers propelling him to a third record season in 2016 include Belmont Stakes winner Creator, his second victor in that classic; Metropolitan Handicap and Whitney winner Frosted; turf filly Time and Motion; and Pretty City Dancer and Sweet Loretta, the dead-heat winners of the Spinaway at Saratoga.

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