Tapit's birthday celebrated with two Kentucky Derby prep wins

Tapit, one of North America’s perennial leading sires, turned 20 on Saturday. The Gainesway stallion celebrated by sweeping Saturday’s Kentucky Derby preps, as Eclipse Award champion Essential Quality returned a winner at Oaklawn Park and Greatest Honour continued his march through the Gulfstream Park prep series.

Godolphin homebred Essential Quality became the fifth individual Eclipse champion for Tapit last year, with wins in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He remained unbeaten in four career starts with a 4 1/4-length win in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes on Saturday on a sloppy, sealed track. It was the third consecutive victory at 1 1/16 miles for the colt, who is from the immediate family of Japanese Triple Crown winner Contrail and Eclipse champion filly Folklore.

Greatest Honour, a Courtlandt Farm homebred from the immediate family of Belmont Stakes winners Rags to Riches and Jazil, has also won three consecutive races at 1 1/16 miles. After winning his maiden, he took the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream, then continued on to win Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.

:: KENTUCKY DERBY 2021: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more

“He’s won twice down here now in stakes doing what he doesn’t want to do, and that’s a mile and a sixteenth,” trainer Shug McGaughey said. “Like [jockey Jose Ortiz] said, I’m glad these mile-and-a-sixteenth [races] are behind us. We’ll be looking forward to getting him stretched out. ... Hopefully as we keep going longer he’ll keep improving. The farther the better for him.”

Indeed, Tapit is the sire of three winners of the Belmont Stakes, the longest American classic at 1 1/2 miles, in Tonalist (2014), Creator (2016), and Tapwrit (2017). He is the only sire in the modern history of the race represented by that many winners, and one of just five stallions to sire three or more winners of the Belmont, the oldest American classic. The great Lexington holds the all-time record in the race, with four winners in 1868, 1870, 1871, and 1878. Three other stallions have sired three Belmont winners – Australian (1872, 1873, and 1879), Fair Play (1920, 1924, and 1927) and Man o’ War (1925, 1926, and 1937).

Tapit is also the sire of Tacitus, elevated to third in the 2019 Kentucky Derby before finishing second in the Belmont; 2015 Preakness third-place finisher Divining Rod; 2016 Belmont third-place finisher Lani; and 2018 Belmont third-place finisher Hofburg.