Tapwrit may be out for season with foot injury

ELMONT, N.Y. – Tapwrit, the Belmont Stakes winner, came out of his fourth-place finish in the Travers Stakes on Aug 26 with an injured right front foot that will sideline him for the immediate future and potentially could end his 3-year-old season, co-owner Aron Wellman said Wednesday.

Wellman said Tapwrit shed his frog – the bottom part of the foot that acts like a shock absorber – on his right front foot and has been sent to Dr. Larry Bramlage at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky. for further evaluation “so we can get a timetable on what he believes it will take for it to heal so that we can assess his status,” Wellman said.

Wellman is president of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which owns Tapwrit along with Robert LaPenta, Bridlewood Farm, Gainesway Farm, and Mandy Pope.

Tapwrit, trained by Todd Pletcher, was nominated to the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 23, but he definitely will not make that race, Wellman said. The Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup is on Oct. 7 at Belmont Park, but that sounded doubtful as well.

“The Pennsylvania Derby is definitely out of the question, beyond that we are taking it day by day, essentially,” Wellman said. “The horse is well, he’s happy, his energy’s good, he’s sending us all the right signals, but the frog is an issue we’re up against at the moment.”

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Tapwrit will be brought back as a 4-year-old.

“At the end of the day, we’re just going to do what’s best for the horse,” Wellman said. “If he’s able to be at his best in a big race before the end of the year, then we’ll give him that opportunity. If not, we certainly think he’s a colt that’s only going to get more and more progressive into his 4-year-old campaign. Our goal is certainly to establish him as one of the top older horses next year, if not the top older horse next year.”

In addition to winning the Belmont this year, Tapwrit also won the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby. He finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby and was fourth, beaten eight lengths, in the Travers.

Wellman said that Destin, second by a nose to Creator in last year’s Belmont Stakes, is likely to make his next start in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Destin is coming off an allowance win at Saratoga on Aug. 23.

Wellman said the Awesome Again on Sept. 30 at Santa Anita is also an option for Destin.

“But we’re leaning more heavily toward staying home for the Jockey Club Gold Cup over his home track where obviously he’s performed well in the past,” Wellman said.