Tapwrit retired from racing, will stand for $12,500

Tapwrit, winner of the 2017 Belmont Stakes, has been retired from racing and has arrived at Gainesway Farm to stand alongside his sire, Tapit, in 2019.

Tapwrit, who will stand for $12,500, is the third son of Tapit, a perennial leading sire who owns the single-season progeny earnings record in North America, to stand at Gainesway. He joins Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Tapizar, the sire of this year's Kentucky Oaks winner Monomoy Girl, and Grade 2 winner Anchor Down, who entered stud this year. Tapwrit is one of three Belmont Stakes winners by Tapit, making him the only stallion in the modern era to accomplish that feat.

“We are excited to be standing a classic-winning son of Tapit,” Gainesway president Antony Beck said in a press release. “Physically, Tapwrit is as impressive of a stallion as you will find. He’s going to have beautiful yearlings and make a tremendous sire.”

Tapwrit, out of Grade 1 winner Appealing Zophie, was a $1.2 million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling purchase and raced for the partnership of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Bridlewood Farm, and Robert LaPenta. It was announced in August 2017 that Gainesway and Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm had acquired interests in the colt and that Gainesway would stand the horse.

Tapwrit won the Pulpit Stakes in December of his 2-year-old season at Gulfstream. He earned his way into the classics scene the following spring by finishing second to McCraken in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes and rolling in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby before finishing a dull fifth in the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes. A troubled sixth in the Kentucky Derby, he rebounded five weeks later to win the Belmont Stakes by two lengths over Irish War Cry.

Tapwrit finished fourth in the Travers Stakes in his only other start of 2017, emerging from the race with a foot injury. He returned to the races in June with a third-place finish in a Belmont optional claiming race, then went unplaced in three graded stakes outings in New York, finishing eighth in the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes on Sept. 1 in what turned out to be his career finale. He retires with earnings of $1,362,402.

“Tapwrit always showed a great deal of ability, but in the Belmont Stakes he demonstrated the class and competitiveness you need to win a classic race,” trainer Todd Pletcher said in a press release. “With his outstanding physical and pedigree, Tapwrit certainly has the credentials to be a top sire.”