Texas Mile sets up for Taptowne, Bourbon Courage

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Taptowne, who is on the cusp of graded success, and Bourbon Courage, looking to recapture that type of form, could both get favorable pace scenarios Saturday night when they meet in the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile at Lone Star Park. Taptowne might get an ideal tracking trip behind Grand Contender and Forest Mouse, while honest fractions would suit the late-running Bourbon Courage.

The Texas Mile is the meet’s co-richest race alongside next month’s Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap. The field of nine for the Texas Mile, which includes Stachys, Skip the Pino, and Smack Ridge, has won a collective 21 stakes and earned $3.6 million.

Taptowne, a three-time stakes winner, enters off a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Razorback at Oaklawn on March 15. The start was his first since he captured the $150,000 Swatara at Penn National on Nov. 27, with a Beyer Speed Figure of 102.

“I think he moves up a lot off that first race at Oaklawn,” trainer Tim Glyshaw said. “A couple of things happened. The plan was to run in the Essex [in February], and the Razorback would have been his second race of the year. We couldn’t run in the Essex because he missed a week of training,” due to the weather.

Glyshaw sent Taptowne to Lone Star the day after the Oaklawn meet ended April 12, with the goal of trying to nail down the horse’s first graded win. There have been some close calls, such as runner-up finishes in last year’s Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap, Grade 3 Cornhusker, and Grade 3 Ack Ack.

Taptowne will break from post 5 under Calvin Borel, with Grand Contender, runner-up in the Grade 3 Mineshaft at Fair Grounds, and Forest Mouse, a winner of his last three starts, both breaking to his inside. Bourbon Courage, meanwhile, drew post 6.

Bourbon Courage is the most accomplished member of the field, thanks to his Grade 2 win in the 2012 Super Derby. He has not won in 10 starts since, but not for lack of trying. Bourbon Courage has placed in four graded stakes during that period, including fourths in both the Grade 1 Clark and the Grade 1 Donn, a race which went in track-record time at Gulfstream. Bourbon Courage was third in another Gulfstream race that went in track-record time this winter, the $100,000 Harlan’s Holiday.

“It’s just kind of the way it’s been going for us, and we’d like to change it,” trainer Kellyn Gorder said.

Gorder removed blinkers for Bourbon Courage’s last start, equipment he did not wear in the Super Derby. The horse is also being reunited with Leandro Goncalves, who rode him to victory at Louisiana Downs. The race Saturday comes on the heels of Bourbon Courage’s fast-closing second in an Oaklawn allowance, a race that did not set up for him.

“There was another speed horse that scratched out kind of late – there were a couple of scratches – and [winner] Joy Boy kind of got loose on the lead,” Gorder said. “He just wasn’t able to run him down.

“I think they’ll be plenty of pace in this race.”

Forest Mouse won an optional $50,000 claiming route at Sunland Park on March 23.

“He went to the lead, relaxed on the lead, and when they came up to him then he went off again,” trainer Henry Dominguez said.