Untapable has first work of 4-year-old season

Untapable, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2014 and expected to be one of the leading older female dirt-route horses in the country this season, had the first timed workout of her 4-year-old season, going an easy half-mile Monday at Fair Grounds.

Coming out with trainer Steve Asmussen’s second set of horses following the renovation break, Untapable worked by herself just after 9 a.m. Monday. Track clockers timed her in splits of 13.60 seconds, 26.20, and 39.40 en route to an official four-furlong clocking of 51.80.

The 4-year-old colt Tapiture, the supporting actor to Untapable’s leading lady, had his first work of the year a few minutes afterward. In a similarly designed drill, Tapiture went a half-mile in 52.20, with splits of 14.10, 27, and 39.30, according to track clockers.

“They’re training super,” said Asmussen, who trains both homebreds for Winchell Thoroughbreds. “Very happy to have them back going. This is just a starting point.”

Untapable was an easy choice for champion 3-year-old filly last year, with wins in all of her sex-restricted races, including four Grade 1s and a season-ending 1 1/2-length score in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Untapable, who won the Kentucky Oaks by more than four lengths, finished fifth as the 7-5 favorite behind the runaway winner Bayern in the Haskell Invitational last summer, her only loss of 2014 and her lone try against males.

Tapiture had a strong season in his own right, earning almost $1.25 million while winning two graded stakes. His top performance of the season probably came in defeat, when his rally in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile fell 1 1/4 lengths short of the victorious Goldencents.

Following the Breeders’ Cup, Untapable and Tapiture went to their owner’s Corinthia Farm in Kentucky for a rest, returning to Asmussen’s barn at Fair Grounds in mid-December. Both galloped steadily into Monday’s works and surely will pick up the pace in the coming weeks.

No plans for either horse’s early 2015 campaign have been disclosed.

“Their first race back is still a ways away and discussions away,” Asmussen said.

The Grade 1 Apple Blossom on April 10 at Oaklawn is the premier early-season race in Untapable’s division.

– additional reporting by Bob Fortus