Bet down to even-money favoritism off a 10 1/2-length maiden conquest
With Garrett Gomez now settling him into a comfortable rhythm up
“I thought I would be laying second,” Gomez recapped. “He was a
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“I felt like I was loaded. When I started to turn for home, the gate was
parked on the outside and there was a lot of stuff going on. When I asked him to
pick it up, I couldn’t quite get his focus going, but nothing ever got close
enough to make him pay attention, either. Hopefully, he has many more gears. He
traveled beautiful, and he’s a beautiful mover. It was a pleasure to be on him
today.”
“I was very concerned when they put up the (fractional) times,” Asmussen
admitted, “but honestly, if I wouldn’t have looked up at the board, I wouldn’t
have been. I thought he was away from the gate very kindly. I watched the break;
he broke on his feet but he wasn’t being extremely aggressive.
“I think the race track’s just yielding extremely fast times. His work the
other morning indicated how sharp he was right now, that :47 and change (:47 1/5
for a half-mile on Thursday). We want him to be handy, and I think now, keeping
him healthy, if he can go far enough, and keep improving with the distances, are
the questions we have.”
Tapizar paid $4.20, $2.80 and $2.10 while spearheading the $1 exotics —
$6.60 (exacta) and $18.90 (4-1-3 trifecta). Clubhouse Ride, the 7-2 third
choice, returned $3.40 and $2.20.
Jockey Patrick Valenzuela was pleased with the effort of Clubhouse Ride, who
was himself five lengths clear in second.
“We ran a good race,” Valenzuela said. “The track is favoring speed and that
horse (Tapizar) went out there pretty fast and kept running. I was very happy
with the way Clubhouse Ride ran. He’s (Tapizar) the speed favorite on the
racetrack, and for him (Clubhouse Ride) to close that much ground and almost get
to the leader at the top of the lane…the leader just kept rolling.”
Anthony’s Cross (Indian Charlie) collared Uncle Sam late for third by a
half-length, yielding $2.60 at 5-1, and Pride of Silver (Badge of Silver)
trailed throughout.
Tapizar improved his record to 5-2-0-1, $105,632. The bay colt, who has raced
exclusively around two turns, took some time to learn his craft. A fading third
in his August 22 debut at Monmouth, he stumbled and unseated his rider back at
the Jersey Shore on September 19. Tapizar next showed up at Churchill, finishing
fourth behind Anthony’s Cross on November 4. The proverbial light bulb came on
over the subsequent three weeks, for he was an entirely different specimen when
finally breaking his maiden under the Twin Spires.
The Kentucky-bred is out of the winning Deputy Minister mare Winning Call,
who has since produced a yearling colt by Zanjero. Tapizar’s second dam is Grade
2 queen Call Now (Wild Again), a full sister to stakes scorer Your Call and a
half-sister to Grade 1-winning millionaire and sire Olympio (Naskra). This is
the black-type rich family of Grade 1 winners Paddy O’Prado (El Prado [Ire]),
Cuvee (Carson City) and Pyro (Pulpit), who was himself once a top Derby
candidate for Asmussen, but wound up eighth behind Big Brown in 2008.
Asmussen will keep Tapizar at Santa Anita.
“Absolutely,” the trainer said. “With the races that he ran at the end of
Churchill, I thought he was ideal for the (three-year-old) series that’s here.
He had two-turn races in him and he could just stay at two turns and just try to
continue on.
“The horse gives us a lot of confidence in that he can do more. He’s
talented, but there’s a lot of kid to him, a lot of playfulness in him.”