Uncle Sigh has half-mile 'mini-breeze' at Churchill

"It didn't start out to be, but it definitely ended up

being one. It was a mini-breeze," Contessa said. "I backed him up

at the quarter-pole, galloped him around. I broke him off at the

half. He went 14 seconds from the half to the three-eighths. Then he

picked it up to almost 12 and 4, so he went 26 and change for the

quarter.

"Then -- I was on the walkie with the rider -- I said, 'Don't move.' Then he

went 13, 13 home, so he went 52-and-3."

Uncle Sigh was equipped with blinkers, with which he'll run for the first time in Saturday's Kentucky Derby.

Tapiture galloped an easy one mile around 6:15 a.m. (EDT) with regular

exercise rider Abel Flores up. It was the Grade 2 winner's

first time back to the track since his memorable half-mile work

through a violent thunderstorm Monday morning.

"First day back from our little water-soaked breeze and I thought he went really well," trainer Steve Asmussen said.

"At this stage I think there's plenty in him. I just want to keep

him nice and relaxed and loose."

Tapiture schooled in the paddock Tuesday afternoon during the 7TH race and seemed especially concerned

with the track's public address system.

"He was pretty anxious," Asmussen said. "It was the first time we were schooling him since we've been here this meet

and I look for him to be a little bit more relaxed today. Whether

he goes back one or two more times I don't know."

Tapiture is a special horse to Asmussen for reasons beyond his talent. Throughout his pedigree and history are links

to former Asmussen-trained horses, including several broken and

readied for the racetrack at the Asmussen Horse Center owned by the conditioner's parents, Keith and Marilyn Asmussen, near the

border town of Laredo, Texas.

Tapit, sire of both Tapiture and the Asmussen-trained Kentucky Oaks favorite Untapable, was purchased by Ron Winchell as a yearling in 2002. Ron Winchell's father,

donut king Verne Winchell, sent talented young horses to Laredo for

breaking and educating for years, dating back to the late 1980s. Ron

Winchell elected to continue the arrangement after Verne Winchell died that year and

sent his talented gray to Keith and Marilyn Asmussen before the colt

went on to win graded stakes at two and three, including the 2004

Wood Memorial under the care of Michael Dickinson.

Tapiture's dam, Free Spin, is a Winchell homebred and also was raised in Laredo. That mare is by Olympio, a

six-time graded stakes winner in Southern California in the early 1990s,

who also was a Winchell homebred and, of course, learned to be a

racehorse in Laredo.

Tapit's first U.S. winner was a Winchell homebred named Retap, who Asmussen

trained to a debut win at Churchill Downs as a juvenile in May 2008 and who would go on to win that year's

Riley Allison Futurity at Sunland Park.

"It's a fabulous story," Asmussen said. "It's just such a family tree that our family is so connected with, with all

of those horses going through my parents' place in Laredo. And then

Dad sends (Tapiture) up to me in the summer and Dad was so high

on him. The horse was such a good athlete. For him to be down

to the select 20 of his foal crop, it's very special."

In the five years his progeny have been racing, Tapit has sired 13 Grade 1 winners. If there is any quality in common between Tapiture, Untapable and most of the other Tapits that

Asmussen has been around, it's simply their "immense ability," he said.

"When you have a good Tapit, they're faster than the rest," Asmussen said. "They just are. I think we've seen races

like that from several of them through the years and what we're looking to

do is just get better at handling them and keeping them around and get

more of those types of races out of them."

"As soon as we changed his name he woke up and started coming around," Baffert said.

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