Multiple graded stakes winner Tacitus, an earner of more than $3.7 million and a son of perennial leading sire Tapit out of champion older female and five-time Grade 1 winner Close Hatches, will stand stud duty at Taylor Made Stallions at the conclusion of his racing career, the farm announced today.
Owned in partnership by Don Alberto, Juddmonte Farms, and Taylor Made Stallions, Tacitus will stand for a fee of $10,000 S&N; a breeding right program will also be offered.
A Juddmonte Farms homebred trained by Bill Mott, Tacitus is a three-time graded stakes winner who has banked $3,767,350, while recording six triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures. Tacitus came out running as a juvenile and broke his maiden in his second career start at two. From that point forward, Tacitus competed exclusively in graded stakes races for the next three years.
“I knew he had to be a champion when I first jumped on him,” jockey Jose Ortiz told US Racing. “I love everything about him. He's got a great stride, and he's very athletic.”
In 2019, Tacitus enjoyed a spectacular sophomore season, winning the $400,000 Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby in his 3-year-old debut, stopping the clock in the stakes-record time of 1:41.90 for the 1 1/16 miles, just .15 off the track record. Tacitus overcame a troubled trip in winning the $750,000 G2 Wood Memorial Stakes —the same race his sire won—in just his fourth career start.
In racking up impressive back-to-back graded victories in Derby preps at two different tracks, Tacitus vaulted to the top of the leaderboard for the Kentucky Derby. A game third in the Kentucky Derby, defeating Grade 1 winners Improbable, Game Winner, and War of Will, Tacitus remained one of the top 3-year-olds of his generation, finishing second in the Belmont Stakes and the G1 Travers Stakes (G1).
In 2020 at age four, Tacitus proved an ultra-impressive winner of the 1 1/4-mile G2 Suburban Stakes at Belmont Park, overpowering his rivals for an 8 3/4-length victory under a hand ride. His final time for the 1 1/4 miles was a lively 1:59.51.
By a three-time champion sire, Tacitus is produced from Juddmonte's 2014 champion older female Close Hatches, one of the leading fillies of her generation and a direct descendant of 1982 Broodmare of the Year Best in Show. Also trained by Mott, Close Hatches, in her championship season in 2014, recorded successive Grade 1 victories in the Apple Blossom Handicap, the Ogden Phipps Handicap, and the Personal Ensign Stakes en route to career earnings of $2,707,300. Her additional Grade 1 wins came in the 2013 G1 Mother Goose Stakes and that year's G1 Cotillion Stakes.
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