After a relatively quiet year in the classics during 2020, Tapit is loaded for this year's preps to the classic races of 2021. In addition to the champion juvenile colt, Essential Quality, the multiple leading sire added a new graded stakes winner to his list of accomplishments when Greatest Honour won the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 30.
The sire of 141 stakes winners, Tapit now has a pair of graded stakes winners among his classic prospects, along with Proxy, who was second in the G3 Lecomte Stakes at the Fair Grounds on Jan. 16. Although Tapit did not get a classic winner last year, his son Constitution did, with Tiz the Law winning the Belmont Stakes and finishing second in the Kentucky Derby to Horse of the Year Authentic (by Into Mischief), and Tapit's son Tapiture sired Jesus' Team, who ran third in the Preakness and was recently second in the Pegasus.
Now Tapit has fired up a progressive classic prospect in the tall, scopey Greatest Honour, who swept round his competition on the turn in the Holy Bull, then pulled away to win by 5 3/4 lengths in the race at a mile and a sixteenth. Trainer Shug McGaughey said, “He picked up his horses quick today. I think the farther we go, the better.”
The big bay's racing style certainly indicates he will be suited to classic distances, and the colt's pedigree backs that up in spades.
Bred in Kentucky by the Courtlandt Farm of Donna and Donald Adam, Greatest Honour is out of the Street Cry mare Tiffany's Honour. The mare didn't finish in the money in any of her three starts for owner-breeder Southern Equine, but when consigned to the 2015 Fasig-Tipton November sale in foal to Tapit, Tiffany's Honour was bought back for $2.3 million. Courtlandt Farm acquired the mare privately, and the mare's first foal was a Tapit colt who died.
The second foal out of Tiffany's Honour is the 4-year-old War Front gelding Semifinal, who brought $1.1 million at the 2018 Keeneland September yearling sale. He is unplaced from two starts and was vanned off the racetrack after the second.
Greatest Honour is the mare's third foal, and he won his maiden in his fourth start, going 8.5 furlongs on dirt at Gulfstream Park on Dec. 26. Although clearly more talented for two turns, Greatest Honour is not afflicted with a case of the slows. He was twice third in maiden specials at Saratoga and Belmont; each time, the second horse was Caddo River (Hard Spun), who won the listed Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn on Jan. 22.
In his third start, going nine furlongs at Aqueduct on Nov. 8, Greatest Honour was second by a head to the Curlin colt Known Agenda, with the third horse 21 lengths farther behind. The penny had dropped, and Greatest Honour has won his next two starts.
The size, the scope, the lack of sprint speed, and yet the ability to show form late at two and improve markedly at three is the trademark of the A.P. Indy line of classic stock. And it's not coincidental that the best racehorse in the second generation of this pedigree is A.P. Indy's Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches, a winner in five of seven starts, four times at the Grade 1 level (Belmont, Kentucky Oaks, Santa Anita Oaks, Las Virgenes).
Rags to Riches and Belmont Stakes winner Jazil (Seeking the Gold) are elder siblings to Tiffany's Honour, who was the ninth and next-to-last foal out of their dam, the splendid racehorse and producer Better Than Honour (Deputy Minister). Winner of the G2 Demoiselle at two, Better Than Honour was second in the G1 Acorn and third in the G1 Mother Goose at three. At stud, she produced four stakes winners. In addition to her two Belmont Stakes winners, Better Than Honour is dam of Casino Drive (Mineshaft), winner of the G2 Peter Pan, and Man of Iron (Giant's Causeway), winner of the Breeders' Cup Marathon.
This family fairly reeks of stamina, but it responds well when matched with high-class speed, which is what happened with the mating of French champion and leading sire Blushing Groom (Red God) to fourth dam Best in Show. The result was Greatest Honour's third dam, G1 Kentucky Oaks winner Blush With Pride, who also won the G1 Santa Susana, was second in the G1 Spinster, and third in the G1 Mother Goose.
At stud, Blush With Pride produced three stakes winners, and this is the family of four-time G1 winner Peeping Fawn (Danehill), a granddaughter of Blush With Pride, and of G1 Hollywood Starlet winner Streaming (Smart Strike), a granddaughter of Better Than Honour.
The esteem in which breeders hold this family is evident from the sales prices of its members, and after Tiffany's Honour produced Greatest Honour, Courtlandt sent the mare to the 2018 Keeneland November sale. In foal to Medaglia d'Oro, Tiffany's Honour brought $2.2 million from Katsumi Yoshida, and the mare was exported to Japan. Tiffany's Honour foaled a filly in April 2019, was barren from a cover to Duramente for 2020, and was bred to the Deep Impact son Kizuna last year for a 2021 foal.
Greatest Honour has already provided a major update for his siblings, and the classics await. This colt is strengthening and should be a better horse in three months than he is today.
The post Bloodlines Presented By Diamond B Farm’s Rowayton: Greatest Honour Was Built For Classic Success appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
