The old Thoroughbred axiom “breed the best to the best and hope for the best” is applied thousands of times in Central Kentucky each breeding season, and the vast majority of the time, expectations and results don't see eye-to-eye.
If they did, betting on this game would be a lot less fun.
Even in the face of those staggering odds, breeding the best to the best remains one of the most reliable ways to produce an elite runner, and that philosophy led Gainesway general manager Brian Graves to one of the sport's most enviable locations: the Keeneland turf course after a Grade 1 race, waiting to receive a horse for a win picture.
Tapit Trice has been a resounding victory for Gainesway's breeding operation from the jump, selling at auction for seven figures, winning multiple graded stakes races en route to a projected start in the Kentucky Derby, and carrying the banner for cornerstone Gainesway sire Tapit every step of the way.
Tapit Trice is a son of the three-time leading general sire, out of the Grade 3-placed multiple stakes winner Danzatrice – a half-sister to champion Jaywalk – who raced for Gainesway owner Antony Beck.
The mating that produced Tapit Trice occurred in the months following Jaywalk's Eclipse Award-winning season, and with a pedigree page update that big, Graves said sending Danzatrice to Gainesway's franchise player was an easy decision.
“It was simple, we just bred one of our best mares to our best stallion,” he said. “It was a family that Antony bought into when he had Danzatrice, and it grew, and it's exciting today. We're going to the Derby.”
Though it was a meeting of elites when the mating occurred, Danzatrice was not always the commercial sure thing that she would become. Bred in Kentucky by Glenn Justiss, the daughter of Dunkirk sold as a weanling for $5,500 late in the 2012 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. A year later, she was purchased by Grassroots Training and Sales for $10,000 – hardly breaking the bank.
Danzatrice's commercial fortunes turned, though, as she reached her 2-year-old season. After clocking an eighth of a mile in 10 1/5 seconds during the under-tack show, the filly caught the eye of Peachtree Stables' John Fort, who recommended her to Beck. The hammer fell for $105,000, and Danzatrice was placed in the barn of trainer Cathal Lynch.
Danzatrice excelled on the Mid-Atlantic circuit, winning three of her first four starts, including her debut as a 2-year-old and the Parx Oaks in May of her 3-year-old season. She then made an ambitious jump to graded stakes competition, and finished fourth in the G1 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park. Following an out-of-the-money effort in the G3 Delaware Oaks, Danzatrice was sidelined for 15 months.
When she appeared in the entries again, it was with Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen at Delta Downs, where she smacked around an allowance field by 6 1/2 lengths before returning to local stakes competition, and eventually hitting spots throughout the Southwest. Danzatrice raced through her 5-year-old campaign, and she closed her career with a win in the listed Iowa Distaff Stakes at Prairie Meadows and a third in the Grade 3 Groupie Doll Stakes at Ellis Park. She retired with seven wins in 15 starts for earnings of $312,145.
Danzatrice joined the Gainesway broodmare band in 2018, and she was sent to Lane's End resident Union Rags for her first mating, which produced a placed colt named General Strike.
Then, Jaywalk became a champion, and Danzatrice's broodmare resume took the kind of leap that made scheduling a spot in Tapit's book a logical decision.
“Her pedigree got better with Jaywalk, and we didn't see that coming,” Graves said. “She was a 2-year-old that John Fort bought for us to race for a modest price, but she could run, she had ability, and when you combine a mare that had ability with Tapit, you can get anything, and this horse proves it.”
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If you appreciate our work, you can support us by subscribing to our Patreon stream. Learn more.Tapit, a Grade 1-winning son of Pulpit, was the preeminent North American sire of the 2010s, and he remains a pantheon-level sire of runners and commercial horses in the 2020s.
Tapit owns North American record for most lifetime progeny earnings by a sire, spearheaded by leading the general sire list by progeny earnings each year from 2014 to 2016. His four Belmont Stakes winners ties him with the legendary sire Lexington for the most ever, while his seven Breeders' Cup winners is tied for the most in that event's history.
On the commercial side, Tapit's peak stud fee of $300,000 through the mid-to-late 2010s made him the most expensive stallion in North America. He is regularly responsible for seven-figure offerings at yearling and 2-year-old sales, and his progeny have topped practically every North American sale where a horse might tangle with the million-dollar mark.
This is all to say, any mare that gets a date with Tapit faces daunting expectations to produce a home run horse in the sale ring or on the racetrack – preferably both.
Fortunately, Tapit Trice has thus far stood up to every test.
Born on Feb. 17, 2020 – just moments before COVID-19 moved from the health section to the front page – Tapit Trice quickly established himself as a standout among Gainesway's crop of youngsters. He was targeted for the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, and the auction company's selection team placed the colt in Book 1 of its catalog; the top-dollar stratosphere of the marathon sale, and of the overall North American Thoroughbred marketplace. Gainesway's consignment wing handled Tapit Trice at the auction.
“He was the best colt we raised that year,” Graves said. “He was the colt we thought would make a big splash at the sale. We took him to the sale, and he found the eyes of Mike Repole and Mandy Pope, and the top people in the business, and when the smoke cleared, Mandy won. She approached us and asked if we'd be interested in staying in, and the answer was yes. We're hopeful about his future, and where we go from here.”
Pope's Whisper Hill Farm secured Tapit Trice for $1.3 million, which made him the most expensive son of Tapit to go through that year's sale, and tied him for the sixth highest-priced overall offering of the 2021 Keeneland September sale.
Though Pope is known for making splashy purchases at auctions, she has also proven more than willing to partner up on horses, both as the principal member on a horse she owns, or as an incoming member of an existing group. Teaming with Gainesway was a natural next step when she signed the ticket on Tapit Trice.
Whisper Hill and Gainesway have been linked together for over a decade, stretching back to Pope landing Horse of the Year Havre de Grace for $10 million at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton November Sale and sending the mare to Tapit for her first mating.
They developed into steady business partners in the years that followed, with the highest-profile flashpoint coming in the summer of 2017 when Gainesway and Pope bought into the ownership group of Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit, which already included Bridlewood Farm, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, and Robert LaPenta. Tapwrit entered stud at Gainesway at the end of his racing career, and Whisper Hill is the breeder of one of his top runners to date: stakes winner Taylors Tap.
Graves said the relationship between Pope and Gainesway developed organically, and as their success grew, so too did their partnership.
“We had a few partnership mares together, and we've always appreciated Mandy's confidence in us,” Graves said. “She really deserves this horse. She's been one of Tapit's biggest fans. Besides Gainesway, she's probably bred to Tapit more than anybody in this business, and I think he's about to reward her. She's got about 10 Tapit mares, and this horse (Tapit Trice), and Charge It. We treat Mandy like family and she treats us like family, and we keep growing.”
Partnering on a seven-figure colt with a farm that boasts a prominent stallion operation often comes with the expectation that the colt will have a stall waiting for him in the stud barn if his race record merits the consideration, and it's likely a safe assumption that Tapit Trice will have a place beside his sire at Gainesway at the end of his racing career, especially now that he's a Grade 1 winner. He added the Blue Grass to a resume that already featured a late-closing score in the G3 Tampa Bay Derby in March.
Tapit Trice will head to Churchill Downs as one of the most serious win candidates in the field. For everything his sire has accomplished at stud, getting a Kentucky Derby winner has thus far eluded him.
That's a lot of pressure for a horse to carry into the starting gate, but Tapit Trice has already proven himself sturdy against the expectations of his family name. In fact, all of those tests might have put him in a position to unfurl the best parts of his pedigree on Derby day.
“He looks like a horse that'll run all day,” Graves said. “I don't think there's any limitation to how far he'll run. We're hopeful that a mile and a quarter is a real sweet spot. Today's you're just dreaming about getting a good trip in the Derby.”
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