Sean Tugel | Horse Racing Free Tips

Sean Tugel Talks Tapit On Writers’ Room

In a crowded and often fickle stallion landscape, one North American sire at Gainesway Farm has stood out above all the rest for over a decade strong now. He may not win the general sires title every year, but no stallion in this country has produced the consistent excellence of Tapit since he went to stud in 2005, and Saturday was yet another elite-level reminder when his champion son Essential Quality streaked across the wire as his remarkable fourth GI Belmont S. winner. Wednesday morning, Gainesway's director of stallion sales and recruitment Sean Tugel joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to discuss the gray giant's everlasting and ever-improving legacy.

“It's a real pleasure and privilege to get to work in this business and be so close to an absolute legend,” said Tugel, calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week. “I can remember when I first came to Kentucky and Storm Cat was still breeding and commanding $500,000. I would take mares over there when I was at Hill 'n' Dale and you just remember that allure of a legendary stallion. Tapit is that now. You're in awe of him. Every year, he continues to raise his stature and produce champions. He's a horse that makes people's dreams come alive.”

Tapit is on pace to pass Giant's Causeway and become the all-time leading North American sire at some point this summer, as his progeny have banked, at last count, $170,556,107 on the racetrack (Giant's Causeway sits at $172,393,625). Tugel talked about what that would mean for the farm and the Beck family, whose patriarch Graham Beck bought Gainesway from founder John R. Gaines in 1989.

“One thing about Gainesway is it's steeped in the history of the game,” Tugel said. “Part of our farm is the old Greentree facility and farm of the Whitney family. So horses like Peter Pan, Domino, some unbelievable stallions have stood here. When Mr. Gaines had the farm he stood Lyphard, Riverman, Cozzene. Now there's a new chapter in the long history of Gainesway with the Beck family, who have stood what is arguably the best sire of modern history. For him to be the all-time leading North American sire, that's what Mr. Beck bought the farm for and what his son Antony has been able to carry on the legacy with. So for them, I don't think anything would be more special.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, the Minnesota Racehorse Engagement Project and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers reacted to a monster Belmont Day card, questioned the merits of the latest legal action by Bob Baffert and Amr Zedan, and remembered the great Rick Porter. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Spun To Run Looks to Build Upon Dirt Mile Success

In just its first 14 years of running, the GI Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile has emerged as a stallion-making race and in recent years, its winners are making top headlines as they kick off their stud careers.

Goldencents (Into Mischief), winner of both the 2013 and 2014 edition, now leads his class of third-crop sires. The following year’s winner, Liam’s Map (Unbridled’s Song), is already a two-time Grade I producer with his first crop of 3-year-olds while 2016 champion Tamarkuz (Speightstown) now has a Grade III winner in his first crop of juveniles. The subsequent winners in the late Battle of Midway (Smart Strike) and City of Light (Quality Road) are still waiting for their first runners, but initial first crops are already turning heads both on the farm and in the sales ring.

Last year’s Dirt Mile Champion Spun to Run (Hard Spun) retired to Gainesway Farm this year and will stand his initial season at stud for $12,500.

“Spun to Run is a horse that we’re very excited about,” said Gainesway’s Director of Stallion Sales and Recruitment Sean Tugel. “Certainly his Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile win was his marquee victory and he did it very easily. He did it by widening lengths. On that day he ran a 109 Beyer and he certainly made everyone realize the type of talent he had.”

Spun to Run broke first at last year’s championship meet at Santa Anita and was never passed, besting a field that included Grade I winners Omaha Beach (War Front) and Improbable (City Zip), as well as Coal Front (Stay Thirsty) and Mr. Money (Goldencents).

Prior to his Breeders’ Cup victory, the Juan Carlos Guerrero-trainee blossomed in the later half of his sophomore season, finishing third in the GI Haskell Invitational S. behind Maximum Security (New Year’s Day) before taking the GIII Smarty Jones S. and later earning a 110 Beyer in the M.P Ballezzi Appreciation Mile S.

“It was a very strong 3-year-old campaign,” Tugel said. “He ran a `zero’ five times on Thorographs, which was very good. He’s a horse that showed brilliance, and brilliance makes sires.”

Following his Breeders’ Cup victory, Spun to Run wrapped up his sophomore season with a runner-up effort behind Maximum Security in the GI Cigar Mile H. While prepping for the 2020 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational, an injury forced the dark bay to scratch and ultimately retire.

“It was bad timing,” Tugel said. “[Owner Bob Donaldson] had a big 4-year-old campaign planned out for him. Unfortunately it didn’t go as the owner had hoped, but that allowed us to go out and get him. It was an injury that took time to come back from, and unfortunately he missed the breeding season and the racing season this year. But certainly he’s a young horse still, he’s turning five, and he’s let down beautifully in his time off from training. I think people are going to be very excited when they see him.”

The son of Hard Spun is out of the stakes-winning Grand Slam mare Yawkey Way and his half-sister Tap It All (Tapizar) is also a stakes winner.

“Certainly the Danzig sire line has been a sire line that has been dominant throughout the world, not only in America but in Australia and Europe,” Tugel said. “The fact that his first three dams are all juvenile winners and his first dam was a juvenile stakes winner at Saratoga makes it very exciting to think that speed and precocity is going to be passed on through his offspring.”

Tugel added that he finds Spun to Run to represent the best blend of Grand Slam and Hard Spun.

“He has a beautiful shoulder and a beautiful amount of bone,” he said. “You see a lot of that Grand Slam and Gone West in through his neckline and jaw. The strength of his hind leg is a great benefit that he gets from his bottom side. He’s a beautiful mover and he has a lot of leg to him. I think he’s a true miler, and milers make stallions.”

Tugel said that breeders have been impressed by the million-dollar-earning miler as he nears the start of his stud career.

“The breeders that have seen him so far have really liked him,” he said. “He’s a horse that kind of grabs your imagination as soon as you see him. He has a personality and an intelligence. He’s a horse that captivates the breeders when he walks out and that’s what drew us to him.”

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McKinzie’s Journey from Juvenile Star to the Gainesway Roster

Since his maiden-breaking ‘TDN Rising Star’-worthy juvenile debut, McKinzie had caught the eye of Gainesway Farm.

But according to Gainesway’s Director of Stallion Sales and Recruitment Sean Tugel, the son of Street Sense had the attention of nearly every top stud farm in the country.

“He was on everybody’s radar from the very beginning,” he said. “Any time you see one win first time out from Bob Baffert’s barn, you have to recognize it.”

McKinzie’s resume only improved from there over the next three years before he retired in October of this year, cementing his place on the Gainesway stallion roster.

A $170,000 Keeneland September purchase by Karl Watson, Michael Pegram and Paul Weitman, McKinzie was named in honor of Brad McKinzie, an executive at Los Alamitos and longtime friend of Baffert.

Following his maiden victory, a disqualification elevated the colt as the winner of the GI Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity S., leaving him undefeated as a juvenile.

While he continued the winning streak in his next start in the GIII Sham S. at three, the bay was later shelved and forced off the Classic trail, but then returned with a vengeance for the second half of his sophomore season in the GI Pennsylvania Derby, and later a near five-length win in the GI Malibu S.

“He showed his extreme ability when he won the Pennsylvania Derby at a mile and an eighth, and then came back and won the Malibu at seven furlongs, showing that versatility,” Tugel said. “The Malibu was certainly one of his marquee victories. He exploded down the lane at the eighth pole and separated himself from a deep group of horses. You see very few horses able to separate themselves from a field going seven furlongs like that, and it just showed his brilliance.”

McKinzie got his signature win as an older horse last year in the GI Whitney, earning a 111 Beyer Figure and defeating the likes of eventual Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Vino Rosso (Curlin) and Grade I winner Yoshida (Jpn) (Heart’s Cry {Jpn}).

“He ran 11 triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures, but his Whitney victory was his career best. He defeated multiple Grade I winners, and he did it easily,” Tugel said.

With Grade I wins at two through four, McKinzie came back this year at five and added the GII Triple Bend S. to his resume. He retired with earnings of well over $3 million, running either first or second in all but two of his 10 Grade I starts and retiring as a seven-time graded stakes winner.

“I think in today’s world, we’re so quick to put horses up on a pedestal,” Tugel observed. “This is a great opportunity for our industry to breed to a horse that maintained the highest level of performance over three full racing years.”

Bred by Jane Lyon’s Summer Wind Farm, McKinzie is out of Runway Model (Petionville), a dual Grade II winner and $2.7 million Keeneland November purchase.

Tugel said he believes McKinzie’s pedigree will give the new sire every chance at success.

“He is the fastest son of Street Sense, and to be the best of a sire line is something special,” he said. “He has the bottom side to make us believe that he’s going to have fast, precocious 2-year-olds. He brings that soundness, that size, that scope and versatility. And that’s something we need in this breed. I think it sets him up for a big chance to be a very successful stallion in the future. He’s certainly one of the most exciting stallion prospects we’ve had at Gainesway in a long time, and we’re very excited to see what he can produce for us.”

Breeders are now getting their first looks at the new stallion, and Tugel said he’s been well received.

“He’s an elegant horse. He comes out and shows all the class he showed on the racetrack. He stands there like an absolute picture. You can see in his movement when he walks across the ground, it’s the same movement he had to make him a multiple Grade I winner. Even though he is a big-framed horse, that athleticism and lightness of his feet is a great attribute. He’s extremely popular and we’re very excited for the book of mares he’s going to get this year.”

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Spun to Run to Gainesway

Spun to Run (Hard Spun–Yawkey Way, by Grand Slam), winner of last year’s GI Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, will enter stud at Gainesway next season, the farm announced Sunday. The 4-year-old was also third in last year’s GI TVG.com Haskell Invitational S. and he captured the GIII Smarty Jones S. He ended his career with a runner-up effort behind champion 3-year-old Maximum Security (New Year’s Day) in the GI Cigar Mile H. On the board in 10 of 12 starts, Spun to Run won five times and earned $1,160,520.

“Great milers make great stallions,” said Gainesway’s Director of Stallion Sales and Recruitment Sean Tugel. “His speed figures at a mile were fantastic. To be able to run a 0 five times on the Thorographs as a 3-year-old takes a special talent. The Breeders’ Cup is the biggest stage and Spun to Run ran a very talented group of colts off their feet.”

Gainesway CEO Antony Beck added, “He possesses brilliant speed and he excelled as a miler. The Danzig sireline has provided top stallions worldwide and I am excited for Spun to Run’s future at Gainesway.”

Spun to Run will stand for $12,500 LFSN.

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