tacitus | Horse Racing Free Tips

Tacitus To Stand At Taylor Made Stallions Upon Retirement

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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Tactius Heads List Of Nominees For Fayette At Keeneland

Juddmonte's homebred Tacitus, fourth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic here last fall in his lone Keeneland appearance, heads a list of 27 horses nominated to the 64th running of the $200,000 Grade 2 Hagyard Fayette going 1 1/8 miles on the main track to be run Oct. 30, closing day of the 17-day Fall Meet at the Lexington, Ky., track.

Trained by Bill Mott, Tacitus has earned more than $3.7 million in his career with five placings in Grade 1 events and three Grade 2 victories. In his most recent start, Tacitus finished fourth behind top 2021 Breeders' Cup Classic contender Knicks Go in the Grade 3 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs.

Other nominees of note with Keeneland success include Steve Landers Racing's Night Ops, who was second in the Grade 3 Ben Ali this spring; Thumbs Up Racing's well-traveled Sleepy Eyes Todd, winner of the Lafayette Presented by Keeneland Select here last fall; and Fern Circle Stables and Three Chimneys Farm's King Fury, winner of the Grade 3 Stonestreet Lexington this spring and recent 13-length winner of the Bourbon Trail at Churchill Downs.

Closing day of the Keeneland meet will feature two other stakes: the 17th running of the $150,000 Bryan Station for 3-year-olds going a mile on the turf and the new $150,000 Bowman Mill for 2-year-olds going 6 furlongs on the main track.

Homewrecker Racing's Point Me By, winner of the Grade 1 Bruce D. Stakes at Arlington Park on Aug. 14, tops a list of 38 nominees to the Bryan Station. Eddie Kenneally trains Point Me By.

Other nominees of note are Madaket Stables and Ecurie Ades-Hazen's Grade 3 Virginia Derby winner Wootton Asset (FR), trained by Graham Motion, and trainer Rusty Arnold's duo of Calumet Farm's Cellist, third in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby, and Ashbrook Farm's Ginsburned, who was third in the Bruce D.

Robert and Lawana Low's My Prankster, fourth in the Grade 1 Champagne in his most recent start for trainer Todd Pletcher, tops the list of 20 nominations for the Bowman Mill.

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Knicks Go Lays Over Field in Lukas Classic

The inaugural running of the GIII Lukas Classic in 2013, contested as the Homecoming Classic, was won handily by the previous year's GI Breeders' Cup Classic hero Fort Larned (E Dubai), who would go on to finish a hard-trying fourth in defense of his Classic title five weeks later. This year's renewal goes through Korea Racing Authority's Knicks Go (Paynter), who is expected to cement his status as the favorite for the championship day feature Saturday afternoon.

An imperious winner of last year's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile over a Keeneland main track that played to his strengths, the Maryland-bred wired the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. in January to earn a trip to the $20-million Saudi Cup. A tiring fourth over the one-turn, nine-furlong configuration at King Abdulaziz in February, he failed to fire in the GI Met Mile H., also around a single bend June 5, and got the confidence boost he needed with a 10 1/4-length romp in the GIII Prairie Meadows Cornhusker H. going a two-turn mile and an eighth July 10, good for a career-best 113 Beyer. When Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) elected not to match motors with him in the GI Whitney S. Aug. 7, Knicks Go was loose on the lead and set an aggressive pace, but had plenty to offer late in besting Maxfield (Street Sense) by 4 1/2 solid lengths.

Beaten at odds-on in the GI Woodward S. and GI Jockey Club Gold Cup last season, Tacitus (Tapit) was a non-threatening fourth in last year's Classic and makes his first start since a seventh in the Saudi Cup. He looks to be training forwardly at Saratoga for this return to action.

Independence Hall (Constitution) popped a career-best 104 Beyer when finishing three lengths adrift of Knicks Go in the Pegasus and was most likely in need of the run when fifth to GI Awesome Again S. hopeful Tripoli (Kitten's Joy) in the GI TVG.com Pacific Classic over the Classic course and distance first off a four-month layoff Aug. 21.

The post Knicks Go Lays Over Field in Lukas Classic appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Knicks Go Has Home-Field Advantage In Saturday’s Lukas Classic

Korea Racing Authority's Knicks Go, the top-ranked horse in the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll after convincing wins in this year's Pegasus World Cup (G1) at Gulfstream Park and Whitney (G1) at Saratoga, was made the overwhelming 2-5 morning line favorite in Saturday's $400,000 Lukas Classic (Grade 3) at Churchill Downs – his final test before tackling the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

“He's a horse that puts a lot into his training and he's done that leading into Saturday's race,” trainer Brad Cox said. “He's accomplished a lot this year and we believe the Lukas Classic is a good race to compete in prior to the Breeders' Cup. This race doesn't require him to ship and he can run out of his own stall.”

Knicks Go (22-8-3-1—$5,368,995) had a strong 1 ½-mile gallop early Thursday morning prior to schooling in the paddock at 10 a.m. The Maryland-bred competed four times at Churchill Downs while under the care of trainer Ben Colebrook but has not recorded victory beneath the Twin Spires.

Knicks Go is scheduled to face five rivals in the 1 1/8-mile Lukas Classic including Juddmonte's multiple graded stakes winning homebred Tacitus. The gray son of Tapit arrived to trainer Bill Mott's Churchill Downs base earlier in the week from Saratoga. Saturday's race will be the first time Tacitus has competed since finishing seventh in the $20 million Saudi Cup (GI) in February.

The Lukas Classic is carded as the eighth race on Saturday's 11-race program. First post is 12:45 p.m. (all times Eastern) and the Lukas Classic will go at 4:22 p.m. Named after Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, the race shares the Saturday spotlight with the $300,000 Ack Ack (GIII), which goes as Race 10 at 5:26 p.m.

The complete field for the Lukas Classic from the rail out (with jockey, trainer and morning line odds): New Orleans Classic (G2) winner Chess Chief (James Graham, Dallas Stewart, 20-1); Knicks Go (Joel Rosario, Cox, 2-5); $3.7 million earner Tacitus (Jose Lezcano, Mott, 5-2); multiple stakes winner Shared Sense (Brian Hernandez Jr., Cox, 15-1); Pegasus World Cup third Independence Hall (Javier Castellano, Michael McCarthy, 10-1); and West Virginia Governor's (G3) winner Sprawl (Joe Talamo, Tommy Drury Jr., 12-1).

Wagering is available on www.TwinSpires.com, the official ADW of Churchill Downs Incorporated and its family of racetracks.

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