Kentucky Downs: Irish Aces wins opening-day Tapit Stakes
The way Tyler Gaffalione sees it, being successful at Kentucky Downs is all about momentum. If the 29-year-old jockey is going to win his third consecutive riding title at the seven-day meet, he has to have momentum on his side.
Gaffalione said it was all about momentum Thursday after Irish Aces won the $500,000 Tapit Stakes, the opening-day feature.
Click here for Kentucky Downs entries and results.
Irish Aces, trained by Brendan Walsh, edged Nineeleventurbo by a head to get the victory in the one-mile-and-70-yard race.
“He is not an explosive horse,” Gaffalione said. “He kind of builds on momentum. You keep building him up, and he keeps finding.”
Irish Aces, owned by Marc Wampler and Jared Shoemaker’s Pocket Aces Racing, began finding when Gaffalione began asking. Early on, the pair rated inside and then came up two deep to the outside of the 17-1 Nineeleventurbo, who was ridden by Florent Géroux.
Heading down the stretch, the two horses separated from the rest of the field, and it was Irish Aces who found more and had the momentum edge at the wire.
“This is a cool horse,” said Paul Madden, Walsh’s assistant who saddled Irish Aces. “He’s run some sneaky good races this year, and it’s not the biggest surprise. Great race, picked out by the boss, and it’s been the plan for a while. And it came together.”
Walsh, who won the training title last year, had two victories on opening day. He won the third race with Oscar Season, who also is owned by Pocket Aces Racing.
Walsh ran six horses on opening day, and all of them hit the board. Irish Aces, the 3-1 second choice in the field of nine, won for the third time in eight career starts on the grass. In his last start, a second level allowance at Saratoga on July 13, he finished third, beaten by a half-length as the even-money favorite.
“He was a little unlucky that day,” said Gaffalione, who rode him last moonth. “He got caught behind a wall coming into the stretch, and I had to wait a long time before I was able to get him out. It was unfortunate, but he definitely made up for it today.”
The 4-year-old Irish Aces is a son of Mshawish. He was bred in Kentucky by Lynch Bages.
The final time for the race was 1:41.71.
Nineeleventurbo, trained by Neil Drysdale, took the lead from the start and carved out fractions of 24.38, 48.39, 1:13.66 and 1:37.67. The 7-year-old gelding could not hold off the determined charge from Irish Aces.
“He gave me a great deal of confidence going around there,” Gaffalione said. “He was traveling well throughout. When I called on him, it was a hard-fought duel. He kept finding and got the job done.”
Siege of Boston finished third and was followed in order by 4-5 favorite Chasing the Crown, Howling Time, Eamonn, last year’s winner Harlan Estate, Miranda Rights and English Bee.