My Miss Tapit Shows Improvement in Game Face

Mathis Stable LLC’s My Miss Tapit followed up an sharp debut victory with an even more impressive stakes debut triumph at Gulfstream Park Saturday, closing from off the pace to capture the $75,000 Game Face Stakes for three-year-old fillies.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, the three-year-old daughter of Tapit scored by 1 ¼ lengths while running the seven-furlong in 1:22.93 under Emisael Jaramillo.

“We picked out this filly in the (2015 Keeneland) September Sale. We love Tapit. We always wanted to buy a Tapit and Todd really felt strongly that this was the one we should make a mark with,” said Mathis Stable’s Bill Mathis, whose 9-5 favorite brought a winning bid of $500,000 at auction.

My Miss Tapit settled off a contested pace set by Jakobs Rocket Girl while racing three wide along the backstretch before making a sweeping move on the far turn as Rashette and Actress to her inside took over from the tiring early pacesetter. Actress, a maiden daughter of Tapit who finished a troubled second in her debut at Gulfstream March 19, took a narrow lead between horses at the top of the stretch but was unable to hold off My Miss Tapit approaching the finish.

My Miss Tapit debuted with an off-the-pace 2 ½-length triumph at Gulfstream March 10.

“We’ve been patient with her. We’ve had some setbacks along the way,” Mathis said. “She ran a big maiden race here not that long ago and we thought we’d take a shot to get some black type, and we did. We’ll see how she comes out of the race and see what Todd thinks might be the next best spot, but we’re over-the-moon happy for the moment.”

Actress, who was sent to post under jockey at 3-1, finished second, two lengths ahead of Rashette and Eduardo Nunez. Brahms Cat finished fourth in the field of eight, another 4 ¾ lengths back.

Source: Gulfstream Park