Tap It to Win continues breakout season with Belmont victory

What was billed Thursday as Mystic Guide’s audition for the Kentucky Derby trail wound up instead as a coming out party for another familiar 3-year-old colt.

Florida-bred Tap It to Win scored a 6-1 upset when taking them all the way in Belmont Park’s eighth race, a 1 1/16-mile allowance for sophomores eyeing bigger things this summer.

The Live Oak Plantation homebred in the care of trainer Mark Casse never let them close once out in fractions of 22.65, 45.64 and 1:09.39 under jockey John Velazquez. The final time was 1:39.76 in the one-turn event.

A maiden winner in his dirt debut last summer at Saratoga, Tap It to Win, by Tapit, didn’t fire in a pair of stakes starts to conclude his juvenile season. But he looked like a different horse on return May 9 at Gulfstream Park, where he defeated state-breds with relative ease at six furlongs.

Tapi It to Win passed class and distance tests in more open company Thursday. Though he isn’t Triple Crown-nominated, that won’t stop the colt from appearing in graded preps down the line.

Mystic Guide split horses to run second off a layoff dating back to March, while Country Grammer rallied for third in the field of eight.