Taptowne Returns to Churchill Work Tab
Clovertowne Farm’s Taptowne returned to the Churchill Downs work tab on Wednesday with his first serious training move since a star-crossed journey to Southern California for a planned run in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
Temperatures were in the mid-20s when the gray/road gelding breezed five furlongs for trainer Tim Glyshaw in 1:00.80. The move was the best of only three at distance on a sparsely-populated morning workout roster. Although Churchill Downs track crews worked the track throughout the night to counter the effects of sub-freezing conditions and to have the main track ready for Wednesday’s racing, little water had been placed on the surface over the past couple of days because of the cold snap.
Most horsemen passed on serious training on the frigid morning, but Glyshaw had no reservations about sending Taptowne out for his breeze.
“He’s pretty professional,” Glyshaw said. “He works the same on any kind of surface. The conditions weren’t optimal, but we wanted to do it today so we could get it out of the way.
“You have race day rules to get off the vet’s list, and we were working today to get off the California vet’s list. But he worked really, really well.”
Taptowne had been placed on that California list in the aftermath of his journey to Santa Anita for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (GI). Santa Anita stewards scratched Glyshaw’s horse on the day before the Nov. 1 race after a veterinarian who had advised that the horse had suffered a minor hoof bruise.
The Breeders’ Cup trip was one of the few disappointments in a year that has been easily the best of Taptowne’s four racing seasons. The consistent gelding has fashioned a 9-2-5-1 record with earnings of $381,716 in 2013. His career earnings stand at $552,599 after six wins in 28 lifetime races.
His 2013 highlight was an Aug. 3 win in the $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s Stakes at Mountaineer, but he has kept good company in strong races throughout the season. Taptowne was runner-up to the victorious Cyber Secret and finished ahead of reigning Breeders’ Cup Classic (GI) winner Fort Larned in the Oaklawn Handicap (GII) in mid-April. He also recorded second-place finishes behind Pants On Fire in Churchill Downs’ Ack Ack Handicap (GIII); Prayer for Relief in the Prairie Meadows Cornhusker (GIII) and Bernie the Maestro in his most recent outing in the Michael G. Schaefer Memorial on Oc.t 5 at Indiana Downs.
Glyshaw’s stable star is expected to have one more start in his successful 2013 campaign. He had looked at both the $500,000-added Clark Handicap Presented by Norton Healthcare (GI) at Churchill Downs over 1 1/8 miles on Nov. 29 and the Grade II Hawthorne Gold Cup at 1 ¼ miles on following day as possible spots for Taptowne’s final start of the year.
Nominations for the Clark Handicap close today, but horses considered as strong candidates to compete in that Churchill Downs race include the D. Wayne Lukas-trained Travers (GI) winner and 2013 Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up Will Take Charge and Game On Dude, trainer Bob Baffert’s beaten favorite in the Classic.
“With Game On Dude and (Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up) and Lukas’ horse looking like they’ll run in the Clark, we didn’t need to go there,” Glyshaw said. “The mile-and-an-eighth (of the Clark) was going to be a little bit of a question for him, anyway, but I definitely can’t do it with those horses in it. And the mile-and-a-quarter of the Gold Cup is too far for him.”
With those races out of consideration, Glyshaw has circled the $150,000 added Swatara, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up at Penn National on Nov. 27 to be Taptowne’s near-term objective. If all goes well in that Thanksgiving Eve outing, the race will be his final outing of 2013.
“After that race he’ll have all of December off,” Glyshaw said. “We’ll probably take him to Oaklawn and run him in the series of races for older horses there. But he’ll be back to run next year.”