Tapalo breaks his maiden Jan. 12 at Santa Anita (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Calif.— Tapalo is a colt on the rise entering Saturday’s 87th running of the GI, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby.
Trained by John Sadler, Tapalo exits a good second-place effort in the El Camino Real Derby Feb. 10 at Golden Gate when facing winners for the first time. While that race was on synthetic, the Tapiture ridgling has also shown an affinity for Santa Anita’s dirt main track.
Tapalo broke his maiden on Santa Anita dirt going seven furlongs in mid-January. Six weeks prior, in a one-mile maiden heat at Santa Anita, Tapalo finished third in a three-way photo that included Imagination, the 8-5 Santa Anita Derby favorite.
“Then Imagination came back and was in a photo with Maymun,” Sadler noted Sunday. Maymun, who like Imagination is trained by Bob Baffert, was not entered in the Santa Anita Derby. He would have been a likely heavy favorite.
“So just based on that, he’s been competitive against some good horses,” Sadler added. “He’s been close. He’s been close in all his races.”
Tapalo is installed as the 5-1 co-third choice in the Santa Anita Derby, which is contested at the same 1 1/8-mile distance as the El Camino Real Derby. Sadler said the decision to ship north for the El Camino Real and run on synthetic was due to multiple factors.
“We wanted to miss some of the front-line horses here. At that point he seemed like he needed a little easier spot,” Sadler said. “He had trained well on synthetic when in Ocala for the sale last year, so I thought he would handle it. That race came up at a time when he was good and sharp. So we took him up there and he ran really well.”
After finishing 1 ¼ lengths back of winner Endlessly in the El Camino Real, the plan was to stay on synthetic and run in the GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park March 23. That plan was scrapped when the field was oversubscribed and Tapalo did not get in. Endlessly would proceed to romp as the favorite in the Jeff Ruby by four lengths.
Owned by Hronis Racing, Tapalo has returned with a string of strong works. On Monday, he signaled his readiness with a bullet five-furlong work in 58.40 seconds on Santa Anita’s new synthetic training track. Prior to that drill, he also worked a bullet on the Santa Anita main track when going six furlongs 1:12.40.
“The dirt is a not a concern,” Sadler said. “He’s come back and is training really well.”
Sadler, 67, has the second-most wins all time at Santa Anita behind only Baffert. He has won the Santa Anita Derby twice in his long and distinguished career. Sidney’s Candy won in 2010 and Rock Your World scored for Sadler and Hronis Racing in 2021. Both would go on to the Kentucky Derby and finish off the board.
A top-two finish in the Santa Anita Derby could propel Tapalo to the 150th Kentucky Derby on May 4 at Churchill Downs. As an official prep for the Kentucky Derby, the Santa Anita Derby awards qualifying points on a scale of 100-50-25-15-10 to eligible horses in the top five.
“I’m not thinking about that,” Sadler said of a potential run in the Kentucky Derby. “The focus is on Saturday.”
Tapalo will have Umberto Rispoli in the irons for the first time. Rispoli piloted Rock Your World to his Santa Anita Derby victory.
The Santa Anita Derby goes as the 10th race on a 12-race card Saturday. Post time is approximately 4:45 p.m. PT. The field in post position order: Curlin’s Kaos, Diego Herrera (20-1); Tapalo, Umberto Rispoli (5-1); Stronghold, Antonio Fresu (5-2); Imagination, Frankie Dettori (8-5); Wynstock, Juan Hernandez (8-1); Tessuto, Kazushi Kimura (10-1); McVay, Hector Berrios (5-1); E J Won the Cup, Mike Smith (15-1).
