Last year’s Grade 3 Virginia Derby winner English Bee and Hembree head a capacity field of 12 in Wednesday’s $300,000 Tapit Stakes at Kentucky Downs. The race, staged at a mile and 70 yards, is for horses who have not won a stakes in 2020 but that restriction brought together a strong assembly of older horses.
That includes last year’s winner, Get Western. The Tapit, then known as the Old Friends, also is the stakes that launched 2018 winner Next Shares to victory in Keeneland’s $1 million, Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile in his next start.
Owned by Calumet Farm and trained by Graham Motion, English Bee is a three-time stakes-winner but his best finishes in five starts this year were second by a neck in Churchill Downs’ Grade 2 Wise Dan and second by a half-length in Gulfstream Park’s Grade 3 Canadian Turf. In his last start, English Bee was sixth in Keeneland’s Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile while losing by a total of a length.
Hembree, a winner of $702,483, was scratched out of Monday’s $750,000 Tourist Mile to run in the Tapit. Two years ago he won Woodbine’s Grade 2 Nearctic Stakes. He subsequently has been second in two other graded stakes.
Trainer Jimmy Toner ships in Hawkish, winner of the Grade 2 Penn Mile in 2018, in from New York, and Tim Yakteen brings in Keeneland’s 2017 Grade 3 Transylvania winner Big Score in from California. The Grade 1-placed Big Score comes in off an allowance race at Del Mar. Ritzy A P and Hemp Hemp Hurray were early scratches, making it possible for Midnight Tea Time and Split the Wickets to draw in. The Tapit is carded as the ninth of 10 races, with a 4:42 p.m. Central post time.
The field in post position order (with jockey, trainer and odds): Morocco (Jose Ortiz/Mike Maker 15-1), Get Western (Julien Leparoux/Shug McGaughey 15-1), Hawkish (Javier Castellano/James Toner 10-1), Ramsey Solution (Gerard Corrales/Wesley Ward 12-1), English Bee (James Graham/Graham Motion 5-1), Hierarchy (Corey Lanerie/Joe Sharp 8-1), Hembree (Ricardo Santana Jr./Mike Maker 9-2), (Empire of War, Tyler Gaffalione/Mike Maker 8-1), Big Score (Flavien Prat/Tim Yakteen 4-1), Temple (Irad Ortiz/Mike Maker 10-1), Midnight Tea Time (Adam Beschizza/Joe Sharp 8-1), Split the Wickets (Rafael Bejarano/Tom Van Berg 20-1). Also eligible: Vanbrugh (Florent Geroux/Brad Cox 12-1).
Trainer Mike Maker said Empire of War will be scratched. If he does, Vanbrugh will be able to draw into the race.
Joining what will be the strongest jockey colony of any meet to date on Wednesday are New York-based two-time Kentucky Downs meet titlist Jose Ortiz, reigning Eclipse Award winner Irad Ortiz and Luis Saez. Flavien Prat, fresh off winning the Del Mar riding title 50-49 over newcomer Umberto Rispoli, will ride the remainder of the Kentucky Downs meet beginning Monday. Rispoli is to begin riding here Thursday.
Photo Credit: Coady Photography
