Tapiture/Key Is To Win 2-Year-Old Filly

As we entered the OBS March sale, our goal was to do the work and run down every horse that fit our profile but at the same time we wanted to be conservative on price and let the market unfold before we pushed too hard in any direction.  As such, we identified 8x horses that post their breeze’s and subsequent physical inspections fit what we were looking for.  A few of those horses had vetting issues and we knew that a couple more were going to be too expensive so when push came to shove we were left with a final list of 3x horses to bid on.  The first of the three horses ended up withdrawing from the sale, the second horse went for $300K+ when we expected/wanted to pay $150-175K max so needless to say we didn’t end up bringing her home and then luckily the third time was the charm for us as a beautiful Tapiture filly fell to us for $80K!  We had pegged her in the $75K-$100K range so we were happy with where she landed and took a controlling ownership interest in the filly (we have two external partners that we own other horses with currently). The filly will be trained by Ray Handal and she has already been in full training at his Belmont operation for the last few weeks post sale (she hasn’t missed a beat).

What we like about her:

1- She’s a classy as they come.  Throughout the entire sales process she never turned a hair.  She was lovely on and off the track down in Florida and couldn’t be any more professional than she has been since arriving at Belmont.  She’s one of the most mentally mature younger horses we’ve ever been around.

2- She worked quick (10.1) but it was the way she did it…She travelled very smoothly over the track and she did it the right way (not under too much pressure).  She has all the physical parts to be a nice sprinter/miler (she’s on the lower end of medium sized so I wouldn’t expect her to be a distance horse but she could potentially get the one-turn mile races they write in NY).

3- She looks early.  Given her mental make-up and the fact that she’s never had a hiccup in her training from her time on the farm in Ocala through the first few weeks of her time with the Handal barn in NY, we have confidence that she can be an earlier to debut 2-year-old (June is a reasonable timeframe).  There are several advantages to having a Belmont ready 2-year-old but the primary ones are the level of competition in those early season races are lesser than what you face in Saratoga and the horses that do make a debut pre-Saratoga have a big edge fitness and experience wise over the first time starters up at the spa!

4- She was a “value” buy.  If she was out of a more commercial sire we’d have expected her to sell in the $130-160K range but being out of Tapiture helped keep her price down to the more reasonable $80K level.  We believe Tapiture is an underrated race horse sire and while he’s not super commercial we are happy to give a bit on the sire side to buy a horse like this one (with all of the other positives that she brings to the table).

5- While her pedigree isn’t at the top of the market she has some pedigree and offers the potential for residual value down the line if she performs on the track.  Her dam has thrown 6x runners and they have all been winners including her now 3-year-old half sister named Ecoro Ai who was a winner and stakes placed in Japan last year as a 2-year-old. 

She’s an exciting prospect that we’ve already kicked on with and is progressing towards an early 2-year-old season debut (assuming she continues on the path she’s on).

COST INCLUDES ESTIMATED TRAINING EXPENSES THROUGH DECEMBER 2023