Leading US sire Tapit surpasses $150 million in progeny earnings

Gainesway's top sire Tapit continues to blow past milestones like an Indy racecar.

On Sunday, the 18-year-old son of Pulpit became only the third North American-based stallion to be represented by at least $150 million in northern hemisphere progeny earnings for Flat racing, and he's done it with the fewest crops of racing age.

Tapit now has $150,063,321 in lifetime northern hemisphere progeny earnings, excluding steeplechases. He ranks third behind Giant's Causeway ($166.5m) and Smart Strike ($151.7m), but he's reached the milestone with 12 crops of racing age: four fewer than Giant's Causeway and seven fewer than Smart Strike.

Tapit's five-year-old daughter Magical, a Peter Blum Thoroughbreds homebred, pushed him over the $150m earnings mark after capturing her first black-type win by two lengths in the She's All In Stakes at Remington Park at odds of 19-1.

Magical, who is trained by Steve Asmussen and was ridden by Ricardo Santana jnr, earned $60,000 for the win.

Magical is Tapit's 130th black-type winner worldwide. The mare is out of Blum's homebred Grade 2 winner Magical Feeling, who is a daughter of Gainesway stallion Empire Maker. Magical is Empire Maker's 21st black-type winner as a broodmare sire worldwide.

Heading into last weekend, Tapit was $74,694 short of the $150m threshold but his progeny was loaded for bear. He also had four-year-old Pink Sands entered in the $100,000 Rampart Stakes at Gulfstream Park and six-year-old Exulting (a full-brother to Magical) in the $200,000 Ft Lauderdale Stakes at Gulfstream.

Pink Sands did her part, winning the Rampart in a manner that reinforced the highly competitive reputation of Tapit's offspring.

Bumped soon after the break, Pink Sands tracked in last until about a quarter-mile from the wire. Six-wide as she rounded the turn, she dug in and steadily began passing horses.

She had four still to beat with a sixteenth of a mile to go when she produced an electrifying kick that propelled her half a length ahead of favoured Cookie Dough at the wire. Pink Sands is raced by Gainesway's Antony Beck and Andrew Rosen, trained by Shug McGaughey, and was ridden by Jose Ortiz.

Exulting finished unplaced, but still contributed to Tapit's combined progeny earnings of $124,660 for the weekend.

Tapit is no stranger to breaking records. He set a single-season North American progeny earnings record in 2014 when his runners amassed $16,813,536 in purses and then shattered that record the following year with $18,397,691 in progeny earnings.

Still not done, the stallion captured his third-consecutive leading sire title with yet another single-season earnings record of $19,245,198 that was fuelled by 37 black-type wins from 21 black-type winners, which included 15 Graded/Group winners.

Ranked third on this year's general leading sire list with more than $14 million in progeny earnings, Tapit is the year's leading sire by number of black-type winners with 38 and by number of Graded/Group stakes winners with 13.

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