tapit trice is the tip of the classic iceberg for whisper hill

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mandy pope, Tapit, tapit trice, todd quast, whisper hill

Now a winner in three of his four starts, Tapit Trice (by Tapit) bounded into classic consideration with a dramatic come from behind victory in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby.

Last at the start and 11th of 12 after a quarter, Tapit Trice was still in ninth place after three-quarters of a mile, but the gray colt swung out at least five wide around the turn, advanced notably through the stretch, and won by two lengths in the manner of a colt who will prove even better at a longer distance.

Yet another classic prospect by three-time leading national sire Tapit (Pulpit), Tapit Trice was bred in Kentucky by Gainesway Thoroughbreds, and they consigned the grand gray to the 2021 Keeneland September yearling sale, where he was purchased by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm for $1.3 million. The colt races for Whisper Hill and Gainesway.

Todd Quast, racing manager for Whisper Hill, said that, “Tapit Trice was a good-sized yearling with plenty of scope. Mandy and I had looked through the consignments, had liked him and put a price on him, and Mandy really wanted him. She makes the final decision on the purchases. I was done at $1 million, but she kept poking me in the arm, and we got this guy. Now look where he’s taking us.”

Tapit Trice is the second foal out of the stakes winner Danzatrice (Dunkirk), who was bred in Kentucky by Glenn Justiss from the Orientate mare Lady Pewitt. Fourth in her only start, a maiden special at Woodbine, Lady Pewitt was purchased privately by Gainesway.

The operation bought the mare’s 2-year-old in training, a chestnut daughter of Dunkirk (Unbridled’s Song), at the OBS April sale in 2014 for $105,000 from Grassroots Training and Sales.

From the second crop by Dunkirk, who ran second in the G1 Belmont Stakes, as well as the Florida Derby, Danzatrice won three stakes and was fourth in the G1 Acorn Stakes at Belmont. Dunkirk’s other stakes winners include G1 Champagne Stakes winner Havana, plus Chilean G1 winners El Rey Brillante (Tanteo de Potrillos) and Leitone (Dos Mil Guineas and El Derby).

Danzatrice was the second foal from her dam, and the mare produced a gray filly by the Unbridled’s Song stallion Cross Traffic in 2016. Bred by Gainesway and sold at the 2017 Keeneland September yearling sale for $190,000, that filly was named Jaywalk and became the Eclipse Award winner as a juvenile filly in 2018. Jaywalk won four of her five starts at two, including the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Frizette. At three, Jaywalk came back to win the G3 Delaware Oaks and was third in the G1 Ashland.

The appearance of Jaywalk in the family added quite a lift to the commercial appeal of this family, which traces to Tapit Trice’s fourth dam La Paz (Hold Your Peace), a winner of three stakes and the dam of four stakes winners, including Mission Impazible (Unbridled’s Song), winner of the G2 Louisiana Derby and New Orleans Handicap, and Forest Camp (Deputy Minister), winner of the G2 Del Mar Futurity.

The year after Jaywalk’s championship season, Gainesway consigned her half-sister to the 2019 Keeneland September sale and sold the filly by Empire Maker out of Lady Pewitt for $2 million. Named Miss Jessica J., that filly is unraced.

Tapit Trice followed suit as a seven-figure yearling in 2021, and he has followed a much different trajectory and is now a highly regarded member of the 3-year-old crop. The colt’s year-younger full sister, still unnamed, brought $1.1 million at last year’s Keeneland September sale when Tapit Trice was still unraced. The buyer?

Whisper Hill.

Quast said, “We already liked Tapit Trice enough last year to reach back in and buy her too,” even though the colt didn’t make his debut until Nov. 6, when he finished third in a maiden special at Aqueduct. The gray is unbeaten since.

In addition to Tapit Trice as a classic prospect, Whisper Hill also has Shopper’s Revenge (Tapit out of multiple G1 winner Stopchargingmaria), who is pointed for the Louisiana Derby next, and Classic Catch (Classic Empire), who has won a maiden special and an allowance and is expected to race next in the Wood Memorial.

Lurking in the shrubberies is homebred Magical Song (Tapit out of champion Songbird), and that 3-year-old filly is entered in a maiden special at Oaklawn on Mar. 17.

What a year it may be for Whisper Hill.

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Backtalkin’ all the way …

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affirmed, apasionata sonata, backtalk, be smart, brent fernung, bsharpsonata, cloverleaf farm, gold mark farm, hopeful stakes, i'll get along, john sykes, Kentucky Derby, paul bulmahn, preakness stakes, sanford stakes, saratoga, smarty jones, three chimneys farm, todd quast, tom amoss, wayne lukas

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Victory in the G2 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga put the Smarty Jones colt Backtalk in the winner’s circle for the third time in three starts.

Following an eye-catching debut over five furlongs at Churchill Downs, Backtalk became his sire’s first graded stakes winner in the Bashford Manor (G3), also at Churchill.

The colt’s most recent success in this week’s Sanford has made him one of the contenders among the leaders of his generation, and when getting up in the final strides for his come from behind victory at Saratoga, Backtalk looked quite like his maternal grandsire Affirmed and appears ready to tackle longer distances.

That opportunity is likely to come in the G1 Hopeful Stakes. Paul Bulmahn races Backtalk in the name of his Gold Mark Farm LLC, and Gold Mark’s farm manager Todd Quast said, “The Hopeful is the next logical place, but the thing about him is that he shouldn’t be winning at five and six furlongs. He should love a mile and more.

“We know how good he is, and we’re letting him tell us when he wants to go on to the next one. Tom Amoss is a very good evaluator of the horse’s condition and readiness, and he is a crucial part of developing this colt and putting him in a position to show his best,” Quast said.

Backtalk is also the most promising racer for Gold Mark in its short history. Quast said, “We bought the property in 2002, rebuilt it, and the 2,200-acre farm is now state of the art. We have outstanding facilities for stabling and exercising. This is a passion for Mr. Bulmahn, whose business in Texas is oil and gas, and my desire to work with the best was developed from 11 years with Wayne Lukas. From 2002 through 2006 we were building houses, barns, and the synthetic track.”

Now Quast is building Gold Mark’s racing stable and future breeding operation. He said, “We buy 20 to 25 horses every year with the intention of doing what Backtalk is doing. We buy about one-third colts, two-thirds fillies, and I train them on the farm in Ocala, along with horses from other select owners.”

In addition to his success for Gold Mark, the chestnut colt is also the latest gold nugget for the racing and breeding operation of John Sykes, who purchased the dam of Smarty Jones and sold her through Brent Fernung’s Journeyman Bloodstock after the chestnut son of Elusive Quality had established his classic credentials with victories in the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

Retired to stud at Three Chimneys Farm after his only loss (in the Belmont Stakes to the highly ranked second-crop sire Birdstone), Smarty Jones drew enthusiastic support from some breeders, including Sykes.

In fact, his regard for the classic winner was such that he sent one of his best broodmares, the Affirmed stakes winner Apasionata Sonata, to the classic winner. Sykes had purchased the stakes-winning mare, once again through Fernung, for $325,000 at the Keeneland November sale just days after selling I’ll Get Along, the dam of Smarty Jones, for $5 million at Fasig-Tipton.

Fernung recalled the purchase and said, “Apasionata Sonata was a big, leggy mare who was maybe a little light in the hip. She had a big shoulder and forearm and had that longer, two-turn body. And she fit a criteria I was looking for, having a big enough body, enough length between withers to hip that gave her the space to carry a nice foal. She wasn’t as attractive as I’ll Get Along, but she had the same presence to her.”

“My pedigree considerations are a little different from some other people. That she was by Affirmed was a plus, and she was a stakes-winning mare, which was another big positive.”

“The foal she was carrying at the sale turned out to be [graded stakes winner] Bsharpsonata. For such a nice filly as she became, she was somewhat nondescript as a foal. She was kinda small and crooked early on but really improved when we put the tack on her, and she was all racehorse.”

Since the broodmare’s first foal was rather small, the mare was bred back to Giant’s Causeway, and Fernung recalled that Apasionata Sonata had a “giant moose of a colt, and I decided we needed to strike a balance here. Breeding her to Smarty Jones seemed to achieve that balance, and apparently worked pretty good.”

Backtalk was among the last crop of foals that Sykes bred at Cloverleaf Farm in Florida. In midsummer 2007, he acquired property in Kentucky that is now called Woodford Thoroughbreds and “sent that little guy [Backtalk] up to Kentucky when he was four or five months old,” Fernung recalled.

That was the last time Fernung saw Backtalk until “I saw him in the back walking ring at Keeneland when Todd Quast bought him [for $250,000], and he was by far the best-looking colt that mare had produced,” Fernung concluded.

Quast said, “Backtalk was a very good-looking individual. He was smart, and he carried himself well. Our plan is buy horses that look like athletes and have enough page that they could become stallions if they prove themselves at the racetrack. The year before we had tried to buy a filly by Smarty Jones named Be Smart, and I didn’t get her bought, but Wayne did and asked if I would break her, and seeing her physical type in this colt was a lot of the thought behind buying him.

“We had liked Be Smart a lot here on the farm,” Quast said, and she went on to race well at the track, winning a maiden special at Saratoga and then running second in the G1 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland.

He continued, “A lot of sires have their better runners in a particular physical type. A bigger, scopier horse that had a little more size were the most obvious traits Be Smart and Backtalk both possessed. And the athleticism they showed at a walk was there too.

“In fact, this colt got loose at the sale, and I got to see him make some moves that were a little different before I caught him, but it showed that he had some finesse and natural grace, along with good size, balance, and a big engine.”

All those qualities are aids to the chestnut star from the second crop of Kentucky Derby winner Smarty Jones, and Backtalk’s will to win has put him in the winner’s circle every time.