The Richard and Michael Freedman-trained Love Tap (3 g ex Smokey’s Love by Forestry) preserved his unbeaten record with an easy victory in the Gloaming Stakes (Gr 3, 1800m) at Rosehill on Saturday and in the process handed Gainesway Stud-based stallion Tapit (Pulpit) with his first stakes winner in Australia and 136th overall.
Tapit (Pulpit – Tap Your Heels)
Unbeaten in all three of his country starts, the gelding took the step up in class in his stride when leading from pillar to post to beat Street Dancer (Pride Of Dubai) by a length and three-quarters, while Bucharest (Deep Impact) – who is a son of multiple Group 1-winning champion mare Miss Finland (Redoute’s Choice) – finished another nose away in third.
Purchased by Dynamic Syndications and Dean Watt Bloodstock for A$110,000 at the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale from the Coolmore Stud draft, Love Tap is one of five winners out of dual-winning Forestry (Storm Cat) mare Smokey’s Love, making the gelding a half-brother to Fighting Mad (New Year’s Day), who landed the Clement L Hirsch Stakes (Gr 1, 8½f) on August 2.
Smokey’s Love is out of Listed winner Smokey Mirage (Holy Bull), whose four winners are headed by Listed scorer Monsoon Rain (Old Trieste).
Smokey Mirage herself is a sister to half-sister to dual Grade 3 winner Estimraar (Holy Bull), while she counts elite-level winner High Fly (Atticus) as one of her half-siblings. Meanwhile, she is also a half-sister to the dam of Japanese Grade 3 winner Shine Garnet (Orfevre) and Admire Sagace (Fuji Kiseki), who won three times at Listed level in Japan.
In 2019 Smokey’s Love produced a colt by Coolmore Stud’s Triple Crown-winning shuttler American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile).
Tapit – a three-time champion stallion in his native America – has had nine winners from 19 starters in Australia and stood at Gainesway Stud in Kentucky for a fee of US$200,000 in 2020. He is currently sitting in fifth place in the leading sires table in the USA / Canada by earnings with that table headed by Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday).
