HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – In what his trainer Brad Cox called a “perfect comeback,” Tappan Street returned from a nine-month layoff to run down the pacesetting Steppe to register a one-length victory in a $58,000 allowance Friday at Gulfstream Park.
Tappan Street raced forwardly placed throughout the mile-long dirt race under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. before ultimately overtaking and edging clear from Steppe through the final furlong. It was the son of Into Mischief’s first start since rallying to a 1 1/4-length decision over Sovereignty in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 29.
Steppe, whose jockey, Miguel Vasquez, lost his stick near midstretch, easily finished second before being vanned off for precautionary reasons after pulling up on the clubhouse turn. A claim for Steppe, who ran under a $62,500 tag, was voided by the track veterinarian after the race.
Tappan Street completed the distance in 1:36.22 over the fast track and paid $2.20 for his third win in four career starts. His lone setback was a second-place finish behind Burnham Square in the Grade 3 Holy Bull on Feb.1.
“I thought it was a good effort, workmanlike, kind of what we expected based on what we’d seen in his first three runs,” said Cox. “It’s not like he galloped up to the top of the lane and won under a hammer lock or anything in his earlier races. I felt off that long layoff like it was the right move, at this stage of his career, to bring him back in a two-other-than allowance race. In a perfect world, the race would have been a mile and one-sixteenth. A one turn mile is kind of a long sprint, but he had his game face on today and I thought this was a great comeback for him.”
Cox also said Ortiz, who was aboard Tappan Street for the first time on Friday, was very positive with his feedback immediately after the race.
“Irad said around the half-mile pole [that] he started feeling a little pressure, and every time he asked him [Tappan Street], he responded,” Cox noted. “Irad said he’s a horse who likes to win and that he galloped out very well.”
Cox added that the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational here on Jan. 24 was definitely “on the table” for Tappan Street’s next start.
“We’ll get him back to Payson [Park Thoroughbred Training Center], point him for it, and see how things go,” said Cox.
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