Tales from the Crib: Kingsbarns

Apr 22, 2023 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

It’s well known that the sire of Kingsbarns, brilliant champion Uncle Mo, was scratched from the Kentucky Derby (G1) due to illness in 2011. But the dam (mother) of Kingsbarns, Lady Tapit, was herself highly regarded. A rare filly to be nominated to the Triple Crown, Lady Tapit was the victim of misfortune before her career could take off in the spring of 2015. 

By the great stallion Tapit (who aims for his first Kentucky Derby victory courtesy of Tapit Trice), Lady Tapit raced for Lee and Susan Searing’s C R K Stable. The Searings, whose Honor A. P. finished fourth in the 2020 Kentucky Derby, also have a current contender in Skinner. On the “bubble” list at this writing, Skinner needs a couple of defections to draw into the top 20. If he does, the C R K runner will square off against Lady Tapit’s son Kingsbarns, who was bred in the name of Searing’s Parks Investment Group and later sold as a yearling. Below is Lady Tapit with a baby-blanketed Kingsbarns.

Lee Searing credits his bloodstock adviser, David Ingordo, for finding Lady Tapit as a yearling at the 2013 Keeneland September Sale. After the bay was led out unsold at a bid of $675,000, Ingordo recommended that Searing purchase her privately. A deal was struck, and she appeared poised to join Ingordo’s lengthy list of successful sales recruits, a club including Hall of Famer Zenyatta and Uncle Mo.
Lady Tapit gave a glimpse of her ability when romping in a one-mile maiden at Los Alamitos on Dec. 12, 2014. That was just her second start, and first around two turns, for trainer John Sadler, who made her eligible for the Triple Crown.
“It was a little surprising,” Searing said of the ambitious nomination, “but John thought we had a really, really good horse.”
Yet a workout mishap at Santa Anita would forever alter Lady Tapit’s trajectory.
“She had a very bad fall,” Searing recalled. “She clipped heels in a workout. Everybody thought she was dead, then she got up OK by herself. She got the air knocked out of her.”
Searing was on hand for the scary scene.
“She never moved; they let her alone. We were running down, and by the time we got there, she started to get up. It was relieving!”
Given an extensive check-up, and a month to regroup, Lady Tapit resumed preparations for her sophomore debut. She returned in the Fantasy (G3) at Oaklawn Park, only to fade to 10th, and she didn’t race again for more than a year. The seventh-place finisher in that Fantasy was Feathered; we know her now as the dam of unbeaten phenom Flightline, who would be trained by Sadler. 
Lady Tapit later joined the Peter Eurton barn and tried a trio of graded stakes as a five-year-old. Fourth in the 2017 Santa Margarita (G1) and Santa Maria (G2), she just missed third in both. Lady Tapit was fourth again in the Adoration (G3), but got elevated to third via the disqualification of a rival. It was a small bit of compensation for a filly who wasn’t the same again after her frightful fall.
“Prior to the fall, she looked like she could be any kind of horse,” Searing said. “She just didn’t realize her potential.”
Lady Tapit’s profile, from her pedigree to early promise, suggested that she had broodmare potential. Searing sent her to Gabriel Duignan’s Springhouse Farm near Lexington, Kentucky, for her new career. 
More often known by the nickname of “Spider,” Duignan is the co-breeder of current Kentucky Oaks (G1) hopeful Shidabhuti (with the late Gerry Dilger) as well as 2016 Kentucky Derby competitor Brody’s Cause. And through his Paramount Sales operation with Pat Costello, a fellow Irish expat, Duignan sold the 2016 Derby champ Nyquist (by Uncle Mo) as a weanling. 
Ingordo has advised Searing on his breeding operation. With his guidance, Uncle Mo was chosen as a suitable stallion for Lady Tapit, and her bay colt arrived on Jan. 17, 2020.

“He was born a beautiful foal,” Duignan said. “He was always very straightforward.”
Particular anecdotes are hard to come by “because he was so easy to be around. He never gave trouble. He was willing, did whatever you asked him.
“He was a beautiful yearling, all quality – just a beautiful, balanced horse,” Duignan summed up. “He had a very good temperament, no quirks in him.”
Offered at Fasig-Tipton’s boutique Saratoga Sale, the yearling colt was sold to Tom McCrocklin, as agent for Michael Sucher’s Champion Equine, for $250,000. That turned out to be a relative bargain. 

“I really, really liked the horse when I bought him,” said McCrocklin, who was surprised to be able to get him. Apparently some balked at the colt’s small feet, but he knew better. 

McCrocklin, also the co-owner of Kentucky Oaks contender Promiseher America, trains youngsters with an eye toward resale as two-year-olds. As the colt advanced through his program, he realized here was a serious prospect. 

“He was superior to all the others,” McCrocklin said. “We had to take him out of company early on because the other horses couldn’t keep up with him, even galloping.”

McCrocklin also kept in touch with Duignan to give the very encouraging updates.
“This Uncle Mo colt is the real deal,” as Duignan recalled McCrocklin’s bulletin.
The public could come to the same conclusion at the under tack show ahead of Fasig-Tipton’s Gulfstream Sale. The juveniles strut their stuff before prospective buyers on site, as well as a much wider audience watching online. Lady Tapit’s son not only went fast; he made it look easy. With a motionless rider, and a ground-devouring stride, he sped a quarter-mile in :20 3/5.

“That’s him in life,” Duignan said. “He is just effortless.”

“He had as good a quarter-mile breeze as a horse could possibly have,” McCrocklin observed. “It’s really hard to do that at Gulfstream; it takes a special horse to do that.”

Two days later at the sale, bidding spiraled to $800,000, and the gavel came down with Spendthrift Farm the winner. The historic Bluegrass property stood some greats in bygone years – from Hall of Famer Nashua and patriarch Raise a Native to Triple Crown legends Seattle Slew and Affirmed. 

Now back in the limelight since its 2004 acquisition by the late B. Wayne Hughes, Spendthrift is the home of leading sire Into Mischief and a whole phalanx of up-and-coming stallions. Among them is Into Mischief’s first Kentucky Derby winner, Horse of the Year Authentic (2020), who was campaigned by Spendthrift in partnership. Spendthrift is also home to celebrity racemares Beholder, enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2022, and Monomoy Girl, likely to follow her into the pantheon in Saratoga Springs.
Kingsbarns is already making a name for himself with a 3-for-3 record going into the Derby. Enjoying a holiday after the sale, he turned in his first work for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher on Nov. 13 at Palm Beach Downs. He’s kept to a regular drumbeat ever since. 
In his Jan. 14 debut going a one-turn mile at Gulfstream Park, Kingsbarns overcame traffic by making his own running room and bursting through. He found an entry-level allowance at Tampa Bay Downs even easier, sweeping past to romp in his first two-turn test. Up in class and distance for the 1 3/16-mile Louisiana Derby (G2), Kingsbarns changed tactics to set the pace in a race devoid of much speed, and he powered away by daylight down the long Fair Grounds stretch.

Kingsbarns is trying to buck the historical stats and win the Derby after going unraced at two. Yet the recent example of Triple Crown star Justify (2018) hints that the landscape is evolving. If the “jinx” of Apollo – the last Derby winner (1882) to start his career at three before Justify – has been broken, it gives hope that others can follow suit.
Of course, exceptional talent is required to make up for the lack of racing experience as a juvenile. Kingsbarns might just meet that prerequisite.

McCrocklin notes that the Spendthrift team were wise to give Kingsbarns time to relax and unwind after the pressure of ramping up for the sale. They could have marched him straight into a two-year-old campaign.

“Spendthrift – Eric Gustavson and Ned Toffey – are to be commended,” McCrocklin said. “Very few people have the patience to do that, and they’re being rewarded for that now.”

Refuting the idea that Kingsbarns merely stole the Louisiana Derby, McCrocklin emphasizes that you don’t often see horses quicken their final three-sixteenths as he did, in a sharp 18.20 seconds.

“I’ve seen a lot of Preaknesses at 1 3/16 miles, and I’ve seen very few horses come home in 18 and one (fifth).”

And as his record shows, Kingsbarns can place himself as the rider pleases.

“He does not need to be on the lead,” McCrocklin said. “He can sit, inside or outside.

“He has the perfect Derby profile. If he can just get through that first-turn freeway traffic at rush hour, and find a tractable spot, he will run all day.”

“His temperament will help him on Derby Day,” Duignan said, referring to the intense atmosphere that can set off nerves in the young three-year-olds.
“This guy can handle whatever you throw at him.”
Photo credits:

Foal photos by Sive Doyle

Louisiana Derby by Lou Hodges Jr./Hodges Photography

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