HRN: 2014 Kentucky Derby Hopeful: Tapiture

Each time I post a new article on my Horse Racing Nation blog, I post a notice on this blog. These notices include an excerpt from the beginning of that article and a link to the piece. My latest Horse Racing Nation article is. . .

2014 Kentucky Derby Hopeful: Tapiture

For the first time, my Derby Hopefuls will be reaching the pages of Horse Racing Nation rather than the original Past the Grandstand. Derby Hopefuls feature the horses I view as the best contenders leading up to the Kentucky Derby. Each horse spotlighted in a Derby Hopeful will join the 2014 PTG Derby Hopeful roster, found on the right side of this blog (the original Past the Grandstand). Horses will be listed in an order that corresponds to how highly I think of them, with the horse I think most highly of ranking at the top. A horse featured in a Derby Hopeful may be taken off the roster if its performances after its article are published are not up to par or if that horse is taken off the Triple Crown trail, though those articles will remain on my blog.

"Few stallions on the market are more successful than Tapit is now. His progeny have been winning graded stakes races left and right, and breeders have sent some of the most accomplished mares in recent years to the gray stallion in hopes of adding to Tapit’s plethora of stakes-winning offspring. But Tapit’s success story is not over yet.

While siring a Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winner does not define a stallion’s career, it is certainly a main goal. Winning the Kentucky Derby was a task Tapit attempted to accomplish himself, but a ninth-place finish on the first Saturday of May in 2004 left Tapit’s only chance at Derby glory to be as a sire.

The best a son of Tapit has managed in the Run for the Roses was Normandy Invasion’s fourth-place effort last year. Could Tapiture become Tapit’s first Derby winner?. . ."

Click here to read the rest of my newest Horse Racing Nation article.