Taris Seeks Redemption in Filly & Mare Sprint

For multiple reasons, trainer Simon Callaghan and jockey Gary Stevens have tried to put the last race from 4-year-old Taris entirely out of their minds.



The first reason is relatively obvious. The two-time graded winner and grade I-placed Flatter   filly got one of the worst trips imaginable in the Oct. 4 L.A. Woman Stakes (gr. III), her final prep for the Oct. 31 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (gr. I) at Keeneland.



With Stevens aboard, Taris engaged into a four-way speed battle and was on the outside—four wide—for the entire six-furlong sprint at Santa Anita Park, through blistering fractions of :21.29 and :43.45. All four frontrunners unsurprisingly tired, allowing lone closing upsetter Ben's Duchess, who had been 7 1/4 lengths back early, to pick up the pieces. Taris finished third, 3 3/4 lengths behind the winner.

BALAN: Ben's Duchess Closes to Win L.A. Woman



"Her last race doesn't exist," Stevens said Oct. 15, after breezing the filly an easy five furlongs in 1:01 4/5 at Santa Anita Park. "She's very, very special. When I say it, believe me. I was as confident going in with her in that race as I was going into the Zenyatta (gr. I) with Beholder. I really was. I was highly disappointed. She broke well and I couldn't get her to relax, so I was disappointed with myself.



"Twenty-one and one, :43 and change—you're not going to finish when they're doing that. She doesn't need to be up on the lead."



That aspect made the L.A. Woman trip most puzzling, because Taris had already shown an ability to stalk and pounce in her 4-year-old debut, the Rancho Bernardo Handicap (gr. III) at Del Mar Aug. 16, an event she won by 2 3/4 lengths under a smooth hand ride from Stevens.

LEWYN: Taris Wins Comeback in Rancho Bernardo



"It just didn't set up well," Callaghan said of the L.A. Woman. "We were four wide and going crazy fractions, and the track was slow. It was kind of a weird deal. Any horse, no matter how good they are, is going to get a little leg-weary after :43 and change. We've put a line through the race in our mind."



Stevens has another explanation for why the L.A. Woman went awry, and it's almost mythical in nature.



In her last work before the L.A. Woman, Sept. 27 at Santa Anita, Taris caught unexpected company—a horse who goes by the name American Pharoah. In video replays of the Triple Crown winner's four-furlong drill, you can only see her for a moment, in the center of the track late in the turn with Stevens seemingly doing all he can to hold her back.

"He broke off about 100 yards in front of me and she got her eye on him," Stevens recalled. "We were looking for an easy (four furlongs in) :49 and she went in :47 2/5, and I had her in the middle of the track. It stirred her up. She wanted to go after him."



Stevens is convinced that moment upset the filly.



"Her mind got kinda rattled," the Hall of Fame jockey said.

But it also speaks to Taris' competitiveness, as do the blazing fractions in the L.A. Woman and her second-place finish in last year's La Brea Stakes (gr. I), her first start for Callaghan after being purchased for $2.35 million by Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and John Magnier at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale.



In the La Brea, Taris set the pace—again, very quick through a quarter in :21.85 and a half in :43.97—and opened up a 3 1/2-length lead in the stretch with jockey Rafael Bejarano aboard, before something went wrong.



"It was at the sixteenth pole," Callaghan said. "She lugged in a little and I had never seen that from her before."



The lead suddenly evaporated in the final strides and longshot Sam's Sister blew by on the outside to win by half a length.



"Initially, when she was cooling out in the test barn, she seemed fine, but by the time she got back to the barn, there was something in that ankle," Callaghan said. "We took a picture and saw it was clear—a clean fracture."



Taris had a non-displaced condylar fracture in her right front ankle, but still finished second in a grade I sprint.



"The fact that she hung on for second definitely is a testament to her sound mind and personality, for sure," Callaghan said.

With the surgery and layoff, however, the timing was perfect for a Breeders' Cup run. Heading into Keeneland lightly raced with only two starts this year, Taris' connections remain confident. She also has a win over the track, in last year's Lexus Raven Run Stakes (gr. II), which she took by nine lengths for trainer Todd Beattie.

NOVAK: Taris Flies Clear in Lexus Raven Run



"It was always our plan to get to the Breeders' Cup," Callaghan said. "With the timing of the two races, it worked out for her. It was pretty logical, and with this sort of filly—the plan when we bought her always to hope for her to be a Breeders' Cup candidate.



"When you have a very high-profile filly and she's odds-on for a grade I and she gets injured, of course it's very disappointing, but when she had the injury, it all fit in with the time she needed to get back ready. It kind of all made sense."



"We just got her back to being super fit and (Callaghan) wanted to get her back to square one—nice and relaxed attitude," Stevens added.



Taris will get one more "relaxed" work at Santa Anita before shipping to Lexington Oct. 25. Hopefully she doesn't run into a Triple Crown winner in the morning again.