Asmussen Aims to Make Untapable Feel at Home

Recalling the strides Untapable made—and top races she delivered—during an extended stay at Fair Grounds, trainer Steve Asmussen shipped the top 3-year-old filly early to Santa Anita Park to allow her to get comfortable.

Based on her mornings, the move appears to be paying off for the Winchell Thoroughbreds homebred as the daughter of leading sire Tapit   prepares to face older horses for the first time in the $2 million Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I) Oct. 31 at Santa Anita. 

This year's Longines Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) winner has spent October at Santa Anita, registering four handy works including a five-furlong move in :58 3/5 Oct. 19. She delivered a more leisurely move Oct. 26, completing four furlongs in :50 3/5 in her final serious preparation for the 1 1/8-mile Distaff.

Asmussen said Untapable benefited from getting settled in at Fair Grounds, where she registered a 9 1/2-length score in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes (gr. III) Feb. 22, and a 7 3/4-length win in the Fair Grounds Oaks (gr. II) March 29. She started her career at Churchill Downs, winning her first two career starts including the Pocahontas Stakes (gr. II) racing out of the Asmussen barn there. She then returned to Louisville in the spring to win the Kentucky Oaks by 4 1/2 lengths.

"I think it's quite easy to see on her form, that her two races at Fair Grounds and her Kentucky Oaks win at Churchill were her best races," Asmussen said. "She was able to walk out of her own barn for those races. We're trying to re-create that here, if at all possible."

Untapable will try to become just the third Kentucky Oaks winner to take the Distaff and just the second to win both races in the same year. Ashado swept the Kentucky Oaks and Distaff in 2004. Asmussen said it's a challenge to win Breeders' Cup races with 3-year-olds, male or female, because initial plans focus on the Triple Crown races and the top races for 3-year-old fillies.

"That makes the Breeders' Cup difficult for 3-year-olds. You're not thinking Breeders' Cup when the horses are turning from 2 to 3. You're thinking the Oaks or the Derby. After she had that kind of success in the Oaks, the Breeders' Cup was on the radar. But before the Oaks, all you're thinking about is the Oaks."

Untapable finished eighth in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) at Santa Anita. This year she has won five of six starts, all stakes. Her only loss came in a fifth-place finish against males in the William Hill Haskell Invitational Stakes (gr. I). Asmussen gave the filly some time off after that race and she returned with a winning effort in the Cotillion Stakes (gr. I) Sept. 20 at Parx Racing.

Asmussen likes the timing of that race going into the Distaff, where Untapable is the 5-2 morning-line choice.

"We were glad to have her back winning and then have enough time to prepare for this race," Asmussen said.