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Premium Tap surprises in Woodward
"It was no surprise to us," Desormeaux explained. "He's a very, very good gate horse, and that gets him away and out of trouble. I had him where I wanted him, and he was full of himself. I actually had to slow him down. In the lane, I just threw in a lead change and let him go. It was a measured victory. "He's just loving Saratoga right now. I had gotten on him a couple of times after the Whitney and he just dragged me around there. All I tried to do was keep him between the fences; he did the rest." Premium Tap rewarded his faithful backers with payouts of $64, $27.60 and $9.40 while starting the $929 exacta. Second of June, sent off at 21-1, gave back $19 and $7.70 for holding Sun King by three parts of a length at the wire. The nearly 5-2 favorite Sun King was the only one in the field to close, getting up to finish the $5,567 trifecta while returning $3 to show. The 40-1 Papi Chullo (Comeonmom) raced in fourth for much of the Woodward and finished in that spot to complete the astronomical $90,258 superfecta (8-7-5-2). Another length back in fifth came Andromeda's Hero (Fusaichi Pegasus), who was followed by Wild Desert (Wild Rush), Flower Alley, Funny Cide (Distorted Humor), Naughty New Yorker (Quiet American) and Suave (A.P. Indy). Wanderin Boy (Seeking the Gold) was scratched. Premium Tap, who made his stakes debut in the Albert the Great, now owns a 14-5-3-1 career mark and increased his earnings to $471,280 with the winner's check here. Bred in Kentucky by Machmer Hall and William S. Farish, and racing in the colors of George Kline, Peter Alevizos and David Whelihan, the bay four-year-old is the third registered foal out of the unraced Premium Red (Thirty Six Red) and has an unraced juvenile half-sister named Carmel Coffee (Holy Bull). "He's kind of been under the radar for quite sometime," Kimmel said. "Even when he broke his maiden as a two-year-old, I thought he was a pretty darn nice horse. I thought he would be a lot tighter this time than he was in the Whitney. He had a great training time in between the two races. I'm really proud of the effort. If we can keep him sound and healthy, we got some things to look forward to. Maybe we can take a trip to Dubai with him next year." Premium Tap has turned into a real bargain for his current connections, having been purchased for $60,000 as an OBS March two-year-old in 2004.
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