Taptowne works for final start of 2013

Taptowne returned to the Churchill Downs

work tab on Wednesday with his first serious training move since a star-crossed

journey to Southern California for a planned run in the Breeders' Cup World

Championships.

Temperatures were in the mid-20s when the gray gelding

breezed five furlongs for trainer Tim Glyshaw in 1:00 4/5 over the fast main

track. The move was the best

of only three at the distance on a sparsely-populated morning workout roster.

Although Churchill Downs track crews worked the track throughout the night to

counter the effects of sub-freezing conditions and to have the main track ready

for Wednesday's racing, little water had been placed on the surface over the

past couple of days because of the cold snap.

Most horsemen passed on serious training on the frigid

morning, but Glyshaw had no reservations about sending Taptowne out for his

breeze.

"He's pretty professional," Glyshaw said. "He works the

same on any kind of surface. The conditions weren't optimal, but we wanted to do

it today so we could get it out of the way.

"You have race day rules to get off the vet's list, and we

were working today to get off the California vet's list. But he worked really,

really well."

Taptowne had been placed on that California list in the

aftermath of his journey to Santa Anita for the Breeders' Cup Dirt

Mile. Santa Anita stewards scratched Glyshaw's horse on the day before the

November 1 race after a veterinarian had advised that the horse had suffered a

minor hoof bruise.

The Breeders' Cup trip was one of the few disappointments

in a year that has been easily the best of Taptowne's four racing seasons. The

consistent Tapit gelding has fashioned a 9-2-5-1 record with earnings of $381,716 in

2013. His career earnings stand at $552,599 after six wins in 28 lifetime races.

His 2013 highlight was an August 3 win in the West

Virginia Governor's Stakes at Mountaineer, but he has kept good company in

strong races throughout the season. Taptowne was runner-up in the Oaklawn

Handicap in mid-April and has also recorded

second-place finishes this season in Churchill's Ack Ack Handicap, the Prairie

Meadows Cornhusker and in his most recent outing in the Michael G. Schaefer Memorial on October 5 at Indiana Downs.

Glyshaw's stable star is expected to have one more start in

his successful 2013 campaign. He had looked at both the Grade 1, $500,000 Clark

Handicap at Churchill going 1 1/8 miles

on November 29 and the Grade 2, $350,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles on

the following day as

possible spots for Taptowne's final start of the year.

Horses

considered as strong candidates to compete in the Clark include

the D. Wayne Lukas-trained Travers winner and Breeders' Cup Classic

runner-up Will Take Charge and Game On Dude, trainer Bob Baffert's beaten

favorite in the Classic.

"With Game On Dude and Lukas' horse looking like they'll run in the Clark, we didn't need to go

there," Glyshaw said. "The mile-and-an-eighth (of the Clark) was going to be a

little bit of a question for him, anyway, but I definitely can't do it with

those horses in it. And the mile-and-a-quarter of the Gold Cup is too far for

him."

With those races out of consideration, Glyshaw has circled the $150,000 Swatara, a 1 1/16-mile race for

three-year-olds and up at Penn

National on November 27, to be Taptowne's near-term objective. If all goes well in

that Thanksgiving Eve outing, the race will be his final outing of 2013.

"After that race he'll have all of December off," Glyshaw

said. "We'll probably take him to Oaklawn and run him in the series of races for

older horses there. But he'll be back to run next year."

Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com