In the latest chapter of his widely acclaimed series recalling his personal favorites, Jay Hovdey tells the story of an unsung hero who ran in four different races in four years at the Breeders’ Cup
Let’s hear it for the unsung heroes. The anonymous donor. The unnamed benefactor. The Good Samaritan who was first to help at the scene of the crash, then melted into the crowd once the ambulance arrived.
Pleasant Tap was that kind of racehorse. My kind of racehorse. Without calling much attention to himself, he made the breed look good. He played hard and often on the greatest stages of the game. He battled injuries but refused to surrender. He was handsome, honest, and reliable – on screen he would have been typecast as the leading man’s loyal best friend. Doc Holliday to Wyatt Earp.
There is not much that needs to be said of a horse who broke his maiden in stakes company, won the Jockey Club Gold Cup at 10 furlongs, the Malibu Stakes at seven furlongs, and an Eclipse Award as the nation’s top older runner. There were other prizes, along with a series of placings that always left him in the conversation. And his record of running in four different Breeders’ Cup races over four seasons figures to stand for a very long time.
In his final start, the Breeders’ Cup Classic of 1992, Pleasant Tap came within two lengths of being acclaimed Horse of the Year. But few remember such arcane details in the bigger picture of grand champions and Hall of Famers. In the end, it is enough to say that Pleasant Tap made good horses run hard to beat him, and when they didn’t, they knew the reason why.
Pleasant Tap was bred and owned by Thomas Mellon Evans, a distant cousin of Paul Mellon, who ran his Thoroughbred business as Buckland Farm. The enterprise was based in Virginia, on land once owned by relatives of George Washington and Robert E. Lee. Evans purchased the property in 1956, and later established a Buckland presence in Kentucky.
Not known for his patience
When he was not breeding horses, Evans was known as an effective corporate raider of the 1950s and 1960s, buying companies and stripping them of their assets. And although he had a philanthropic side, Evans was not known for his patience with man or beast.
Never Knock, the dam of Pleasant Tap, was a daughter of Belmont Stakes winner Stage Door Johnny who came from a well-established line of modestly producing Buckland broodmares. Her first foal was Navy Knock, a filly by Bold Navy who went 0-for-4 as a two-year-old in 1988 before embarking on a brief breeding career highlighted by the winner of a St Leger – in India.
Pleasant Tap hit the ground on May 8, 1987, at Buckland in Virginia. Soon after little Pleasant Tap was weaned his dam was on the block at the 1987 November bloodstock sale at Keeneland. Pamela Darmstadt duPont bought Never Knock for $52,000 and took her home to Pillar Stud in Kentucky. In 1991, to the cover of Cormorant, Never Knock produced Kentucky Derby winner Go For Gin.
Such flashes of broodmare brilliance from Pleasant Tap’s female family should come as no surprise. The line traces without interruption to La Troienne, a virtual factory of Thoroughbred quality. Never Knock’s dam, the stakes-placed Never Hula, was a granddaughter of Black Helen, the North American champion three-year-old filly of 1935. All Black Helen did was win the Coaching Club American Oaks and defeat helpless young colts in the Florida Derby and the American Derby.
Besides Black Helen, other daughters and granddaughters of La Troienne were responsible for such racing luminaries as Buckpasser, Quadrangle, Busher, Affectionately, But Why Not and Priceless Gem.
As quick as Evans was to dismiss Never Knock, he was in for the long haul with Pleasant Colony, the sire of Pleasant Tap. Pleasant Colony was a living tribute to ‘pretty is as pretty does’, as he carried his large, gangly frame to the threshold of the 1981 Triple Crown before finishing third in the Belmont.
Still, he was reinvigorated sufficiently by trainer Johnny Campo to win the Woodward Stakes later in the season to salvage the three-year-old championship. At stud he had a vigorous career of 70 stakes winners spread over 18 crops that included classic winners St. Jovite and Colonial Affair.
Promising, tantalizing, frustrating
Under the care of Christopher Speckert, Buckland’s private California-based trainer, Pleasant Tap was promising at two, tantalizing at three, frustrating at four, and then fully realized as a premier five-year-old of 1992, when he became a national presence at the top of the handicap game. He was a robust dark bay, bereft of markings, and an unmistakably smooth mover once put in motion by a variety of Hall of Fame riders.
Speckert came to the Buckland job by way of his native England, through an apprenticeship with noted equine practitioner and surgeon Greg Ferraro, and then finally, in an ultimate finishing school, as stable assistant and traveling caretaker of top horses trained by Charlie Whittingham.
Speckert also came fully equipped with a nickname derived from the main character of a series of children’s books by Enid Blyton that began in 1949 with Noddy Goes to Toyland. “I was told in school to go read the ‘Noddy’ books because I was so stupid, and it stuck,” Speckert said. The animated version of the Noddy saga continues to this day.
With a training career that soared for several key years before scaling back, ‘Noddy’ Speckert became a popular and highly-regarded West Coast presence. He brought a well-honed sense of humor to the table, accompanied by a barking laugh that could peel paint off a barn wall. He got his hands dirty in the mornings and wore Savile Row in the afternoons, respectful not only of his position representing a major eastern establishment, but also in deference to the Thoroughbreds in his care.
In Pleasant Tap, Speckert found a challenge that could have thwarted most horsemen. Along the way the big colt battled back from sore ankles, dicey knees, and a tendon that thankfully was not as bad as initially looked. He won the 1989 Sunny Slope Stakes in the fall at Santa Anita to break his maiden, then never a factor in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Gulfstream Park a month later.
‘They’d only give me 20-1’
Six months after that he found himself in the post parade for the 116th running of the Kentucky Derby. Speckert, who retired from training 10 years ago but maintains contact with many in the sport, remembers the 1990 Derby in vivid color.
“If you watch the race, they have a camera on Unbridled, and Pleasant Tap is inside Unbridled all the way around,” he recalled. “He was kind of hampered on the turn, then came back on to finish third, at 40-1! I’m shaking so much I couldn’t even see. I’d flown to Vegas to bet him at 100-1, but when I pulled out a hundred dollar bill they’d only give me 20-1.”
Pleasant Tap was beaten about nine lengths by Unbridled and six by runner-up Summer Squall. Ten days later in Baltimore, as Speckert prepared for the Preakness, his colt worked five furlongs in a blistering :57 3/5 despite the best restraining efforts of the rider, over a Pimlico surface that was neither greased nor downhill. Opposing trainers were relieved but not surprised when news came out that Pleasant Tap emerged from the work with an enlarged tendon.
“He went back to the farm, they blistered him and turned him out,” Speckert said. “Next thing you know he’s back in training with their private trainer, Ross Pearce. So it must have been a strained tendon sheath, since it couldn’t have been a core lesion of the tendon.”
Pearce had done well in the late 1980s with a number of Buckland runners, but he had no luck with Pleasant Tap. The colt came off the bench to be unplaced in the Pegasus Stakes at the Meadowlands, then landed an allowance race at Belmont before an ill-considered swing at the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Turf, won by In The Wings.
Shortly after that, Pleasant Tap was back in Speckert’s care in California, where he promptly finished second in the Native Diver Handicap and won the Malibu Stakes to wrap up the season, before 45,176 fans on Santa Anita’s opening day.
Speckert had every right to be encouraged about his coming four-year-old. Alas, the best Pleasant Tap could do that winter of 1991 was a third-place finish to Farma Way and Festin in the Santa Anita Handicap, at embarrassing odds of 36-1.
Speckert noted that his horse always finished with good energy, but he could never seem to close the deal. Eventually, chips were removed from both ankles, and Pleasant Tap was sidelined again.
Walking, walking, walking
“This time I talked the boss into letting me keep him in the barn,” Speckert said. “We gave him the rest of the spring and into the summer, walking, walking, walking. In that sense I never completely stopped on him.”
Pleasant Tap returned to win an allowance race, as he should have, late in the Del Mar meet. That got him to the Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita, but he could not catch the top two, The Prime Minister (Whittingham) and Marquetry (Bobby Frankel). It was a tough room.
“He deserved to go to the Breeders’ Cup, but he wasn’t fit enough yet to try the Classic,” Speckert noted. “So we entered the Sprint, thinking that he’d come running and have a chance to pick up a decent piece of the purse, especially over that long Churchill stretch.”
By then the sight of Pleasant Tap in a Breeders’ Cup race was hardly a surprise. This time, however, he made a lasting impression by charging down that long stretch to finish second, three lengths behind the shocking British sprinter Sheikh Albadou. Speckert’s faith in his horse paid off with a $200,000 second-place prize.
“I always relied on that kick, and that’s the way I trained him,” Speckert said. “It’s always better to finish third and come running rather than finish third going backwards. The horse is happier, too.”
A half-hour after the Sprint, Speckert saddled Buckland’s Pleasant Stage to come from far back to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, clinching the division championship in the process. Like Pleasant Tap, the filly was by Pleasant Colony out of a Stage Door Johnny mare.
Returning to California, Speckert needed only three disappointing races from Pleasant Tap to realize it was time to head for the softer, more forgiving dirt tracks of the east. As a result, in April of 1982 Pleasant Tap commenced a run of eight races that took the five-year-old to the top of the game.
He won the Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland at seven furlongs by a galloping 2½ lengths, then took the Churchill Downs Handicap, again at seven furlongs, with a wide trip that got there by a nose over Take Me Out.
Moving on to New York, Pleasant Tap was second in the Metropolitan Handicap when front-running Dixie Brass kept right on going after a half in 44.80s and three-quarters in 1m08.50s, while major stakes winners Rubiano, In Excess and Twilight Agenda struggled in arrears.
In the subsequent Nassau Handicap, Strike The Gold got first jump on Pleasant Tap and beat him a neck. Five weeks later in the Suburban Handicap, Delahoussaye and Pleasant Tap easily turned the tables on Strike The Gold.
At the time, Speckert had become a frequent flyer, commuting back and forth from his stable in Southern California to New York, where he employed an ambitious young exercise rider named Jose Cuevas to care for Pleasant Tap – the same Jose Cuevas who later became Frankel’s indispensable right-hand man on the NYRA circuit.
The Speckert stable was rolling in California as well, thanks primarily to Another Review, a four-year-old son of Buckaroo who racked up four graded stakes wins, including the G1 Californian. The trainer also dispatched champion Pleasant Stage to finish a close second in the Kentucky Oaks.
Once Pleasant Tap cooled out from the Suburban, Speckert set his sights on the biggest prize of all. Everything would be pointed toward the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct 31, 1992, at Gulfstream Park, which is why the horse got the rest of the summer off and did not return until the Woodward Stakes at Belmont Park on Sept 19.
Closed like a whirlwind
After a spot of trouble, he closed like a whirlwind on front-running Sultry Song to lose by less than two lengths. Speckert licked his lips and circled the Jockey Club Gold Cup, with its fat purse of $850,000 on the line for Oct 10.
At this point, jockey politics intervened. Delahoussaye had been associated with Pleasant Tap throughout their banner 1992 campaign. Delahoussaye also was the regular rider of Belmont Stakes winner A.P. Indy, who was bearing down on a late season effort to secure Horse of the Year for trainer Neil Drysdale. To no one’s surprise, Delahoussaye chose A.P. Indy for the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Speckert responded by securing Gary Stevens.
“Eddie’s my best buddy, and we still talk to this day,” Speckert said. “But truth be told I wasn’t that disappointed. I thought Gary might really help the horse. He’s got that bit of niggle to him. Just the change of hands figured to wake this horse up.”
Whether or not Pleasant Tap knew the difference is beside the point. While A.P. Indy suffered a poor start, Stevens gave his horse a smooth trip from just off the pace to cruise home by 4½ lengths in 1m58.95s, a clocking shaded only once in 33 run
nings of the Gold Cup at a mile and a quarter.
“Pleasant Tap has always been a solid, consistent horse, distinguished more by his reliability than his brilliance,” wrote Andrew Beyer in the Washington Post. “But today he ran the race of his life to win the $850,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup and establish himself as the favorite for the Breeders' Cup Classic.”
In fact, when the best of the best convened for the ninth running of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, horseplayers made A.P. Indy their slight favorite over Pleasant Tap, and that is precisely the way the race played out. The younger colt was more forwardly placed in the 14-horse field all the way around, while Stevens had to work out a trip at key points with Pleasant Tap.
With a furlong to go they were within a length or so, but then A.P. Indy kicked on to win by two lengths, while Pleasant Tap held second ahead of Jolypha, the Juddmonte filly trained by Andre Fabre.
Definitely he would’ve been Horse of the Year’
“Definitely he would’ve been Horse of the Year, but there you go,” Speckert said. “If it had been at Belmont I think we he have won, but A.P. Indy was the better horse on harder ground around the mile track at Gulfstream.”
Pleasant Tap’s late-season flurry was enough to edge the California gelding Best Pal in Eclipse Award voting for champion older male. He was retired to Buckland’s Kentucky facility with nine wins, 14 placings, and earnings of $2.7m, which made him far and away the leading earner from Pleasant Colony’s first eight crops to the races. Only Pleasantly Perfect and Behrens later passed Pleasant Tap on their sire’s list of money-winners.
After relocating to Kentucky, Speckert saddle his last horse in the fall of 2012. Always a man of many interests, he became an expert horticulturalist and then established a home renovation business, while his wife, Susan Speckert, has held influential positions with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and with the mayor’s office of the city of Lexington. Still, the name of Speckert always will be associated with his challenging work with Pleasant Tap.
Classically gorgeous
“Tapper was a completely different horse from any other Pleasant Colony,” Speckert noted. “He was just so beautiful and big and strong and round, short of cannon bone, and he had the most beautiful head on him. Just classically gorgeous.”
Upon the death of Evans in 1997, Pleasant Tap was moved from Buckland to Lane’s End Farm. He died there in 2010 from complications of laminitis and is buried alongside fellow stallions Fappiano, Dixieland Band, Rubiano, Fit To Fight and Saint Liam. At stud, ‘Tapper’ proved a worthy enough successor to his sire. Among his 53 international stakes winners were David Junior (Champion Stakes, Dubai Duty Free), Tiago (Santa Anita Derby), Premium Tap (Woodward Stakes) and Tap Dance City (Japan Cup).
Speckert is forgiven, however, if one particular son of Pleasant Tap comes first to mind. “I had a mare called Noddy’s Halo with Tom Tatham we bred to him,” Speckert said. “We named him P C Plod, who was the policeman in the Noddy series.”
P C Plod labored for Speckert through 20 undistinguised starts before his true calling was realized. Under the guidance of trainer Neil Morris, P C Plod jumped his way to victory in the 2001 edition of the G2 AFLAC U.S. Championship Supreme Hurdle Stakes at Pine Mountain, Georgia. By eight lengths, no less.
“How about that Pleasant Tap?” Speckert said with a laugh. “He was some horse.”
• Read all Jay Hovdey's features in his Favorite Racehorses series
Breeders’ Cup miracle: the tearjerking story of the racehorse and the boy who wished upon a star
Great racetracks we have lost: Hollywood Park and the dawning of the Breeders’ Cup era
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires