The maroon and white silk Winchell thoroughbreds are a familiar sight on the main racing days. Starting with Verne, founder of the family’s eponymous donut chain, and now through his wife Joan and son Ron, the Winchells have become a force in 21st American racing of the 19th century, where names like Gun Runner, Tapit, Epicenter and Gunite were among the stars to wear their colors.
Their homebred filly Untapable brought more hardware to the Winchells at the Breeders’ Cup World Championship, turning her victory in the 2014 Kentucky Oaks into a win in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and a career as rich as her pedigree.
After the first quarter mile of the 2004 Wood Memorial Stakes, the gray or roan Pulpit colt was the last of eleven; in the half mile he was ninth. But at the finish, after a sustained drive through the stretch, Tapit Master passed David and Eddington to take his trademark Grade 1 victory. When he went to stud later that year, with a record of three wins in six starts, few could have predicted that Tapit would become a leading sire.
In 2010, following a multi-stakes winning season for Paddy O’Prado, who finished third in the Kentucky Derby, the Winchells sent his mother, Fun House, to Tapit’s court in Gainesway. Eleven months later, on February 13, 2011, she gave birth to a bay filly. They would name her Untapable and entrust her to Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.
From the start, Untapable was full of personality, as David Fiske, the Winchells’ farm manager, said Blood horse in 2013: “She was always a bit temperamental; she never wanted to be caught in the stables or outside. She wanted to do things her own way,” he said.
That spirit was evident early on as she led from start to finish in her debut at Churchill Downs, winning by length with Rosie Napravnik in the saddle.
A trip to Saratoga for the Adirondack Stakes resulted in the Tapit filly remaining in her stable when a bout of colic derailed Asmussen’s plan. She returned to Louisville and attempted the 1 1/16-mile Pocahontas Stakes as part of an eight-horse field. With Napravnik back in the saddle, Untapable chased the leaders, turned outside and closed quickly to win by half a length. A difficult journey in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and then a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet saw the Tapit filly round out her 2013 with two wins and a third in four races at 2 years old, paving the way for a fantastic 3-year-old season.
Asmussen pointed to the 2014 Kentucky Oaks and put Untapable on the road from New Orleans to Louisville, starting with the Grade 3 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, named for another champion filly from the Asmussen barn. Untapatable dominated the field by 9 ½ lengths and followed with a 7 ¾ length win in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks. She arrived at Churchill Downs ready to tackle a stacked field in the Kentucky Oaks.
Untapable went to the starting gate as the even-money favorite among the 13 competitors. Ria Antonia, winner of the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies; Silverbulletday Stakes winner Unbridled Forever; and My Miss Sophia, who won the Gazelle Stakes last month, were among the main challengers. When Empress of Midway flipped the starting gate and had to be dropped from the race, the delay meant the fillies had to be taken out and then reloaded into the gate. Unfazed by the whole thing, Untapable was running fourth behind pacesetter Sugar Shock, moved up into the final corner and then took the lead going into the stretch. She quickly put two lengths between her and the rest of the field and crossed the finish line 4 ½ lengths in front.
Untapable gave the Winchells their second Oaks win after Summerly in 2005 and Napravnik also her second after riding Believe You Can to victory in the 2012 edition.
Untapatable followed that performance in late June with an easy victory against a small field in the Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont Park. Having dominated her division to that point, she took her unbeaten record from 2014 to Monmouth Park to face three-year-old males in the Haskell Invitational Stakes. Although she started as favourite, the filly endured a difficult journey as she was distracted and bumped at the start before losing ground as she raced wide throughout the Monmouth race. She finished fifth behind Bayern, who would win the Pennsylvania Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Classic later that season.
Like Bayern, Untapable would appear at Parx Racing, but this time she stepped back into her division and once again faced three-year-old fillies in the Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes and had no trouble beating the seven challengers in the field. Asmussen brought his Tapit filly west for the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita. There she would face older fillies and mares for the first time at 1 1/8 miles. The field included Grade 1 Close Hatches winners Iotapa, Belle Gallantey and Don’t Tell Sophia and familiar foes Ria Antonia and Unbridled Forever. Napravnik remained in sixth place for the first six furlongs and gave Untapable the green light to make the far turn, going around the horses to enter the Santa Anita stretch with a short lead over Iotapa. Untapable ended her virtually undefeated season with a 1 ¼ length victory in the Distaff, which earned her the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old filly.
Napravnik surprised everyone with her post-race announcement that she would be retiring to start a family with husband Joe Sharp, trainer of Grade 1 winner Girvin. Not quite ready to make that transition herself, Untapable returned to the races in 2015.
Untapable returned at ages 4 and 5 to compete in Class 1 races such as the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park, the Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga and the Spinster Stakes at Keeneland, but Untapable was unable to duplicate the championship form she showed in her second season. She rode nine more times with one win, the 2015 Apple Blossom, and several stakes rankings. The Winchells retired her after the 2016 Fleur de Lis Handicap and sent her to Frankel for her first mating.
After a stellar track career that saw the maroon and white silks receive more Class 1s, including a Kentucky Oaks and a Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Untapable’s performance earned her a namesake stakes race at Kentucky Downs, the Franklin, Ky., racetrack. of which Ron Winchell shares ownership with partner Mark Falcone.
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