James B. Tafel entered the Thoroughbred racing world with his eyes wide open – hopeful, but not disillusioned, committed and now quite pleased. He knows full well that horses at the caliber of his home-bred, Street Sense, don’t come along very often. Thrilled by the colt’s record ten-length romp in $2 million Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the reality of being in the spotlight for the Triple Crown and the Kentucky Derby, Tafel acknowledged his second Eclipse Award, this time for Two-Tear-Old Champion, as “just as sweet.”
Tafel admits to being dragged into Thoroughbred ownership with both heels dug in. “All horseplayers die broke” resonated in his sensible consciousness, swayed by the penmanship of Damon Runyon and the fate of the famed author’s novella characters.
Tafel recalls with a laugh, “I was very reluctant to get involved.”
Tafel rode polo ponies as a youth. His first exposure to a major racing event was during a break in a business trip to south Florida. Gorgeous Hialeah Park was in its heyday. Some years later, he accompanied a close friend to the Keeneland July Sale on two or three occasions. The atmosphere was exhilarating. His friend, a keen study of pedigree as well as a true racing fan, did well to bring home some outstanding horses.
Following his retirement as chairman and CEO from Technical Publishing Company near Chicago, Tafel was persuaded to join a couple of racing partnerships. One Dogwood Stable venture included Nassipour, who won or placed in thirteen stakes including the 1995 G1 Rothmans International.
Tafel went on to enjoy triumphs in the G1 Travers Stakes with Unshaded; the G1Florida Derby and G1 Fountain of Youth S. with Vicar; and in 1998, along with partners Richard Santulli and George Prussin of Jayeff B Stable, accepted an Eclipse Award for their divinely honest three-year-old filly, Banshee Breeze. In all, the daughter of champion Unbridled earned $2.78 million and won five Grade Ones: the Spinster, Alabama, Coaching Club American Oaks, and the Apple Blossom and Go For Wand handicaps. Tafel’s other stakes winners include Coolawin, Til Forbid, Metfield, Binalong, Unbridled Wind, Lakenheath, Scoop and Groomstick, who he owned with his Executive Vice President and good friend, Gardner F. Landon.
Owning top-class athletes naturally expanded to breeding. Tafel retained shares in several stallions including Colonial Affair, Honor Grades, Binalong, and Metfield, though the greatest impact to his stable was his interests in leading sire Unbridled. At the time of the 14-year-old stallion’s untimely death, Tafel’s runners held claim to nearly a third of the stallion’s nineteen Grade One progeny wins.
Tafel emphasizes “It’s a tough game. We have been very pleased to have done as well as we have. We have been rather successful with a relatively small breeding operation.”
One common denominator in that success is trainer Carl Nafzger, whom he has shared a great relationship for more than twenty years. When asked about Nafzger, Tafel bantered lightly, “We have had a good time together,” but straightforwardly described him as “very honest and fair.” Nafzger was voted the nation’s highest honor as Outstanding Trainer in 1990, the same year he saddled Frances Genter’s Unbridled to a Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic victory. As Nafzger tells it, “I can really train if they can really run.”
Over the years, Tafel has adhered to the rules of logic by mostly mating proven mares to proven stallions. He would also breed a young mare to a proven stallion and occasionally a proven mare to an unproven stallion. He rarely swayed from the rules. In retrospect, Tafel now punctuates his theories with “But I guess that’s a bunch of nonsense,” because Street Sense was by an unproven stallion and out of an unproven mare.”
In defending his Dubai World Cup stunner, Street Cry’s powerful exhibition in the G1 Stephan Foster Handicap made a complete believer of Tafel. His ‘darn good runner’ Unshaded was among the creditable field of graded winners that were thrashed by more than six lengths. Street Cry’s striking presence was etched in Tafel’s mind. “He had the balance, athleticism, and I particularly remember him having a powerful rear end and a good strong bone,” he remarked.
Bedazzle’s pedigree deserved attention. His four-time allowance winner of $197,455 is a daughter of Mass ‘Cap and Pennsylvania Derby winner Dixieland Band – a perennial leading broodmare sire – and from the family of Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up Mr. Greeley and French Champion Sprinter Lianga.
While evaluating strategies for the upcoming breeding season with bloodstock consultant Headley Bell, Tafel second-guessed himself only long enough for the two to have a look at Street Cry at the farm. He told Bell, “I want to be sure what I saw at Churchill Downs was what I remember.”
In describing the resulting colt, Tafel said “From the time he was foaled, he has just been one heck of a horse. Of course, the sales companies were very interested in having him in the yearling sales. There is no way that I could possibly buy a horse that had everything that Street Sense had, so there was no way that I was going to sell him. My principle interest is in racing.”
Nafzger called Street Sense’s magnificent Breeders’ Cup win, “our derby prep.” Over the winter months in Florida, Street Sense’s solid frame has filled out; maturing into an even more attractive sophomore. He breezed a workmanlike five-eighths in 1m 3 and 2/5s on February 12 at Palm Meadows Training Center, only 25 minutes from Tafel’s home in Boynton Beach, and drilled five panels in 1m 2/5s six days later. “If we can go on and be the first one to win the Derby with a horse who won the Juvenile, that would really be a great achievement and something I would really enjoy doing with Jim Tafel,” said Nafzger. His goal is to have Street Sense at peak form on the first Saturday in May, prepared to make history in the $2 million, Grade One Kentucky Derby.
The word on Street Sense is, “He is right on schedule.”
Nafzger’s roadmap back to Churchill Downs takes a familiar path. A tune-up race in March will be followed by a one and one-sixteenth miles return to Polyturf on April 14 in the G1 $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland – reminiscent of his final BC prep when third in the G1 Breeders’ Futurity last fall.
Street Sense’s $1,178,200 earnings propelled Street Cry (Ire) to the exalted glory of Leading Freshman Sire of 2006. Not alone in this conquest; three more Stakes Winners – G3 Acomb S. winner Big Timer, Sweep’s Cry and Canadian-bred Street Sounds, plus two stakes placers and nineteen individual winners helped secure earnings at year’s end at $1,852,250.
In 2007, Summer Doldrums (Street Cry) threw his hat in the Derby ring with a five-and-a-quarter length win in Aqueduct’s Whirlaway S. He covered eight-and-a-half furlongs in a stakes-record 1m 42 and 1/5s. His Beyer Speed Figure of 106 is the best number of any three-year-old routing this year.
In a circular event of circumstances Bedazzle has returned to Jonabell (now Darley America) as part of the Darley broodmare band and will be bred to Street Cry in 2007. Her Elusive Quality two-year-old daughter is taking her early lessons in stride at Ocala Stud in Florida. The filly is expected to join the Nafzger team in the spring.
Before his death in 1946, Damon Runyan dropped $10,000 in one month on the dice table at Saratoga. His advise to his son was, “Don’t gamble!” When James Tafel was asked if he had a bet on Street Sense last November, he was quick to point out that the $50,000 entry fee was “quite a wager!” The joy that Street Sense delivered was the payoff.
Written by Julie Hazelwood Castro
Posted at Darleyamerica.com – Photo by Morry Gash/Associated Press
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