Elloree Training Center Graduate Soars in the Breeders Cup

When Tapitsfly bested Rose Catherine to win the Breeders Cup Juvenile Filly Turf for trainer Dale Romans and owner/breeder Frank Jones, it produced an especially proud moment for Franklin Smith and the Elloree Training Center.  In addition to Tapitsfly, her dam Flying Marlin had also schooled in Elloree.  

Franklin Smith said, “Flying Marlin was a very good race mare – she just missed being a really good filly.  She liked the turf so we tried Tapitsfly on the turf and she breezed well on the turf.“  

Currently a half sister Pollard’s Vision filly is in training at the Elloree Training Center (Below).

Long time Elloree Training Center client Frank Jones, Jr., and trainer Dale Romans, got their first Breeders Cup victory on November 6th when Tapitsfly won the one million dollar Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf race at Santa Anita.  Tapitsfly, a daughter of Tapit out of Flying Marlin, had previously won the P.G. Johnson Stakes at Saratoga.  Tapitsfly received her early training at Frank "Goree" Smith's Elloree Training Center in South Carolina and for these same connections Frank Smith currently has Tapitsfly's yearling half-sister (pictured above) who is by the hot young stallion Pollard's Vision.  The dam of Tapitsfly, Flying Marlin, was also a graduate of the Elloree Training Center and Frank Smith remembers her as a filly who had some ability herself as she went on to win allowance races on the turf at Keeneland and Churchill.