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As the half-sister to a multiple stakes-winning earner of over a quarter-million dollars by a son of Tapit, the recently-acquired broodmare prospect Unrequited Love is a perfect candidate to visit a similarly-bred stallion for her first mating in 2023. As such, we are excited to have Unrequited Love visit the impeccably-bred young stallion Tacitus this spring at Taylor Made.
In addition to being a son of multiple leading sire and renowned sire-of-sires Tapit, Tacitus is out of the Eclipse Champion Older Mare Close Hatches. A Juddmonte homebred (like her son), Close Hatches hails from the direct female family of Blue Hen Best in Show (Tacitus’s 5th dam), and she is sired by another Juddmonte homebred in First Defence (himself a son of G1 Honest Lady, she in turn a daughter of the Juddmonte Blue Hen Toussaud). So this is a pedigree replete with the highest class of runners and producers both top and bottom, and Tacitus did his best to live up to his illustrious lineage, taking the G2 Tampa Bay Derby (in stakes record time) and G2 Wood Memorial, as well as the G2 Suburban, and placing in no fewer than 5 G1s, including a pair of classics. A tall, balanced, strongly-made horse, Tacitus offers mare owners the complete package — and in fact, Unrequited Love’s dam, Wild For Love, delivered a colt by Tacitus earlier this spring.
As referenced above, Wild For Love is the dam of the top Maryland-bred colt of 2021, Local Motive, who is by Divining Rod. In addition to both being sons of Tapit, Divining Rod’s dam is by a son of Storm Cat, while Tacitus’s dam is out of a daughter of Storm Cat — so lots of pedigree similarities here to a mating that has already worked very well. In addition, Unrequited Love is by the Speightstown son Despite the Odds, and when Tapit and his sons have been mated with other mares from the Gone West sire-line it has produced the likes of multiple Eclipse Champion Essential Quality, G1 winner Zazu, G3 winner and leading Maryland sire Bandbox, etc. Tapit with Not For Love mares (like Wild For Love) has also been a very strong cross, so this pairing has those bloodlines working for it, too.
In addition to how well their pedigrees match up on paper, we like this mating on physicals and proclivities, too. Unrequited Love was a precocious and fast sprinter/miler, which should speed up the more classically-oriented Tacitus, while both are good-sized, well-made horses with loads of quality (she was actually rated third in her class at the MHBA Yearling Show by renowned trainer Michael Stidham a few years back), and we cannot wait to see the foal this pairing produces in 2024!
Local Motive wins the 2021 James F. Lewis Stakes at Laurel