What made his victory remarkable was the fact that his reins broke some 50 yards out of the gate, according to the colt’s former co-owner George “Bud” Kline, who still follows Premium Tap’s career closely.
Despite jockey Kent Desormeaux only being able to grab on to one side of the reins for almost the entire mile and a half, Premium Tap still prevailed over Impossible Ski, who now races in Saudi Arabiia under the name Radae.
Premium Tap’s next two objectives are another crack at the King’s Cup (also known as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup) and the Dubai World Cup in March, in which he was a game second earlier this year to Invasor.
In the Crown Prince Cup, Premium Tap defeated 17 rivals. It was the third time he and Impossible Ski, who was ridden by John Velazquez, finished one-two. The time for the 12 furlongs was 2:29.10.
Premium Tap was purchased after his victory in last year’s Clark Handicap (gr. I) by Saudi’s King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and sons. The son of Premium Tap has now won 10 of 22 career starts, with earnings of over $2.5 million.
