Nevada Beach's Success an Emotional Tribute for Tackett

Nevada Beach announced himself as a potential rising star in the sport when he stepped into grade 1 company—against older horses—to upset 2024 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) winner Full Serrano (ARG) in the $300,500 Goodwood Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park Sept. 27. Now a three-time winner from four starts, the grade 1 victory was extra special for his Kentucky-based breeder, Paul Tackett. "I'm awful proud of that colt," Tackett said Sept. 28. "Anytime you take a 3-year-old and beat older horses, it's a feat." Recently celebrating his 64th consecutive year of selling horses at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale and about to turn 88 in December, Tackett's operation has decreased in size in recent years from about 20-25 broodmares to 11. However, it's moments like watching the colt he bred and raised winning a grade 1 that keeps him getting up every morning. "I still get out every day and do what I can, but my age is catching me big time," Tackett said. "What keeps me getting up and what keeps me going is things like yesterday, and the nice people that I meet. The people, my vets and everybody, that take pity on me being old and they try to help me. I can't say enough good things about people that try to help me." One of the most important people who helped him along the way was his son, Philip, who died in 2020 at 52. Philip Tackett's estate and Philip's wife, Christy, are listed as co-breeders of the colt born in 2022. Nevada Beach's dam, Morrow Cove, was one of the mares that the father and son had purchased together, spending $95,000 at the 2014 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale on the two-time stakes winner by Yes It's True. Expectations were high, and even though she had produced several winners, she had not produced a stakes winner. "I was always a little mad because I hadn't bred a stakes winner out of her," Tackett said. "She was the kind of mare that should have one." It turns out, Morrow Cove was just waiting for the big stage as she is now a grade 1 producer. Unfortunately, she died from colic the following year while in foal with an American Pharoah filly, who was saved by the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute team and has been kept by Tackett. Nevada Beach is a son of Omaha Beach, who stood the 2025 season at Spendthrift Farm for an advertised fee of $35,000. Although having shown ability routing as winner of the 2019 Arkansas Derby (G1) and the morning line favorite of the Kentucky Derby (G1) before being scratched, Tackett was drawn to the son of War Front's ability to sprint—which represented two of his three grade 1 wins. "I like anything that Richard Mandella trains because he's a straight-up guy," Tackett said. "What I liked about (Omaha Beach) was that he could sprint, and he could go a flat mile. I felt because (Morrow Cove) really ran long and didn't have speed, I thought that Omaha Beach being able to sprint would be an asset." Tackett described Nevada Beach as a nice, big, gangly colt when he was born. "It took him a while to come around," Tackett said. "I kept thinking I wish I could get a little more hip on him." Despite that desire, the colt still brought $260,000 from Michael Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman when Tackett consigned him himself at the 2023 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The colt took some time to get to the races, but Tackett kept a watchful eye on his workouts for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. By spring of this year, he still had not raced, but there was one way Tackett knew the connections thought they had a good one. "I noticed this spring that Baffert and them bought a couple of Omaha Beaches at the 2-year-old sale," Tackett said. "I said to myself, 'If this horse can't run, I don't believe they'd be buying more.' Even though I wasn't talking to them, it tipped me off that this horse must be alright." Nevada Beach finally debuted with a victory at Santa Anita in April before finishing second in the Affirmed Stakes and winning the Los Alamitos Derby. On Saturday, he became the first member of the 2022 foal crop to score a top-level victory against older horses in America and punched his ticket to the $7 million Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Del Mar Nov. 1 through the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series. That milestone win was made even better through the connection to Tackett's late son. Philip worked with the horses as a kid but, given the smaller size of their operation, Tackett encouraged his son to get a good education. Philip received his master's degree from the University of Kentucky and worked for BearingPoint Consulting, Deloitte, IBM, TEKsystems, and Sagitec. However, Philip maintained his love for horses and continued to play a role as an owner and breeder alongside his father. "He and I bought about four mares in partnership," Paul Tackett said. "Everything he touched worked." One of those that Philip touched was My Conquestadory, a filly he helped raise that Paul would eventually sell for $70,000 at the 2012 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. She would go on to win the 2013 Alcibiades Stakes (G1) and Summer Stakes (G2T) and place in the 2014 Del Mar Oaks (G1T), San Clemente Handicap (G2T) and Selene Stakes (G3). Another was the mare Ek Haseena, who Philip co-owned with Paul at the time of his death. Having failed to produce much in her offspring, Paul told Christy that they needed to sell her and the short yearling that was born just over a week after Philip's death. At the 2021 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, she was sold for $14,000 and the Commissioner short yearling was sold for $9,000. That short yearling would be named Commissioner King and go on to win the 2023 Saudi Derby (G3) among a trio of stakes victories in Saudi Arabia, earning $1,027,168. Philip was a big fan of the late Arrogate, who they had bred their mare Sharan to before his death. When the foal, a filly, made her way through the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale in 2022 for $350,000, buyer John Rogitz heard Philip's story in an interview given by Tackett. "(Rogitz) said, 'I'd like to honor your son,'" Tackett recalled. "He named his filly Philippa; my son's name was Philip. Can you beat that?" Trained by Baffert, Philippa recently returned from a 10-month layoff to finish third in maiden company at Del Mar. She's hit the board in each of her last three starts.