American Tap made a spectacular debut on local soil on Saturday, winning the $1.25-million Nigel B Nunes Memorial Cup feature at Caymanas Park in a run that exemplified sheer style and talent.

The six-year-old Canadian-bred bay mare toyed with rivals for the first half of the race before laying out powerfully in the final stages of the race to win 4¾ lengths in the Non-Restricted Overnight Allowance contest for three-year-olds and upward over five furlongs (1,000m) straight.

American Tap, bred by Tapiture out of the Quiet American mare American Castle, ran the distance in a remarkable 58.2 seconds after cantering the last half furlong (100m).

Trained by Howard Jaghai and ridden by Tevin Foster, American Tap broke off well at the start of the feature race and quickly contested for pole position. The fleet-footed American Tap showed good speed along with Ultimate Machine (Dane Dawkins), True Bravado (Phillip Parchment), and Press Conference (Richard Henry).

Crossing the dummy rails and onto the main track for the last two furlongs (400m) of the race, Foster urged his mount to remind her that she was still in a race, and American Tap responded by pulling away from rivals to win handily at the wire.

Press Conference was second and Ring Charmer (Roger Hewitt) was third. The splits for the race were 23.1 x 46.0.

Foster’s victory was his second on the nine-race card, having earlier brought Captain Calico home for trainer Anthony Nunes in the seventh race. Raddesh “Sneaky Fox” Roman also took home two victories. Roman won the second race for trainer Ricardo Brown atop KP Choice, and the ninth and last race for trainer Alford Brown with From Sheer To Ben. Racing continues next weekend with races on Saturday and Sunday.