Tap On Wood had an unusually active two-year-old season for a top-class European racehorse: by September he had already run ten times and won six races at distances from five to seven furlongs.
His win was only confirmed after the racecourse stewards overruled an objection by the rider of the runner-up who claimed that Tap On Wood had caused interference by hanging to the right in the closing stages.
[3] Tap On Wood began his second season in April at Salisbury Racecourse where he finished a well-beaten fourth behind Lake City in the 2000 Guineas Trial.
Two weeks later, the colt was sent to Yorkshire to contest the Timeform Racecard Stakes over one mile at Thirsk Racecourse and won by half a length from the filly Abbeydale.
Ridden by the American jockey Steve Cauthen, Tap On Wood raced towards the back of the field before moving up to contest the lead with three furlongs left to run.
In what Timeform described as "a memorable finish" Tap On Wood prevailed by half a length from Kris, with Young Generation a short head away in third place, giving Cauthen his first win in a British classic race.
[5] Tap On Wood returned in the Kiveton Park Stakes at Doncaster Racecourse in September for which he was required to carry a ten-pound weight penalty for his classic win.
Tap On Wood was scheduled to meet Kris for a third time in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot later that month but he suffered a recurrence of the viral infection and did not race again.
[5] In the International Classification, he was rated the seventh best three-year-old colt in Europe behind Troy, Le Marmot, Irish River, Kris, Bellypha and Dickens Hill.
[9] At the end of his three-year-old season, Tap On Wood was syndicated at a value of £1 million and retired to stand as a breeding stallion at the Kildangan Stud in County Kildare.