The tote at FTKNOV hadn't really had a chance to cool off following the sale of Songbird before another of the sale's gems, Tepin (Bernstein–Life Happened, by Stravinsky) got her turn on center stage. When all was said and done, the Eclipse Award winner was knocked down to Coolmore's M.V. Magnier for $8 million. A $140,000 FTSAUG yearling purchase by Robert Masterson, Tepin was trained throughout her career by Mark Casse and came to hand at four, with a breakthrough Grade I success in the Just a Game S. before a slashing seven-length win in the GI First Lady S. and a comprehensive defeat of an international bunch in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile. Hard though it was to believe that the best was yet to come, that it was, as Tepin made the trans-Atlantic journey to Royal Ascot, and despite racing on a severely rain-affected track, gutted it out to become the first American winner of the G1 Queen Anne S. She added the GI Woodbine Mile at her trainer's home base and was a gallant runner-up off a wide trip in defense of her title in the Breeders' Cup Mile. Cataloged as hip 130 and consigned to the sale by Elite Sales, Tepin, offered in foal to Curlin, won 13 of 23 starts for earnings of $4,437,918.
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