The hits just keep on coming for champion Tepin and, with yet another comprehensive defeat of her peers in defense of her title in Saturday's GII Churchill Distaff Turf Mile, a trip to England next month now beckons.
A nose and a head shy of a perfect seven-for-seven season last season, Tepin employed off-the-pace tactics to win the GI Just a Game S. on last year's GI Belmont S. undercard before suffering heartbreaking defeats in the GI Diana S. and in the GII Ballston Spa S. Given a chance against the boys in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile off a seven-length thrashing of the field in the GI First Lady S., she reported home 2 1/4 lengths to the good on Breeders' Cup Saturday, securing her championship.
The handy winner of the GIII Endeavour S. in her seasonal return at Tampa Feb. 13, Tepin was given a perfectly timed ride to best long-leader Isabella Sings (Eskendereya) by a length in the GII Hillsborough S. Mar. 12 and entered this off another jaw-dropping tally in the GI Jenny Wiley S. at Keeneland Apr. 16.
Drawn the fence in search of her sixth straight, Tepin got the first call, but predictably, jockey Julien Leparoux asked her to come back to him to allow Isabella Sings to scamper to a loose lead yet again. That free-running chestnut was unopposed on the engine, but threw down an opening half-mile in a sizzling :46.06 and had the heavy favorite breathing down her neck on the turn. Tepin breezed to the front when allowed to do so by Leparoux, shot clear and was never in any danger as Rainha Da Bateria closed off decently for second. Isabella Sings dropped out tamely to finish at the tail.
And now the world awaits.
“I guess Royal Ascot here we come,” winning trainer Mark Casse said, referring to a possible start in the G1 Queen Anne S. on the opening day of the Royal Meeting. “I'm a big believer in confidence and I think that she got her confidence. She gets along real well with Julien and I've said this many times, but [son and assistant] Norman has done a great job with her and he knows her. She doesn't train like the average horse.”
Casse admitted the victory was on the sentimental side.
“I've been coming here for a long time,” he explained. “This is my first time since my dad [Norman Casse] passed away a couple of months ago, so this is kind of hard. If you're a horse trainer, this is what you strive for and I don't know if there is a better place to win than at Churchill Downs on Derby Day, and then to win with the best horse I have ever trained is very nice.”
Life Happened, a half-sister to GSW and useful sire Disco Rico, went to Jason Litt and Alex Solis for a sale-topping $750,000 on behalf of LNJ Foxwoods while carrying a Harlan's Holiday colt at the 2014 Keeneland January sale. Life Happened, who produced a colt by the latter sire in May 2014, is also the dam of an unraced 3-year-old colt by Gio Ponti.
Saturday, Churchill Downs
CHURCHILL DISTAFF TURF MILE S.-GII, $300,000, CD, 5-7, 4yo/up, f/m, 1mT, 1:34.36, fm.
1–TEPIN, 123, m, 5, by Bernstein
1st Dam: Life Happened, by Stravinsky
2nd Dam: Round It Off, by Apalachee
3rd Dam: Capp It Off, by Double Zeus ($140,000 Ylg '12 FTSAUG). O-Robert E. Masterson; B-Machmer Hall (KY); T-Mark E. Casse; J-Julien R. Leparoux. $182,280. Lifetime Record: Ch. Grass Mare & MGISW, 19-11-3-1, $3,078,253. *Full to Prime Cut, $167,426; 1/2 to Vyjack (Into Mischief), MGSW & MGISP, $1,141,900. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Rating: C.
[bullet ad=”machmer-hall-bredfoaledraised”][bullet ad=”selectsales-shell”][bullet ad=”greathouse-yrlg-blue”][bullet ad=”kbif-g2g3″]2–Rainha Da Bateria, 118, f, 4, Broken Vow–Amelia, by Dixieland Band. ($435,000 Ylg '13 KEESEP). O-Three Chimneys Farm, LLC; B-Alexander Groves Matz, LLC (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $58,800.
[bullet ad=”bridlewood-farm-training-graduate”][bullet ad=”gainesway-consigned-by”]3–Cash Control, 118, m, 5, Pioneerof the Nile–Hidden Assets, by Mt. Livermore. O-Richard and Bertram Klein; B-Bert, Elaine & Richard Klein (KY); T-Brad H. Cox. $29,400.
[bullet ad=”clarkland-foaledraisedkleinfam”]Margins: 3HF, 3/4, 1 3/4. Odds: 0.30, 12.20, 18.30. Also Ran: Zipessa, Bureau de Change, She's Not Here, Isabella Sings. Scratched: Josdesanimaux, Ticking Katie (Ire). Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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