Baffert's strategy pays off well for Tenma

Skipping the Breeders’ Cup last month helped the 2-year-old filly Tenma finish the year with a sharp win in Saturday’s Grade 2 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos, and secure a place among the national prospects in the 3-year-old filly division for 2025.

Tenma had her first start on Saturday since she finished a well-beaten third to stablemate Non Compliant in the Grade 2 Oak Leaf Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Oct. 5.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert passed on the BC Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar on Nov. 1 with Tenma in favor of the Starlet.

“I wasn’t confident that she would run well,” Baffert reflected on Sunday.

Away from Breeders’ Cup attention, Tenma had five workouts from mid-October to earlier this month in the buildup to the Starlet Stakes at 1 1/16 miles.

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Sent off as the 5-2 second choice in a field of seven, Tenma set the pace for the first time in her career and fought off a determined second-time starter in Look Forward to win by 1 3/4 lengths.

Tenma gave Baffert a record eighth consecutive win in the Starlet and the 11th in his career. Baffert won the race three times at Hollywood Park before the track’s closure in 2013.

Ridden by Juan Hernandez, Tenma was timed in 1:44.16 and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 83. Tenma has won 3 of 4 starts for owners Susan and Charles Chu’s Baoma Corp. By Nyquist, Tenma won her first two starts – a maiden race at 5 1/2 furlongs on Aug. 18, and the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante at seven furlongs on Sept. 7.

“She ran like she did at Del Mar,” Baffert said of Saturday’s race. “She looked like she moved forward again. I liked the last 100 yards. She was starting to pour on.”

Baffert has the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 3 as a long-range goal for Tenma.

“I’m looking at the Kentucky Oaks,” he said. “I’ll work back from there.”

Tenma goes into the winter as Baffert’s leading 3-year-old filly of 2025. Non Compliant has not worked since she was scratched from the BC Juvenile Fillies in the days before the race.

Baffert has won the Kentucky Oaks three times, most recently in 2017 with Abel Tasman. He has not had a starter in the race since 2020. Baffert was suspended by Churchill Downs management from 2021 until last summer after Medina Spirit failed a post-race test after finishing first in the 2021 Kentucky Derby.

Baffert returned to Churchill Downs on Nov. 27 when the highly regarded colt Barnes won a maiden race.

Tenma could appear in a wide array of races, both in Southern California and at tracks such as Oaklawn Park.

In the first four months of the upcoming Santa Anita season, there are three graded stakes for 3-year-old fillies at a mile or more on dirt – the Grade 3 Las Virgenes Stakes at a mile on Feb. 2, the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 2, and the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks at 1 1/16 miles on April 5.

One of those races may include Look Forward, who started in the Starlet Stakes on the strength of a six-furlong maiden race win at Del Mar for trainer Ben Cecil on Nov. 8.

Cecil died on Nov. 29 of a cancer-related illness.

Look Forward, owned and bred by Paul and Zillah Reddam, was recently transferred to trainer Michael McCarthy.

McCarthy said after Saturday’s race that Look Forward will have a brief rest before resuming training.

“We’ll regroup and form a plan in a few weeks,” McCarthy said. “She certainly was game in defeat.”

Vodka With a Twist, second in the BC Juvenile Fillies to division leader Immersive, was not a threat in the stretch of the Starlet after racing in third or fourth for the first six furlongs. She is not expected to race again until March, trainer Phil D’Amato said on Sunday.

“I think I ran one too many” times, D’Amato said. “She ran hard in the Breeders’ Cup.

“I probably should have shut her down. She’ll get a nice little break, maybe return to the races in March.”

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