Breeders’ Cup Mile: Tepin peaking

When Beholder tries to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 31 at Keeneland, it will be an especially big deal since Zenyatta in 2009 remains the only female Classic winner. Females in the Breeders’ Cup Mile? That’s old hat. A filly or mare has won eight of the 31 Miles, and it could happen again in 2015.

The French mare Esoterique is a possible runner, and Tepin, all things being well, definitely will be in the starting gate Oct. 31 at Keeneland. Tepin punched her ticket – with a huge roundhouse that connected squarely – by winning the Grade 1 First Lady last Saturday at Keeneland by seven lengths. A course-and-distance blowout win a month from the BC Mile looks good on the bare face of things, but what about how fast Tepin ran? She got her last quarter-mile in 23 seconds and change and went a mile over a soft, testing course in 1:37. The Beyer Speed Figure came back a 108, the highest for a middle-distance turf horse anywhere in North America in 2015.

“I hope that wasn’t the race of her life,” said Mark Casse, who trains Tepin for Robert Masterson. “I hope she has one more in her.”

The 4-year-old Tepin emerged from relative obscurity to turn into an absolute turf tiger this season. Casse said her connections always held the filly in high regard, and she won the rich Delta Princess late in her 2-year-old season, but Tepin wound up with a 2014 record of 4-0-1-0, her best showing a second-place finish in the Grade 2 San Clemente at Del Mar.

“We took her home to Ocala last winter, gave her 30 days, and she’s just kind of been hell on wheels since she got back,” Casse said. “She always showed a lot of talent, but it’s like she just got herself all together.”

Tepin won a second-level turf allowance race in her first start this season, then captured the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile on May 2 at odds of 9-1. She quickly dispatched with any notion that that win might have been fluky by winning the Grade 1 Just a Game, but she took two brutal beats at Saratoga, losing the Diana by a nose and the Ballston Spa by a head.

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Then came the First Lady tour de force. Casse said he thinks temperature plays a part in how Tepin performs: It’s not like she can’t abide heat, but in cooler weather, like at Keeneland last weekend, Tepin strikes Casse as a happier, more energetic horse.

“As crazy as it seems, she won the First Lady with such ease. She came back, she ate up, she’s happy. I think she’s fine,” Casse said. “I keep asking how many times she can keep throwing these big races. But it’s a big advantage having a horse you know likes the course, and there’s a great chance it’s going to be a little bit soft for the Breeders’ Cup.”

The more traditional BC Mile prep at Keeneland also was last Saturday, with Grand Arch parlaying a perfect trip to victory in the Shadwell Turf Mile. He’s a go for the BC Mile, but Shadwell runner-up The Pizza Man will stretch back out for the BC Turf. Third-place Tourist, racing from much farther off the pace than usual, is an interesting Mile candidate.

In England last Friday, Esoterique comfortably dispatched with female rivals in the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes, while in France last Sunday, Make Believe won the Group 1 Prix de la Foret. Andre Fabre trains both horses, and both are under BC Mile consideration.

Other possible European runners are Karakontie, Territories, and Time Test.