QE II winner Tam Tam could go to American Oaks, with a divisional title in her sights

Tam Tam won the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Saturday at Keeneland, and it wasn’t especially close. She went straight to the lead under Junior Alvarado and never truly received a challenge, cruising through a comfortable half-mile while two lengths ahead of her nearest pursuer.

“When I saw the half-mile and the way she was travelling, I was pretty confident,” said Phil Bauer, who trains Tam Tam for Richard Rigney’s Rigney Racing.

Tam Tam added the Grade 1 QE II to her Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, rising to the top of the 3-year-old filly turf-route division – and is not done yet.

Rigney hails from Pasadena and grew up going to Santa Anita, and that -- all being well with Tam Tam -- could provide the final push to send the filly to California in search of a third Grade 1 this year, the American Oaks on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.

Tam Tam began her season in February, still a maiden, and even without the American Oaks has put together a diverse, sustained, impressive campaign. She cleared the maiden ranks Feb. 7, then won the Sanibel Island over 7 1/2 furlongs at Gulfstream Park, and back in Kentucky for a spring-summer run, Tam Tam finished second by a head in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 Edgewood at Churchill.

:: Bet Keeneland with confidence! Get DRF PPs, Picks and more.

About four weeks later, on May 30, Tam Tam turned in her only sub-par showing this year – and that wasn’t a bad race at all, a third in the 1 1/8-mile Regret at Churchill. On June 27, at Churchill again, she won the listed Tepin Stakes by almost six lengths, followed by her 1 1/2-length score in the 1 1/8-mile Del Mar Oaks, and her crowning achievement Saturday. Tam Tam, who has coped with an array of course conditions, earned a career-best 96 Beyer in the QE II.

If the vote were held today, Counting Stars probably would be named champion 3-year-old filly by virtue of Grade 1 wins in the Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks, but she finished a bland third at 2-5 in the Grade 1 Alabama, and was no match for older foe Fully Subscribed in the Grade 1 Spinster, which went with a three-horse field. Counting Stars won’t race again this year and were Tam Tam to add a third Grade 1 to her resume, she’d fall squarely in Eclipse Award consideration.

Rigney, who made his fortune as a flavor chemist and entrepreneur, bought Tam Tam, a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro and the Distorted Humor mare Princess Julia, for $975,000 as a yearling. Bauer said the QE II victory rated about on par with the 2023 La Troienne, a Grade 1 for older fillies and mares that Bauer and Rigney won with Played Hard.

The way she’s developed through her sophomore campaign, Tam Tam could go even higher.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.