Tepin poised for another good run in Ballston Spa
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Tepin won her first three starts of 2015, including a pair of graded stakes, to establish herself among the leaders of the female turf division. In her first foray to Saratoga, it took a course-record performance to beat her, as she lost by a heartbreaking nose to Hard Not to Like in the Grade 1 Diana Stakes on opening weekend.
Tepin gets a chance for Saratoga redemption in the Grade 2, $400,000 Ballston Spa Stakes on Saturday. The event for fillies and mares on turf is one of seven graded stakes on the card and immediately follows the Grade 1 Travers Stakes.
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Tepin captured the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile and the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes, both at a mile, earlier this year. She stretched out to 1 1/8 miles with a strong performance in the Diana and now cuts back to 1 1/16 miles.
“I don’t think it matters,” said Norman Casse, assistant to his father, trainer Mark Casse. “I think she’s a miler, but I think she can run effectively at a mile and an eighth, so a mile and a sixteenth should hit her right on the head. I guess it just depends on how the pace is.”
Two others from the Diana figure as top contenders and might be part of that pace scenario along with Tepin: third-place Kitten’s Queen and fourth-place My Miss Sophia. Kitten’s Queen, a minor stakes winner herself, has served as a pacemaker for stablemate Stephanie’s Kitten as of late. However, she’s held her ground bravely after setting honest fractions, finishing third by three-quarters of a length in the Grade 2 New York Handicap and third by a neck in the Diana.
My Miss Sophia, second in the 2014 Kentucky Oaks, found new life on turf for trainer Bill Mott when winning an optional-claiming event by 4 1/2 lengths on the front end at Belmont in June. She immediately stepped up against Grade 1 company in the Diana, tracking Kitten’s Queen in second until deep stretch.
Kitten’s Queen is one of three in the race trained by Chad Brown, who also will saddle Danza Cavallo and Dacita. Danza Cavallo finished fifth in the Grade 1 Gamely at Santa Anita earlier this season, then got some class relief in the 1 1/2-mile Waya Stakes on Aug. 8 at Saratoga. However, she was rank early behind a slow pace set by victorious stablemate Goldy Espony and faded to 10th. Brown has cut her back in distance hoping she’ll settle off additional pace up front.
Dacita makes her first start since Dec. 8 and her first in the U.S. The Chilean-bred is 6 for 9 and a multiple Group 1 winner in her native country. She and Danza Cavallo shared a bullet work on the Oklahoma turf course on Sunday.
“[Dacita] seems to be coming along nice,” Brown said. “She’s a really good-looking filly and a Group 1 winner back in Chile, so we have high expectations for her.”
– additional reporting by David Grening