Tepin taking a pass on Fourstardave

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Mark Casse said everything would have had to go right for his reigning female turf champion Tepin to run against the boys in the Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave at Saratoga on Aug. 13.

This week, things have not gone right.

Dissatisfied with how Tepin has trained this week, Casse has removed her from consideration for the Fourstardave, which would have been her first start since she beat the boys in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 14. Tepin has won seven consecutive races dating back to last October’s First Lady at Keeneland.

Casse said Tepin has been “very, very dull” this week and he decided not to breeze her this weekend as scheduled. On July 22, Tepin worked a half-mile in 50.39 seconds over Saratoga’s Oklahoma turf course, her first workout since returning from Royal Ascot on July 22.

“She’s not coming around as fast as I’d like,” Casse said Friday. “If we were going to run in the Fourstardave we had to breeze her this weekend, and I’m not ready to breeze her.”

Tepin galloped Friday morning over the Saratoga main track. Casse said Tepin looked better than she had earlier in the week but added, “I don’t want to work her off one good day.”

Casse said he would continue to evaluate how Tepin trains and said she could perhaps make her next start in the Grade 2, $400,000 Ballston Spa for fillies and mares on Aug. 27. Coincidentally, it was in last year’s Ballston Spa where Tepin suffered her last defeat.

If Tepin does run there, she could meet the undefeated Lady Eli, who might make her first start in more than a year in that spot. Lady Eli is attempting to return from a layoff caused by laminitis.

It also is possible that Tepin will not run at all at Saratoga and that she will simply train up to the $1 million Woodbine Mile on Sept. 17.