Rare feats will define Tepin’s racing career.
In 2015, Tepin became the first female to win the Breeders’ Cup Mile in five years. In 2016, she reached a unique milestone – the first American-based horse to win the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at the Royal Ascot meeting in England.
No wonder Tepin is again a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female of 2016, a title she won in 2015.
Take that, boys.
Twice in 2016, Miss Temple City beat males in Grade 1 races on turf at Keeneland – the Maker’s 46 Mile in April and the Shadwell Turf Mile in October.
Add a hard-fought win in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes against fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Del Mar on Dec. 4, and Miss Temple City compiled a record that earned her a place among the three finalists for the Eclipse Award as outstanding turf female of 2016.
Go ahead, admit it: You rooted for Lady Eli at every chance in 2016.
When trainer Chad Brown said the filly was back in training after a frightening bout with laminitis in 2015, the reaction was one of relief – and delight. Lady Eli was undefeated in six starts at ages 2 and 3, and the prospect of her adding to those achievements as a 4-year-old in 2016 gave the distance female turf division a star.
When Frosted was good, he was very good. That’s all anyone needs to remember about him.
His performance in the million-dollar Mohegan Sun Metropolitan Handicap last June 11 was one of those watershed efforts that had to be seen to be believed. It happened on Belmont Stakes Day, with outstanding races carded left and right. But by sunset, as the crowd cleared, all anyone could really talk about was Frosted.
People looked at Frosted one way before the Met Mile, and in an entirely different way afterward.
Here are some of the things California Chrome did not do in 2016.
He did not win the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He did not win the most Grade 1 races, nor did he compete anywhere other than California and Dubai.
He also did not get up on his hind legs and recite the Gettysburg Address, or rip the Pipeline off Oahu’s North Shore, or dope-slap Garry Kasparov over a friendly game of cutthroat chess.
But that’s only because he didn’t try.
Trainer Chad Brown knew that Practical Joke had the mental makeup to be a good horse well before the colt proved it on the racetrack.
But Practical Joke did prove himself a talented runner, winning his first three starts, including two Grade 1 stakes, before finishing third in the Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita. Those accomplishments made him a finalist for the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old male.
In Shackleford, Dale Romans trained a horse that won the Preakness and Metropolitan Handicap. In Kitten’s Joy, Romans trained a horse that won seven graded stakes and became an exceptional stallion. In Roses in May, Romans trained a horse that won the Dubai World Cup.
Still, when Romans talked about Not This Time, he said many times he thought he could be the best horse he ever trained.
“He checks off every box,” Romans said. “He’s got intelligence, he’s got pedigree, he’s got looks and turn of foot, and he’s already run fast. What else do you need?”
Nyquist will be trying to add this year’s 3-year-old male Eclipse Award to the Eclipse Award he earned last year as champion 2-year-old male, which would emulate some of the accomplishments of American Pharoah, who completed that double one year ago.
