Half Sister to Tepin Set to Debut at Keeneland

On an Oct. 18 afternoon at Keeneland in which a full field of well-bred fillies competes in the Pin Oak Valley View Stakes (G3T), it is an unraced filly in the second race that may have the most eye-catching pedigree of all.

Repossession, a 2-year-old daughter of War Front , is out of the Stravinsky mare Life Happened, making her a half sister to two-time champion turf mare Tepin and multiple graded stakes winner Vyjack. She is bred for the conditions of the 1 1/16-mile grass maiden test in which she is a morning-line 5-1 chance.

Tepin, known as the "Queen of the Turf" after winning six grade/group 1 races, was at her most brilliant on the Keeneland grass course, where she won three of four starts. She won the 2015 First Lady Stakes (G1T), the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) that year over males, and the 2016 Coolmore Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T). Her lone loss on the Keeneland turf came in 2016 when she was second in the First Lady that fall.

She finished second in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita Park and was retired the following spring.

How Repossession stacks up against her sister and other siblings gets its first measurement Friday. She has breezed swiftly on a few occasions on the Keeneland main track, capped by a half-mile gate breeze in :47 2/5 Oct. 6.

"I don't know what to expect," said her trainer, Ben Colebrook. "Obviously, the pedigree is there."

Owned by LNJ Foxwoods, Repossession was purchased for $750,000 by bloodstock agents Alex Solis II and Jason Litt during opening night of The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's select yearling sale, in 2018. Her acquisition was not the first time they had come in contact with a filly with this pedigree—they owned her dam before selling her privately after Tepin won the Queen Anne Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot in June 2016.

"Checks all the boxes, beautiful mover, huge page. All the good stuff," Litt said at the time of Repossession's purchase. "I thought the price was fair market value. She's a lovely filly."

Life Happened last sold publicly at the 2014 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, where Solis and Litt bought her, also for $750,000, from Select Sales' consignment. 

Although overshadowed by the achievements of Tepin, who won 11 graded stakes, other foals out of Life Happened have performed at a high level, including Vyjack (by Into Mischief ), who won four graded races and was twice grade 1-placed. He ran 18th in the 2013 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1). Another foal, Prime Cut (by Bernstein), was stakes-placed on three occasions.

Tepin's rider over her championship seasons in 2015-16, Julien Leparoux, has the mount on Repossession.