Tepin Secures Turf Female Championship

Tepin secured her Eclipse Award honors with a slam-dunk performance in the Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT), beating the boys by 2 1/2 lengths in a race which has now had a female winner upon nine occasions.

Trainer Mark Casse acknowledged tough competition in the female turf horse category after Stephanie's Kitten threw down the gauntlet with a sparkling Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT) score.

"I said to (son and assistant trainer) Norman, 'After Stephanie's Kitten's performance, if Tepin is going to be champion turf mare, she's going to have to win today," Casse recalled. "And I whispered that in her ear."

ANGST: Tepin Topples Males in Breeders' Cup Mile

Tough beats during the summer at Saratoga Race Course denied Tepin a flawless season after victories in the Longines Just a Game Stakes (gr. IT), Churchill Distaff Mile Turf Stakes (gr. IIT), and a Gulfstream allowance that kicked off her campaign in March. She missed by a nose to Hard Not To Like in the July 25 Diana Stakes (gr. IT) going 1 1⁄8 miles, then suffered a head beat to Dacita in the Aug. 29 Ketel One Ballston Spa (gr. IIT) over 1 1⁄16 miles at the Spa.

But a return to the mile distance, a bit of cut in the ground, and Tepin's affinity for Keeneland—where she maintains a three-for-three record—combined to help Robert Masterson's daughter of Bernstein close out her 2015 campaign with back-to-back grade I wins: a seven-length triumph over her own division Oct. 3 under regular rider Julien Leparoux in the First Lady Stakes and the Oct. 31 Breeders' Cup score.

NOVAK: Tepin Airs in First Lady, BC Mile Next

Tepin became the second Breeders' Cup winner for Casse in a two-day span; 2-year-old filly finalist Catch a Glimpse was his first Oct. 30 in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (gr. IT). Tepin is also the first Eclipse Award winner trained by Casse.

Bred in Kentucky by Machmer Hall out of the Stravinsky mare Life Happened, Tepin was purchased by Masterson at the Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga 2012 select yearling sale for $140,000. She is currently in training at Casse's Palm Meadows winter base in Florida, and is expected to return in the Feb. 13 Endeavour Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Tampa Bay Downs. Plans call for a return to Keeneland to perhaps face the boys again in the April 15 Maker's 46 Mile Stakes (gr. IT).

Voting totals in female turf horse division: Tepin, 211; Found, 38; Stephanie's Kitten, 8; Lady Eli, 2; Curvy, 1; voter abstentions, 1. 

Watch Tepin Win The Breeders' Cup Mile to Clinch Her Division Championship: