Second Straight Turf Female Championship for Tepin

As good as Tepin was in 2015, trainer Mark Casse and owner Robert Masterson figured they owed it to the daughter of Bernstein to show her off during her 5-year-old campaign. In a whirlwind tour that saw her win at five different tracks in three different countries, Tepin managed to maintain her superiority over one of the best divisions in racing in 2016.

Though she ended her season with runner-up finishes in the First Lady Stakes (G1T) and Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T), what came before was strong enough for Tepin to earn her second straight Eclipse Award for champion turf female.

The mere presence of Tepin was enough to strengthen the credentials of the filly who would become her biggest competition for year-end hardware. Three-time grade 1 winner Miss Temple City earned two of her top-level triumphs as a result of running against males in an effort to dodge the 2015 Breeders' Cup Mile heroine.

Through her first six outings in 2016, tangling with Tepin was futile.

The Florida crowd got the first taste of the fully mature bay mare when she began her season with victories in the Lambholm South Endeavour Stakes (G3T) and the Hillsborough Stakes (G2T) at Tampa Bay Downs, before rolling to a five-length win in the Coolmore Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland in April. In what would be her final stateside victory of the year, Tepin captured the Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes (G2T) for a second consecutive season and then set off across the Atlantic to make a little history.

NOVAK: Tepin Sets Jenny Wiley Record

The notion that American turf runners were lesser on international ground was dispelled June 14, when Tepin bested a global assemblage of male rivals to become the first North American-based horse to win the Queen Anne Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot. A deserved three-month freshening followed, after which the Machmer Hall-bred mare further drove home her superiority when she toppled males once more in the Sept. 17 Ricoh Woodbine Mile Stakes (G1T).

ANGST: Straight and True, Tepin Wins Queen Anne

“I think if you look at it, there are a lot of great trainers who have won a lot of Breeders’ Cups (and) a lot of great trainers have won the Kentucky Derby,” Casse said. “But for her to win a (group) 1 going a mile against older colts (at Ascot)—it’s something that we’ve been able to achieve that very few have. I said all along it was right up there with the Breeders’ Cup. But after much reflection, I would say it’s our No. 1 accomplishment.

“When you have a turf horse like Tepin, she’s not just dealing with the best horses in North America—it’s the world. They’ve shipped many good ones, and she usually sends them packing.”