Tepin Decides She's Had Enough

Eclipse Award Winner Tepin has been retired. Tepin has dominated grass racing for the past couple of years. She finished first in the 2015 Breeders' Cup Mile, and won the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.

What's great about Tepin's retirement is that the athlete pretty much decided to hang up the horseshoes on her own. Tepin refused to work at Palm Meadows in late March. After taking her to Churchill Downs, her attitude toward racing, which is how owner Robert Masterson described it, didn't change.

Tepin told her connections that she was done. That's awesome!

Here are my four most memorable Tepin races.

2015 Breeders' Cup Mile

Th first thing to notice is that Tepin rated kindly right off Obviously. When it comes to speed on the grass, Obviously is as good as it gets. He's no joke. The next thing to notice is how she exploded in stretch when jockey Julien Leparoux asked her.

How big was the 2015 BC Mile win? Tepin went off the third choice. Two hugely talented Europeans, Make Believe and Esoterique, went off at lower odds. Grade 1 winner Mshawish was also in the field as was Japanese horse Krakonite. 2016 BC Mile winner Tourist, who got the jump on Tepin in the 2016 BC Mile, couldn't touch the Queen of the Grass in this race.

 

2016 Woodbine Mile

Sure, Tepin went off at 40 cents on the dollar to win the 2016 Woodbine Mile. But, before anybody says that it was an easy race for her, we must remember that she hit the gate and stumbled. Then, she had to go three-wide around the turn before holding off top European miler Mutakayyef, who finished third. I think it was a brilliant run.

 

2015 Just A Game Stakes

Tepin had beaten Lady Lara, Coffee Clique, and Sandiva in the Churchill Downs Distaff Turf Mile Stakes. The win didn't prove anything because in the Just A Game Tepin went off at 4 to 1 odds, below the odds on both Coffee Clique and Ball Dancing. She beat Filimbi by half a length.

I think the Just A Game is the race that put Tepin on the map. After winning two graded turf mile races in a row, horseplayers had to take her seriously.

2016 Queen Anne Stakes

The Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes, always run on the first day of the Royal Ascot Meet, is one of the most prestigious races in the world. Some of the best known turf horses in history have won the Queen Anne Stakes. American bred and British trained Rousillon won the Queen Anne in 1985. Barathea won the race in 1994. Kalanisi won it in 2000.

Perhaps, the last great turf miler mare, Goldikova, won the Queen Anne Stakes in 2010. The Queen Anne was one of Frankel's 14 wins in his undefeated career. There's no way I can leave the Queen Anne off my list!