There’s an elephant in the room, and her name is Tepin.
Last year’s champion turf female and Breeders’ Cup Mile winner is absent from the entries for today’s Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga Race Course and that’s likely causing trainers to breathe a sigh of relief. Seven of the 10 fillies and mares entered in the $500,000 stakes have unsuccessfully gone head-to-head with the dark bay powerhouse on at least one occasion.
Tepin, the winner of seven straight and dominant in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes last month at Royal Ascot, is in training at Saratoga but her connections opted to bypass the Diana.
She’s out of sight, but definitely not out of mind.
“With the exception of Tepin it’s got every strong filly there is on the East Coast,” said Todd Pletcher, who saddles multiple graded stakes winners Isabella Sings and Sandiva in the Diana.
Pletcher isn’t the only trainer trying to avoid Tepin in the Diana, the first of 18 Grade 1 stakes at the meet.
Graham Motion did it earlier this year with Miss Temple City, running her in the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile April 15 at Keeneland against males to avoid Tepin in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley the next day. Miss Temple City won the Maker’s and also ran at Royal Ascot, finishing fourth in the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes the day after Tepin’s victory.
“(She) had everything to do with it, I mean that was the reason we did it,” Motion said of Miss Temple City running against males at Keeneland. “I just didn’t fancy running against Tepin, and I really didn’t do it until the last minute. I’d always planned on running in the Jenny Wiley, and as it got closer to the time I started thinking, ‘I’m just not sure that I want to run against this mare who’s already beaten the boys.’ I thought perhaps the Maker’s Mile was the best of the two evils. And she got a break with the weight, running in there against the boys, and it was a mile, which I thought was a really good comeback distance. So it just kind of added up. I entered both races, but that ended up being what made the most sense.”
Miss Temple City, the 3-1 favorite for the Diana, won the Maker’s Mile by 1 1/4 lengths over Heart To Heart to set up the Royal Ascot try. Her race there was credible, just 3 1/4 lengths behind the winner while carrying 131 pounds.
“I thought she ran very respectfully,” Motion said. “I also think I underestimated how much of an effect the weight was going to have on her. You know when she ran at Keeneland, she carried 113 pounds against the boys. And when we went to England she carried 131 pounds, so it was a huge weight shift. And she picked up a five-pound penalty for winning the Group 1 at Keeneland, which, you know for us in this country, I don’t think five pounds we’re quite used to it.
“We run on firm, flat turf courses, so I don’t think it makes that much of a difference. But over there, you know running on soft ground, up and downhill, it makes a big difference, and I think they said no horse had won that race in 18 years or something carrying what they call a penalty. I underestimated that. And when he came back to me after the race, (jockey) Ryan Moore, he said ‘you know I think without the extra weight we hit the board.’ I thought she ran very courageously, she wouldn’t have beaten the winner I don’t think. But I thought it was a very good effort.”
To read the rest of the Diana preview, download Saturday’s digital edition of The Saturday Special presented by Keeneland Sales.
