Tenma captures the Las Virgenes (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
Earned 20 Additional Qualifying Points for This Year’s Kentucky Oaks
Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Calif. — Tenma bagged her third graded stakes win and earned 20 additional qualifying points for this year’s Kentucky Oaks with a 6 ½-length romp in Saturday’s Grade III, $100,000 Fasig-Tipton Las Virgenes Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going a mile at Santa Anita.
After scratches reduced the field to just three fillies, Tenma went off as the heavy 2-5 favorite under Juan Hernandez. Tenma broke alertly before soon finding herself running in tandem with Just as Fancy (4-1), who had Flavien Prat aboard. Just as Fancy led by a head through a quarter mile in 23.05 and after a half mile in 47.45 seconds. Well behind that pair in third was Cipriani, who like Tenma is trained by Bob Baffert.
Tenma put away Just as Fancy midway around the second turn, reached the quarter pole in 1:12.56 and continued strongly to the wire to win in a time of 1:38.31. Cipriani, who trailed by eight lengths after the opening quarter mile, made a run at Tenma turning into the stretch but proved no match for the winner and finished second.
“She broke beautiful today,” Hernandez said of Tenma. “This filly is getting really professional. Before she was a little rank sometimes, getting out. But this time she went beautifully. She put herself in a good spot. I was outside and had a good position. I was enjoying my trip, then at the quarter pole she switched leads and kicked off to the wire.”
Tenma, by Nyquist, is owned by Baoma Corp. She won her debut in August at Del Mar sprinting 5 ½ furlongs, then scored in the GI Del Mar Debutante going seven furlongs. Tenma made her two-turn debut in October in the GII Oak Leaf going 1 1/16 miles and was a bit of a disappointment when finishing third at 2-1.
“She has been maturing,” Baffert said. “Her worst race was in the Oak Leaf before the Breeders’ Cup. I didn’t feel like she was mature enough to run in the Breeders’ Cup, but now she has come a long way.”
After the Oak Leaf disappointment, Tenma got back on the beam with a win in the GII Starlet going 1 1/16 miles on Dec. 7 at Los Alamitos.
Tenma paid $2.40. As for Cipriani, who earned 10 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points for owner Speedway Stables, Baffert came away encouraged. This was only Cipriani’s second start and first since a debut win in October at Santa Anita sprinting 6 ½ furlongs.
“She is just really green and just figuring it out,” Baffert said. “You will see a big improvement out of her.”
