Tepin is Unstoppable in the Jenny Wiley at Keeneland

The turf racing machine named Tepin continued her domination, this time in Keeneland Race Course’s $350,000 Jenny Wiley (G1) with a five length victory in stakes record time of 1:40.53 for the mile and a sixteenth. The win was her fifth in a row dating back to the fall of 2015 and her third in three grade one starts on the grass at the Kentucky track.

The third largest crowd (outside of the Breeders’ Cup) in Keeneland history of 38,863 assembled for a great day of racing during which Tepin’s regular jockey Julien Leparoux won four races, which included his third victory in the Jenny Wiley. Leparoux previously won this turf event with Centre Court in 2013 and Forever Together in 2009.

The Jenny Wiley Stakes, which is named for a pioneer of the same name, who was taken by Native Americans in Kentucky and escaped after being held captive for a year, proved to be very little competition for the Champion daughter of Bernstein. After breaking very alertly, Leparoux and Tepin were able to sit a few lengths behind the two early leaders, longshots She’s Not Here (60-1) and Illuminant (37-1). Those two dueled for the first half-mile going 23.39 and 46.89. At that point Tepin was ready to move and Leparoux let her easily go by the pacesetters.

The race was pretty much over after the first six furlongs went in 1:11.04, By the time the Mark Casse trainee had gone a brisk mile in 1:34.52, she had a lead of four lengths. At the wire, Tepin notched her tenth career victory, Wekeela closed to get second, and Illuminant managed to hang on for third.

After the race Leparoux sang the praises of Tepin, “She’s amazing. You know she can do whatever we want. I didn’t think there would be that much pace in the race, so I was planning on sitting second. But when I saw Robby [jockey Albarado on She’s Not Here] going, I said just sit back there and on the backside she started to get going. She’s just amazing, every time you ask her to do something she does even better. It’s great.”

Tepin was sent off as the 2-5 betting favorite in the win pool. The show bettors felt that she was a sure thing as she attracted $83,000 of the $140,000 total bet to show. Across the board Tepin paid $2.80, 2.40, and 2.10.

With a now stellar career record of 18:10-3-1 and earnings of $2,895,973, a trip to the Royal Ascot meeting in England could be next for Tepin, as the five-year-old mare has received an invitation to run in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes.