Endeavour favorite Got Stormy carries Tepin-like goals into 2020
Four years ago, trainer Mark Casse arrived for Endeavour Stakes (G3) with his reigning Eclipse Award winner Tepin, who had concluded her 2015 campaign with a convincing victory against males in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland.
Tepin won at Tampa Bay Downs in smashing fashion and was even better four weeks later in the Hillsborough Stakes (G2), setting the stakes and course record of 1:46.26 for the mile-and-an-eighth distance. Those Oldsmar victories were part of a winning streak that stretched to eight races and resulted in another Eclipse championship.
Saturday, Casse will send current stable star Got Stormy in quest of another Endeavour score against seven older fillies and mares. And while it might be a bit premature to draw comparisons to Tepin, the 5-year-old Got Stormy has compiled a mark that resulted in recognition as a 2019 Eclipse Award finalist and, arguably, the top turf female in training.
Tyler Gaffalione will ride Got Stormy for Casse and owner Gary Barber. Got Stormy is 8-for-18 in her career with earnings of $1,430,578.
“I think the more she accomplishes, the more you can start thinking that way,"Casse said of drawing parallels to Tepin. “Tepin did a lot of great things in her career, and Got Stormy has done a lot of good things so far. Her performance last year in the Fourstardave at Saratoga, when she beat the colts and broke the course record (for a mile) by almost a full second (1:32 flat), that’s as good as it gets.”
Got Stormy finished second by a length-and-a-half to Uni in the TVG Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita, an outcome that probably cost her the Eclipse Award against her older foe. But she returned on Dec. 1 at Del Mar to win the Matriarch (G1), an inkling that 2020 could be a special season.
“I think she’s going to come with a big performance Saturday,” Casse said. “Obviously, we’re going to try to win in the Breeders’ Cup with her.”
Casse said that if all goes well, a return to California for the Shoemaker Mile (G1) on May 25 at Santa Anita could be on Got Stormy’s dance card.
Casse, who won last year’s Preakness with War of Will and the Belmont with Sir Winston, is also represented in the Endeavour by 5-year-old A. A. Azula’s Arch. Julien Leparoux, who was Tepin’s jockey, has that assignment.