Santa Anita: Tenma is best of only 3 in winning Las Virgenes
In a field reduced from five to three, Tenma contested the lead for the first half of the race and then drew away from the second turn through the stretch for a 6 1/2-length win Sunday in the Grade 3, $92,000 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita.
The two-turn mile for 3-year-old fillies was a Kentucky Oaks (G1) prep that was intended to give the top five finishers 20-10-6-4-2 qualifying points. Instead, just the 20-10-6 were awarded for what would have been a $100,000 race with a fuller field. Tenma’s total of 33 rank first among active Oaks hopefuls.
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Already a graded-level winner in the Del Mar Debutante (G1) and Starlet (G2) stakes for 2-year-olds, Tenma (1-5) turned her sophomore debut into little more than a paid workout. She stayed within a head of Just As Fancy (9-2), who set the pace through early fractions of 23.05 and 47.45 seconds on the fast main track.
Jockey Juan Hernández shook the reins to take Tenma to a clear lead through three-quarters of a mile in 1:12.56. Trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, Tenma was chased down the stretch by stablemate Cipriani (4-1), who moved from a distant last into second on the far turn but never threatened to win.
“She broke beautiful today,” Hernández 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 had a time of 1:38.31, giving Baffert his fourth consecutive Las Virgenes victory and a record-widening ninth overall.
“She is just really green and just figuring it out,” Baffert said. “You will see a big improvement out of her.”
Cipriani finished second. Just As Fancy, trained by Michael McCarthy, was another 17 3/4 lengths back in third. Our Moonlight and Lolo Le Plume were scratched.
Tenma paid $2.40 to win. There was no place or show betting. The $1 exacta paid $2.60 and the $1 trifecta $3.10.
Bred in Kentucky by Bobby Flay and sold for $850,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sale in April, Tenma is a Nyquist filly owned by Charles Chu’s Baoma Corp. She made a winning debut in August at Del Mar, where she then won the track’s Futurity the following month. Before her 1 1/16-mile Starlet triumph in December at Los Alamitos, Tenma lost by 10 lengths finishing third Oct. 5 in the 1 1/16-mile Oak Leaf (G2) at Santa Anita.
“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.”
Now 5: 4-0-1, Tenma added $60,000 to bring her purse earnings to $429,000.