Woodbine Mile 2016: Tepin to breeze Sunday at Saratoga

Tepin, who will bring superstar status to the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, is slated to have her final breeze at Saratoga on Sunday, weather permitting. She is expected to square off against seven foes in the Mile. Earlier this morning it was confirmed that defending Woodbine Mile champion Mondialiste would point to the Shadwell Mile at Keeneland.

The Kentucky-bred 5-year-old Tepin, trained by Mark Casse for owner Robert Masterson, will ship in with a seven-race win streak that includes Grade 1 successes in the First Lady, Breeders’ Cup, Jenny Wiley and most recently the Grade 1 Queen Anne Stakes at the Royal Ascot meeting.

“She’s doing super, just super,” said Casse, who will be sending out Tepin for the first time since the June 14 Queen Anne and for her first trip over the E.P. Taylor turf course.

“It’s definitely a disadvantage to shippers, versus the home team,” said Casse, of Tepin’s unfamiliarity with the local layout.  “But given the obstacles that we have thrown at her, and that she has overcome—I think her race at Royal Ascot proved that it doesn’t really matter.”

Casse’s contention is given further credibility by the fact that Tepin has won at eight different racetracks.

The Woodbine Mile is not the only Grade 1 race here next week in which the Casse stable will be represented as World Approval is headed for the Northern Dancer Stakes and a quartet of his 2-year-old fillies are on tap for the Grade 1 Natalma.

World Approval became a Grade 1 winner in the United Nations over 1 3/8 miles of turf this winter and is coming off a seventh-place finish, beaten just one and three-quarter lengths, in the Grade 1 Arlington Million at a mile and a quarter.

Black Canary, Enstone, Thora Barber and Victory to Victory are the stable’s candidates for the Natalma, a one-mile turf race which was granted Grade 1 status this year.

Source: Woodbine Communications Office