Tenma © Benoit Photo
The Grade III Torrey Pines, part of the Pacific Classic undercard on Saturday at Del Mar, will feature the return of Tenma against a flashy Cal-bred testing open company for the first time.
Tenma is arguably the best 3-year-old filly on the West Coast. She won five of her first six races, breaking her maiden at Del Mar last year and following up with a squeaker of a win in the Grade I Del Mar Debutante nearly three weeks later.
The daughter of Nyquist then threw in a clunker in the Grade II Oak Leaf at Santa Anita, which cost her a run in the Breeders’ Cup. Instead, she returned in the Grade II Starlet at Los Alamitos and won handily.
Tenma opened her 3-year-old campaign with a six-and-a-half-length win in the Grade III Las Virgenes which sent her off as the odds-on favorite in the Grade II Santa Anita Oaks where she proved to be the best. That led to her lone trip out of California and a run in the Grade I Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. She forced the pace only to fade to fourth.
“Probably should have run her in the Eight Belles; it would have been a better spot,” Baffert notes. “She came out of it a little bit light. I was going to try her on the turf but when I breezed her I wasn’t really pleased.”
Tenma’s been off since the Oaks on May 3, getting a well-deserved break.
“She’s still maturing and needs to fill out a little bit more,” Baffert contends. “In her training, she’s been very aggressive, so I’ve been trying to get her to slow down a bit. She needs a race and I have nowhere to run her. I didn’t want to ship her.”
Tenma is the even-money favorite in the Torrey Pines and her stablemate Howin is 9/5 on the morning line.
“They’re owned by the same people (Baoma Corp),” trainer Bob Baffert says, “and I don’t like the idea that they drew next to each other.”
Howin has been working with Desert Gate and Buetane in the mornings, two of Baffert’s top 2-year olds. The daughter of Gun Runner ran second to another stablemate, Cash Call, in the Grade III Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita in June.
“I think Howin has improved since then,” Baffert notes. “She’s doing very well,”
Last out she won an entry-level allowance race at Del Mar.
The Torrey Pines also marks the return of Om N Joy, an impressive winner of the $150,000 Fleet Treat Stakes at Del Mar last month. It was her fourth straight win and smart enough to give her conditioner, Aggie Ordonez, the confidence to step her up into open company and a graded stake.
“She full of energy,” Ordonez states. “She seems to be just getting better. She’s beginning to look like an older horse. She’s filling out and her last work was sensational.”
The daughter of Om worked five furlongs in :59 on August 17. She came back with a four-furlong maintenance work on Sunday (4f, :50.00).
Om N Joy broke her maiden in March at Santa Anita and hasn’t lost since. She won the $125,000 Evening Jewel in April, the $125,000 Melair in May and then the Fleet Treat. All were restricted to Cal-breds.
“I know it’s a big leap,” Ordonez adds. “That’s some serious competition. It almost seems like a different sport that those guys are playing, that are spending that kind of money on horses. But I know physically she’s not going to present like a Cal-bred, but like a good looking, nice horse. Nobody’s told her she’s a Cal-bred.”
And a good Cal-bred can hold their own. Remember Best Pal or California Chrome or The Chosen Vron. They all stepped out of Cal-bred company and captured graded stakes.
Seven 3-year-old fillies will go to the gate in the Grade III Torrey Pines Saturday. It’s Race 6 on the 11-race program. Probable post is 4 p.m.
Here’s the field from the rail out with the jockeys and the morning line odds: Tenma (Juan Hernandez); Howin (Drayden Van Dyke); A Thousand Miles (Kazushi Kimura, 20-1); Lolo Le Plume (Mike Smith, 12-1); So There She Was (Antonio Fresu, 20-1); Om N Joy (Kent Desormeaux, 5-1), and Allihies (Serafin Carmona, 15-1).