Champion Tepin and grade I winner Catch a Glimpse got a final chance to stretch their legs in sunny Florida for trainer Mark Casse April 1, before shipping to Kentucky where Keeneland engagements await.
Tepin, working under regular rider Julien Leparoux, went five furlongs in 1:04 at Palm Meadows. Catch a Glimpse breezed the same distance there in 1:01.35, third-best of 21 moves at the distance on the day.
Both were under the supervision of assistant trainer Norm Casse, who will now head north to manage the Churchill Downs string. Tepin will go there, while Catch a Glimpse ships straight to Keeneland and the supervision of new assistant David Carroll.
"Catch a Glimpse is a very good work horse," Mark Casse said. "She hasn't learned to slow down as much as we'd like; she kind of gets excited when you go to breeze her. She's still learning. I thought her last race was very good, she relaxed a little bit better."
BALAN: Catch a Glimpse Takes Herecomesthebride
Catch a Glimpse, by City Zip, will make her second start of the year in Keeneland's April 14 Appalachian Stakes (gr. IIIT) for Gary Barber, Michael James Ambler, and Windways Farm. She closed her 2015 campaign with a victory in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (gr. IT).
"The early part of the year, there aren't a lot of big races for 3-year-old fillies on the turf," Casse said. "I guess probably the ultimate goal for her first half of the year would be the July 9 Belmont Oaks Invitational (gr. IT) at Belmont Park. Going a mile and a quarter, she's going to have to learn to relax."
Meanwhile Robert Masterson's Tepin—who is two-for-two after beating males in the 2015 Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT), with a return win against her own division in the Feb. 13 Lambholm South Endeavour Stakes (gr. IIIT) and a follow-up with a record-breaking 1 1/8 miles in the March 12 Hillsborough Stakes (gr. IIT)—has shifted gears to the April 16 Coolmore Jenny Wiley (gr. IT) instead of taking on males again in the Maker's 46 Mile (gr. IT) April 15.
NOVAK: Tepin Runs Record-Setting Hillsborough
"Before, we were concerned about how far she wanted to go," Casse explained. "So we had kind of looked at the Maker's and said, 'It's a mile; she's beaten the best horses in the world going a mile, so maybe we go against colts.' After her last race, running a mile and an eighth, breaking the track record, we don't really think distance is an issue.
"The two races are a day apart and I find it very hard to come up with any reason why we would want to run against colts, when we can run against fillies at this point."
A trip to Royal Ascot could be in the cards for Tepin, the champion turf female of 2015, should her Keeneland start go as planned. The June 14 Queen Anne Stakes (Eng-I) on opening day would be her target.
