Champion and dual Hall of Famer Tepin (Bernstein–Life Happened, by Stravinsky), best known for winning the G1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, died at the age of 12. The news was confirmed by trainer Aidan O'Brien after the mare's daughter Grateful (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) won the G1 Qatar Prix de Royallieu at ParisLongchamp on Saturday.
Bred by Machmer Hall in Kentucky, the bay was purchased by Robert Masterson for $140,000 out of the Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga Select Yearling Sale. She would go on to be trained by Mark Casse and earn Eclipse Champion Grass Mare titles in 2015 and 2016. A winner of 13 of her 23 starts including 11 stakes, among them the GI Breeders' Cup Mile and the 2016 Queen Anne, Tepin would pass the post first in six top-level races. She is a member of the Canadian and U.S. Halls of Fame.
At her 2022 American Hall of Fame induction, Casse told Mike Kane, “To be honest with you I wasn't overjoyed about going to Royal Ascot simply because I thought we had maybe the best turf horse in the country, maybe in the world and I just felt like it was a big ask of her. If I knew what I know now, I don't know if I would have taken her because it's so tough. It just shows you really how great she was.”
Second to Tonalist (Tiznow) defending her Breeders' Cup title in the autumn of 2016, Tepin was retired in April of 2017 with $4.4 million in earnings and put in foal to Curlin. She would sell to Coolmore's MV Magnier for $8 million that autumn at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Night of the Stars.
Her Curlin filly, later named Tepin Thru Life, never raced, nor did her Galileo filly of 2019, Swirl (Ire). Her third foal is Saturday's Group 1 winner Grateful, while Tepin's juvenile colt Delacroix (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) already has a win and a second-place finish to his name in the G2 KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes this year. He was named a 'TDN Rising Star' earlier this season.
Tepin was a half-sister to MGSW and GI Wood Memorial Stakes and GI Forego Stakes third Vyjack (Into Mischief), as well as a full-sister to MGSP Prime Cut (Bernstein). Carrie and Craig Brogden and Carrie's mother Sandy Willwerth operate Machmer Hall, which picked up Tepin's dam for just $4,500 out of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in 2008. Life Happened would go on to subsequent sales ring accolades when selling to Solis/Litt at the 2014 Keeneland January Sale carrying to Harlan's Holiday for $750,000.
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