Two-time Eclipse Award winner Tepin (Bernstein), who was retired Apr. 18 at age six, has been bred to Curlin on an Apr. 30 cover and has scanned in foal, according to her owner, Bob Masterson.
“We bred Tepin to Curlin at the end of April and we didn't publicize it because we didn't want a lot of people bothering her at the farm while we were trying to get her in foal,” revealed Masterson, who said that Tepin checked in foal Monday and that she was rechecked Wednesday and is “definitely in foal.”
“She is in foal we're excited about it,” he said. “We paired an outstanding mare with an outstanding stallion and we hope to have more runners just like she was.”
While Masterson said he had not planned to breed her when he first announced her retirement, he quickly changed his mind.
“It actually was very quick–a day or two,” he said of the decision-making process. “She had been coming into heat and I thought 'why not at least try?' I thought we still had time if she gets covered and gets into foal on the first cover. Had it gone into May, I wouldn't have done it. But having a March foal or an early April foal, that's great. We were going to take one shot at it. Had she not gotten in foal, we probably wouldn't have tried at all at second time, but, being six, and coming off the track in such good health, we thought we'd take a shot, and Curlin has a high rate of getting mares in foals right off the bat.”
Asked what his plans were regarding keeping the foal or selling it, and what he would do with Tepin down the road, Masterson said, “To be honest, I have not made any decision about that.” He continued, “There are some great studs like Galileo (Ire) and Frankel (GB) who she matches up extremely well with and I think it would behoove us going down the line to have an opportunity to breed to one of those, or both. Frankel is new, but he's from the Galileo line and of course Galileo is the greatest stallion in the world. On paper, for her, that's the best match-up there is.”
Masterson said, typically, he has kept and raced fillies, but not colts.
“I very seldom race a colt,” he said. “I mostly race fillies. I like racing fillies. I know them better and have had greater luck with them. And while I don't want to be in the broodmare business, she has been very special to me and it would be pretty hard to part with her.”
In the near term, Masterson said that Tepin will probably stay at Hill 'n' Dale Farm through her foaling. “I think probably she will,” he said. “John Sikura has done such an outstanding job with her and they have treated her like she's their own.”
Sikura, Hill 'n' Dale's president, offered: “Curlin has bred an amazing world-class book of mares, and Tepin is certainly a mare of such quality. We are honored that Bob has chosen Curlin, and I'm thrilled we have her.”
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
