Robert E. Masterson has a way with the ladies.
Though he has owned graded stakes-winning mares before, none compare to Tepin, whom he called an “once-in-a-lifetime kind of horse.” After her June 14 win in the Queen Anne Stakes (Eng-I) at Royal Ascot, the 5-year-old daughter of Bernstein is flying higher than ever. The Mark Casse trainee became the first American-based winner of the historic Queen Anne.
In the Queen Anne, Tepin faced multiple new challenges: Ascot’s straightaway course, a lack of her customary Lasix and nasal strip, and “quagmire”-like conditions.
“But the one thing we weren’t worried about was how she was feeling,” Masterson said. “She went over there and she acted like she was on vacation.”
Since her epic win, the mare received time off at Casse’s Ocala, Fla., farm, and is now back galloping at Churchill Downs. Her target for this year is the Breeders’ Cup again; if she remains healthy and happy, Masterson hopes to run her back next year at age 6.
This year, Tepin is riding a seven-race winning streak (including four grade/group I stakes); this comes after her epic 2015 campaign, which culminated in a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (gr. IT) and an Eclipse Award as top turf female. To date, she has earned a staggering $3,563,838 from 16 in-the-money finishes in a 20-race career.
On the advice of the late David Greathouse and his son, John W. “Deuce” Greathouse III, Masterson purchased Tepin for $140,000 from the 2012 Fasig-Tipton August select yearling sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.. Of a young Tepin, Masterson recalled: “Well, one of the things that really stood out about her was her calmness. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen her in the paddock, but she just sits in that stall and not a hair turns. She doesn’t get excited, doesn’t get worked up, and so forth. She saves all her energy for the actual race. She has got a great disposition.”
Masterson fell in love with Thoroughbred racing at a young age.
“Well, I originally got involved in racing with my dad taking me to Belmont when I was a child,” he said, “then I went to school at the University of Maryland, so all the fraternity brothers used to go over to Laurel all the time.”
Even when he ran First Data Resources in Omaha, Neb., the defunct Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack was right across the street from his office, and Masterson hasn’t been able to resist racing’s lure since.
He started out claiming horses, then ventured into partnerships. Soon after he entered the business, Masterson “ran into R.D. Hubbard early on, late ’79, 1980, and I ran into Barry Weisbord and David Greathouse and John T.L. Jones—all of those guys ended up being my partners,” he said.
Along with Hubbard, owner of Ruidoso Downs, and Weisbord, president and co-publisher of Thoroughbred Daily News, among others, he co-owned a piece of 1990s handicap star Gentlemen. Of that multiple grade I winner, Masterson said: “He was fantastic. In fact, had he not bled in the (1998) Breeders’ Cup (Classic, gr. I) because we supplemented him, I honestly felt he would have won.”
Currently, Masterson owns about three broodmares, boarded at Craig Bandoroff’s Denali Stud in Paris, Ky., and six or seven racehorses, some of whom he has in partnership.
“I’ve had several grade I (horses), but no horse has been like Tepin,” he said. “She’s so consistent, just continues to do it each and every time. I’m just amazed at her consistency and her willingness to run.”
Bred in Kentucky by Craig and Carrie Brogden of Machmer Hall, also TOBA’s November 2015 Members of the Month, Tepin was produced from Life Happened (by Stravinsky). That mare, a $4,500 purchase at the 2008 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, was later resold by the Brogdens in foal to Harlan’s Holiday for $750,000 at the 2014 Keeneland January horses of all ages sale.
Life Happened also foaled multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Vyjack (by Into Mischief, a son of Harlan’s Holiday) and graded-placed Prime Cut, a full brother to Tepin.
A generous Masterson is quick to credit the members of Team Tepin, both human and equine, for her successes.
“Mark and (his assistant and son) Norm Casse have done a wonderful job with this horse,” Masterson said.
Of jockey Julien Leparoux, he said: “His partnership with that filly is just miraculous. I mean, they have such a union that they just know each other so well.” And, of Tepin, Masterson said: “She’s very consistent, but you now we’re very blessed this year, I think.”