Photo:

Lindsay Affleck / Eclipse Sportswire

In a field reduced from five to three, Tenma contested the
lead for the first half of the race and then drew away from the second turn
through the stretch for a 6 1/2-length win Sunday in the Grade 3, $92,000
Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita.

The two-turn mile for 3-year-old fillies was a Kentucky Oaks
(G1) prep that was intended to give the top five finishers 20-10-6-4-2 qualifying
points. Instead, just the 20-10-6 were awarded for what would have been a $100,000 race with a fuller field. Tenma’s total of 33 rank first
among active Oaks hopefuls.

Click here for Santa Anita entries and results.

Already a graded-level winner in the Del Mar Debutante (G1)
and Starlet (G2) stakes for 2-year-olds, Tenma (1-5) turned her sophomore debut
into little more than a paid workout. She stay within a head of Just As Fancy (9-2), who set the pace
through early fractions of 23.05 and 47.45 seconds on the fast main track.

Jockey Juan Hernández shook the reins to take Tenma to a
clear lead through three-quarters of a mile in 1:12.56. Trained by Hall of
Famer Bob Baffert, Tenma was chased down the stretch by stablemate Cipriani
(4-1), who moved from a distant last into second on the far turn but never
threatened to win.

Tenma had a time of 1:38.31, giving Baffert his fourth
consecutive Las Virgenes victory and a record-widening ninth overall.

Cipriani finished second. Just As Fancy, trained by Michael
McCarthy, was another 17 3/4 lengths back in third. Our Moonlight and Lolo Le Plume were scratched.

Tenma paid $2.40 to win. There was no place or show betting.
The $1 exacta paid $2.60 and the $1 trifecta $3.10.

Bred in Kentucky by Bobby Flay and sold for $850,000 at the
Ocala Breeders’ Sale in April, Tenma is a Nyquist filly owned by Charles Chu’s
Baoma Corp. She made a winning debut in August at Del Mar, where she then won
the track’s Futurity the following month. Before her 1 1/16-mile Starlet
triumph in December at Los Alamitos, Tenma lost by 10 lengths finishing third Oct.
5 in the 1 1/16-mile Oak Leaf (G2) at Santa Anita.

Now 5: 4-0-1, Tenma added $60,000 to bring her purse earnings to $429,000.