ARCADIA — This time, in her bid for the big stage, Tenma passed the audition.
Last fall, the filly was shaping up as a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies contender after a strong summer at Del Mar, only to run a poor third behind two other Bob Baffert-trained 2-year-olds in the final prep race at Santa Anita and miss the championship event at Del Mar.
Saturday, with a new winning streak going and needing a strong performance to earn a spot in the Kentucky Oaks, the daughter of Nyquist came through to win the $200,000, Grade II Santa Anita Oaks by 2 ¼ lengths over stablemate Silent Law.
Tenma (who paid $2.60), 3 for 3 since Juan Hernandez became her jockey, now has more than enough qualifying points to run in the May 2 Kentucky Oaks, the 3-year-old fillies’ equivalent of the next day’s Kentucky Derby. So does Silent Law, ridden by Martin Garcia, though Baffert wasn’t sure he’d take her to Churchill Downs.
The time for the 1 1/16 miles Saturday, 1:46.15, was uncommonly slow for this race.
Baffert said he never figured out what went wrong for Tenma in the Oak Leaf.
“She struggled that day, just not mentally ready,” Baffert said. “I backed off of her after that, freshened her, and she’s been ready to go.”
Tenma was as far back as fourth in the five-horse field before catching leader Silent Law from the outside in the stretch.
“I asked her to run at the three-eighths (mile) pole because she was getting a little lazy on me,” Hernandez said. “Around the turn, when I was ready to start making my move and pass Silent Law, she was really brave.”
Vodka With a Twist finished third, and her points put her outside the 14-horse Kentucky Oaks field at this point.
THREE FOR JUAN
The Santa Anita Oaks was the second of three stakes wins on the Santa Anita Derby undercard Saturday for Hernandez, who will wrap up another riding title when Santa Anita’s Classic Meet ends Sunday.
Hernandez rode Queen Maxima ($2.40) to a front-running win sprinting down the hill in the…
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