Tenma Launches 3-Year-Old Campaign in Las Virgenes

Charles and Susan Chu have owned a number of top-class fillies in the last decade, among them grade 1 winners Bast and Eda, but they have never had a contender in the Kentucky Oaks (G1). Tenma, racing under the Chu's Baoma Corp. banner, gives the couple a chance at possible Oaks glory in May when she enters the starting gate for the Feb. 2 Las Virgenes Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park. The $100,000 Las Virgenes, is one of Santa Anita's local preps for the April 5 Santa Anita Oaks (G2), a race that awards 100 Road to the Kentucky Oaks points to its winner. Contested over one mile for sophomore fillies, the Las Virgenes offers Oaks points on a 20-10-6-4-2 scale. Tenma arrives Saturday with 13 Oaks points to her credit, courtesy of a last-out victory in the Dec. 7 Starlet Stakes (G2) at Los Alamitos Race Course and a third-place effort in the Oak Leaf Stakes (G2). The $850,000 daughter of Nyquist proved precocious from the start for trainer Bob Baffert, capturing her first two outings in come-from-behind fashion. One of those wins included a game nose score in the Del Mar Debutante (G1). Juan Hernandez retains the mount on Tenma from post 4. As the only stakes winner in the Las Virgenes, the pair will tout 124 pounds, giving four pounds to the rest of the field. Baffert will also saddle dominant maiden winner Cipriani, a daughter of Bernardini, for Speedway Stables.