Irwin Brings Import

A week after Azeri ran her winning streak to 10 with a second consecutive victory in the $250,000 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park, another 5-year-old mare will try to extend her own roll.

Ipi Tombe, a Zimbabwe-bred whose name means “Where are the girls?” in Zulu, will be looking for her eighth consecutive victory Saturday when she makes her U.S. debut in the $150,000 Locust Grove Handicap, a Grade III at 1 1/8 miles on the Churchill Downs turf.

Owned by WinStar Farm, Barry Irwin and Jeff Siegel’s Team Valor and Sunmark Partners, Ipi Tombe has won 11 of 13 -- all on grass -- and earned $1,427,892. She was second in both of her losses.

Although she has two fewer wins than Azeri, with one fewer start, Ipi Tombe has done something on multiple occasions the reigning horse of the year has never attempted.

In her last four races in South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, Ipi Tombe has defeated males, twice while carrying high weight.

She scored the most lucrative of those victories in her last start on March 29, despite a troubled trip in the $2 million Dubai Duty Free, a Group I she won by three lengths.

The president of Team Valor, Irwin says she is the best horse the group has owned. That’s quite a statement, considering some of the thoroughbreds Irwin, Siegel and partners have raced.

In the last 15 years, they have campaigned, among others, Prized, conqueror of 1989 horse of the year Sunday Silence in Hollywood Park’s Swaps Stakes and upset winner in the Breeders’ Cup Turf; Cozzene, 1993 Arlington Million hero; Captain Bodgit, star of the 1997 Florida Derby, Wood Memorial winner and Kentucky Derby runner-up, and The Deputy, 2000 Santa Anita Derby winner.

“Everybody knew she was the horse to beat in the Duty Free,” Irwin said. “They had her boxed in and she was eighth in the stretch. I was hoping she could hit the board and salvage something. I was busy in my mind, calculating how much third was worth.”

Once clear, Ipi Tombe, the lone female in the race, unleashed a wicked run on the outside under Kevin Shea, her jockey during the winning streak.

“When I pushed the button, well, the hairs just stood up on the back of my neck,” Shea said afterward. “It was absolutely awesome. I wish I was going to America with her.”

Given plenty of time to recover, Ipi Tombe, who will be making her first start for trainer Elliott Walden on Saturday, is beginning a campaign that her connections hope leads to an Eclipse Award.

The plan after the Locust Grove is to run her in the $500,000 Diana, a Grade I, July 26 at Saratoga, then either the $700,000 Beverly D. or the Arlington Million on Aug. 16 at Arlington Park. The only female winner of the Million was Estrapade in 1986.

Successful at distances ranging from five furlongs to 1 3/8 miles, Ipi Tombe, who will be ridden by Pat Day in the Locust Grove, has trained exceptionally well for her return, even with some weather-related delays.

Bred by Peter J. Moor, Ipi Tombe was sold to the 22-man Sunmark syndicate. Sunmark retained 25% when selling her to Team Valor last summer, then Team Valor kept 25% and sold the remaining half to WinStar.

A daughter of the Mr. Prospector stallion Manshood, who now stands at golfer Gary Player’s stud farm near Colesburg, South Africa, Ipi Tombe set a course record of 1:37 for a mile on turf in winning the Al Fahidi Fort on Feb. 6. This was the first of her three victories in Dubai. Three weeks before the Duty Free, she won the Jebel Hatta, a Grade III.

Before leaving Africa, she won the Durban July Cup Handicap, the continent’s most important race, last July 6 at Greyville. She was the first 3-year-old filly in 50 years to accomplish the feat and the first horse bred in Zimbabwe to win it since 1956. Because all horses in this country are considered to have the same birthday, Jan. 1, Ipi Tombe is listed as a 5-year-old in the U.S., but she actually won’t turn 5 until Oct. 10.

“She’s a special horse,” said Michael De Kock, the trainer who had Ipi Tombe for seven of her 11 victories after she began her career with Noelene Peech. “I hesitate to say she’s a freak, but she is freaky.”