Orpen Rimout Looks to Take Them All the Way in the G2 Carlos Tomkinson

The mare from Stud Los Apóstoles returns to action, facing only three rivals over the dirt mile

Orpen Rimout Looms Large for the Tomkinson / JUAN I. BOZZELLO

A surprisingly short field of just four fillies and mares will line up for Saturday’s G2 Carlos Tomkinson S. at a mile on the Palermo dirt, the second half of the track’s graded-stakes doubleheader. With so few in the gate, race shape figures to play an outsized role—perhaps even more than usual.

Conditions appear tailor-made for Orpen Rimout, who returns from a little over three months on the sidelines and looks poised to deliver the performance her connections have been waiting for. The Remote mare from Stud Los Apóstoles closed out her last campaign with a flat fourth in the G3 Ricardo P. Sauze, though she had previously captured the Hcp. Giovanetti after failing to stay the 2000 meters of the G1 Gran Premio Criadores. Given her natural speed and her preference for free-running, she will be dangerous if allowed to control the tempo.

Standing in her way is the upward-trending Increpante, who aims to extend the remarkable run of form of trainer Nicolás Martín Ferro. By Sigfrid, she returns to a track she knows inside out and enters off a narrow victory in the Listed Clásico Orbit at San Isidro, defeating Causeway Girl by a head while carrying just 52.5 kilos. Saturday’s weight-for-age conditions present a different kind of test.

Experience, however, belongs to Reina Casada (Long Island Sound), now six and already a winner of the Clásico Doria and the Hcp. Miss Linda, in addition to a long list of minor placings. After a solid runner-up effort off the layoff, she returned to the winner’s circle in a confidence-building allowance and appears ready for another step forward.

Rounding out the quartet is Primera Fila (Equal Stripes), who rises from the allowance ranks after a campaign that has seen her improve steadily with every assignment. Last out, she finished a distant second behind Señorita Maestra on La Plata’s heavy track, the same surface on which she previously unleashed a strong late rally to defeat Joy Lolita.