What a wonderful gift horse racing has been given with the return to racing of THORPEDO ANNA, the 2024 American Horse of the Year who could easily have been retired as a broodmare following her championship year.
But trainer Ken McPeek and owners Brookdale Racing, Inc., Mark Edwards, Judy B. Hicks and Magdalena Racing (Sherri McPeek) elected to bring the daughter of the late Fast Anna back to racing and the brilliant bay has picked up where she left off.
Thorpedo Anna emerged in good order from her victory in Saturday’s $400,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) and is scheduled to return to Fair Grounds early this week, Ray Bryner, who oversees trainer Kenny McPeek’s Oaklawn division, said Sunday morning.
“She came out of it perfect – absolutely perfect,” Bryner said. “She’ll leave Monday or Tuesday.”
Thorpedo Anna, in her four-year-old debut, shook off a challenge from Free Like a Girl turning for home and drew off to a front-running 3 ½-length victory under regular rider Brian Hernandez Jr. Thorpedo Anna, who broke from the rail, covered 1 1/16 miles over a sealed, wet-fast surface in 1:44.02. She paid $2.20 as the 1-9 favorite.
Her Beyer Speed Figure was 95, according to Daily Racing Form.
McPeek was using the Azeri as Thorpedo Anna’s bridge to the $1.25 million Apple Blossom (G1) for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles April 12 at Oaklawn.
“As long as everything’s good with her, health-wise, she is going to run in the Apple Blossom,” McPeek said immediately following the Azeri, a race named after Horse of the Year who won three Apple Blossoms.
McPeek said Thorpedo Anna would train this month and “maybe” into April at Fair Grounds before returning to Oaklawn for the Apple Blossom.
Thorpedo Anna faced only four rivals in the Azeri following the scratches of Bow Draw and Wild Bout Hilary. The latter occurred at the starting gate after Wild Bout Hilary became fractious, reared and unseated jockey Rafael Bejarano, triggering a reload of the field. Bejarano wasn’t injured.
McPeek and Hernandez said they were both impressed with how Thorpedo Anna handled her business, including the delay at the starting gate.
“It kind of showed a new dimension of her,” Hernandez said moments after the Azeri. “Last year, her first couple of races, she got a little warm in the post parade and stuff like that. Whereas today, they backed her out and it never phased her. She walked right back in. She stood in the gate. Never moved a muscle and left right on cue like we needed her to.”
The only other time Thorpedo Anna has broken from the rail was in last year’s Travers Stakes (G1), when she brushed the “near side stall at the start,” according to footnotes from the official race chart. Thorpedo Anna, in her first start against males, was beaten a head by champion Fierceness in the $1.25 million “Midsummer Derby.” It was her only loss in seven starts last year.
“I think the biggest thing is, we were worried about how she left the gate,” McPeek said. “She left it clean. We’ve done some extra gate schooling. I think the most impressive thing is that she seems so much more composed the older she’s gotten. If you recall last year, she was kind of nervous in the post parade, a little washy, got wet. She seems to have left that behind and I think that’s a good thing, right, although it was much cooler today. But any time a horse gets washed out, too nervous, then you concern yourself. But she doesn’t seem to be doing it anymore.”
Thorpedo Anna ($4,083,663) eclipsed $4 million in career earnings following her ninth victory from 11 starts. She is a seven-time stakes winner.
Thorpedo Anna was a unanimous choice for North America’s champion three-year-old filly and a runaway winner for Horse of the Year after compiling a 6-1-0 record from seven starts and earning $3,653,050. All six victories were stakes, including Oaklawn’s $750,000 Fantasy (G2) in her three-year-old debut last March.
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