By Alan Carasso
It seems only fitting the America's reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) would make her 4-year-old debut in a race named for another racemare to achieve those heights.
While the effort was ultimately more workmanlike than it was scintillating, it served to shake off whatever rust might have been in play, and the Ken McPeek-trainee treated her four rivals to a front-running display, with clearly better to come over the course of the spring, summer and fall.
Off at a dime on the dollar in a field reduced to five by the gate scratching of Bayakoa Stakes heroine Wild About Hilary (Midnight Lute) and the earlier withdrawal of Bow Draw (Oxbow), Thorpedo Anna was asked for speed from the one hole by Brian Hernandez, Jr., leaving nothing to chance by attempting to boss the Azeri from the front. Louisiana-bred star Free Like A Girl (El Deal) was alertly away from gate five and raced closest to the champ in a bunched field that was covered by only three lengths through an opening quarter in :24.27.
Galloping along ears flopping back and forth down the backstretch, Thorpedo Anna and Hernandez, Jr. allowed the competition to remain in close attendance past a half in :48.59 and for a fleeting second passing the five-sixteenths, it looked like Free Like A Girl might have upset on her mind as she drew to Thorpedo Anna's red saddle towel. Hand-ridden while being shown the whip a time or two with a furlong and a half to travel, Thorpedo Anna began to stretch away while not asked for a whole lot of effort and was pushed out to score comfortably. Recharge (Gun Runner) was a distant third, followed by Alpine Princess (Classic Empire) and Jody's Pride (American Pharoah).
“We came up with a game plan,” Hernandez, Jr. commented. “We were going to be going forward under the wire the first time, and if somebody really, really wanted to go crazy, they were going to have to work for it. I figured with this short field, it would separate.
“When I didn't get the separation right away like I thought I was going to, I went like: 'Uh-oh. We may be in for a fight.' But then Thorpedo Anna switched leads and she was off and running. (I got the separation) about the three-sixteenths pole.”
Added trainer Ken McPeek: “As long as everything's good with her, health-wise, she is going to run in the Apple Blossom. (Fitness level was) probably 85, 90%. The problem with training a filly like this is finding a horse that can keep up with her in the morning. I had Mystik Dan last year. This year, I really didn't have a horse that really … so finding her workmates is the hard part.”
A $40,000 Fasig-Tipton October bargain, Thorpedo Anna was visiting Hot Springs for the second time in her career, having taken the GII Fantasy Stakes by four easy lengths ahead of her 4 3/4-length romp in the GI Kentucky Oaks five weeks later. An imperious winner of the GI Acorn Stakes and GI CCA Oaks against her peers, the dark bay ran the race of her life to just miss behind fellow 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) in the GI Travers Stakes in August. Thorpedo Anna survived an eventful trip and gutted out a narrow victory in the GI Cotillion Stakes at Parx the following month and there was never a doubt in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, as she saluted by 2 1/2 lengths at 2-5, officially sewing up champion 3-year-old filly honors while strengthening her grip on Horse of the Year.
Pedigree Notes:
Co-owner Judy Hicks bred Thorpedo Anna in Kentucky out of the unraced Sanford Robertson-bred mare Sataves, a daughter of Coolmore's sadly departed Uncle Mo, whose daughters have produced 25 stakes winners. Sataves traces directly to 1974 Broodmare of the Year Cosmah and has a 3-year-old colt named McAfee (Cloud Computing), a debut winner at two for Rick Dutrow, Jr. and a latest fifth in the GIII Gotham Stakes Mar. 8. Hicks stayed in for a piece of McAfee after selling him at the 2023 Keeneland September sale for $40,000, the same price Thorpedo Anna brought a year earlier at Fasig-Tipton October. Hicks still has Sataves's yearling filly by Known Agenda and named her After the Storm. The mare was bred back to Gun Runner.
Thorpedo Anna is the sole graded winner from 14 black-type winners for the late Fast Anna, who was second in the 2014 GI King's Bishop Stakes. The Medaglia d'Oro stallion passed away from laminitis at Three Chimneys in 2021 just days after Thorpedo Anna was born. —Jill Williams
“She is poetry in motion. She is Thorpedo Anna!” 🎙️ @3coltshandicap
Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna is back in business with a win in the G2 Azeri! 🏆🐻 @b_hernandezjr @KennyMcPeek @Thorpedo_Anna pic.twitter.com/peneCuiaAW
— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) March 8, 2025
Saturday, Oaklawn Park
AZERI S.-GII, $400,000, Oaklawn, 3-8, 4yo/up, f/m, 1 1/16m, 1:44.02, wf.
1–THORPEDO ANNA, 119, f, 4, by Fast Anna
1st Dam: Sataves, by Uncle Mo
2nd Dam: Pacific Sky, by Stormy Atlantic
3rd Dam: Aldebaran Light, by Seattle Slew
($40,000 Ylg '22 FTKOCT). 'TDN Rising Star'. O-Brookdale Racing, Inc., Mark Edwards, Judy B. Hicks and Magdalena Racing (Sherri McPeek); B-Judy Hicks (KY); T-Kenneth G. McPeek; J-Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr.. $240,000. Lifetime Record: Horse of the Year, Ch. 3yo Filly, MGISW, 11-9-2-0, $4,083,663. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Free Like a Girl, 121, m, 6, El Deal–Flashy Prize, by Flashy Bull. ($5,500 Ylg '20 ESLYRL). O-Bruno, Jr., Gerald, Pomier, Chasey Deville and Caroom, Jerry; B-Kim Renee Stover & Lisa Osborne (LA); T-Chasey Deville Pomier. $80,000.
3–Recharge, 121, f, 4, Gun Runner–Remit, by Tapit. O/B-Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $40,000.
Margins: 3HF, 5HF, 1. Odds: 0.10, 20.10, 13.80.
Also Ran: Alpine Princess, Jody's Pride. Scratched: Bow Draw, Wild Bout Hilary.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
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