By Tim Wilkin
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Pressure? What pressure. There was none of that over at trainer Kenny McPeek's barn at the Oklahoma Annex Friday morning.
Even though the stable star–the imposing, impressive and almost undefeated 3-year-old filly Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna)–is running on Saturday, no one on McPeek's staff was sweating bullets.
Thorpedo Anna is the 1-2 morning-line favorite in the $500,000 GI Coaching Club American Oaks at 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga Race Course. She has won five of six career starts and has won all three of her races this year.
“Pressure is having 15 bad horses in the dead of winter at Turfway Park and owners won't pay you,” McPeek said while sitting in his office. “This isn't pressure. With her, it's more of an expectation. You do your job and you don't worry about anything else. It's either going to happen or it's not.”
Thorpedo Anna has won her five career starts by a combined 32 lengths. In her last start, the GI Acorn Stakes at Saratoga on June 7, she cruised around the Spa and won by 5 1/2 lengths.
Before that, she took the GI Kentucky Oaks by 4 3/4 lengths. Both of those races were at 1 1/8 miles.
McPeek could not disagree when it was suggested that things had been easy for his filly.
“That is fair,” he said. “She has not felt the whip all year. I don't know what else is there. Let's see what happens in the next few weeks.”
Thorpedo Anna is owned by Nader Alaali, Mark Edwards, Judy B. Hicks and Magdalena Racing (Sherri McPeek). There has been talk since the Saratoga meet began that the talented filly could show up against the boys in the GI Travers Stakes on Aug, 24.
McPeek, as he has done all summer, just asks to pump the brakes on that one. For now.
“Let's see how she runs tomorrow and, if she is impressive, then we will seriously talk about it,” McPeek said. “If she has to work to beat that group, maybe we would not.”
Thorpedo Anna will be ridden by Brian Hernandez, Jr., who has been on board in all six of her races. He did have a bit of a problem getting here.
Hernandez was scheduled to ride Django (Medaglia d'Oro) in Friday's Curlin Stakes, but didn't make it to Saratoga.
He and his brother, jockey Colby Hernandez (he was supposed to ride Elephants Ear {Vino Rosso} in the Curlin) had their flight to Saratoga cancelled from Kentucky Friday.
McPeek said Brian Hernandez got on a private plane at noon on Friday.
“I guarantee he would have driven overnight to get here to keep from missing that mount,” McPeek said.
Fierceness in Saratoga; Stablemates Mindframe and Tuscan Sky Set For Haskell
A horse van pulled up at Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher's barn early Friday morning to pick up equine passengers that were heading to New Jersey.
Mindframe (outside) breezing at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew
Fierceness (City of Light) wasn't one of them.
Pletcher will be represented in the $1-million GI NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park Saturday by Mindframe (Constitution) and Tuscan Sky (Vino Rosso), who left Saratoga at 4:45 a.m. Friday.
Although Pletcher left the door open a sliver that Fierceness might join them Saturday, he will most likely run in the $500,000 GII Jim Dandy at Saratoga next Saturday.
“We have a van on order for the first thing in the (Saturday) morning,” Pletcher said at his barn on the Oklahoma Training Track Friday.
That is just a precaution in case Mindframe or Tuscan Sky did not ship well or there are major defections from the Haskell.
Mike Repole owns Fierceness, who was the leading 3-year-old in the country after winning the GI Florida Derby earlier this year. He has not raced since a 15th-place finish as the favorite in the GI Kentucky Derby.
Repole also co-owns Mindframe, the runner-up in the GI Belmont Stakes, along with Vinnie and Teresa Viola. Irad Ortiz, Jr. will ride.
Tuscan Sky, owned by Spendthrift Farm LLC, won the Listed Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth in his last start. He will be ridden by Hall of Famer Javier Castellano.
Mindframe and Tuscan Sky have not won a Grade I race; Fierceness has. That also has been part of the equation as to who goes to the Haskell and who doesn't.
The Jim Dandy is then the probable landing spot for Fierceness.
“I think so,” Pletcher said. “The last time I spoke to Mike, that was the way we were leaning.”
Pletcher said he will drive to the Jersey Shore after training at Saratoga on Saturday. He said that Repole is planning on being at Monmouth as well.
Abreu Admits He is Taking a Shot in Shuvee
Venti Valentine (Firing Line) has always liked Saratoga. That had a lot to do with trainer Jorge Abreu deciding to swing for the fences in Sunday's $200,000 GII Shuvee Stakes at the Spa.
Jorge Abreu | Sarah Andrew
Four other fillies and mares–all with better credentials than the 5-year-old New York bred mare–are signed up for the 1 1/8-mile race. Venti Valentine is 12-1 on the morning line, the longest price.
But she has won two of three career starts at Saratoga.
“She is doing good, but this is a tough race,” Abreu said outside his Saratoga barn Friday morning. “She is going to have to step it up. She'll have to run a career best race.”
Owned by NY Final Furlong Racing Stable and Parkland Thoroughbreds, Venti Valentine won the Critical Eye Stakes at the Spa by 6 3/4 lengths on June 9 over a muddy track at the Shuvee distance. Irad Ortiz, Jr., who rode her that day, will stay on for the Shuvee.
In her career, she has seven wins, five seconds and five thirds in 21 starts. Her last graded stakes race was a third in the GIII Go for Wand Stakes last December. She has had five starts since then and has hit the board in all of them.
“We know she will give us everything she has, she always does,” Abreu said. “Whatever she has in the tank. I would love to win this race, but there are some decent horses in there.”
Raging Sea (Curlin), a 4-year-old filly from trainer Chad Brown, is the 7-5 morning-line favorite and was fourth in her last start, the GI Ogden Phipps Stakes. Five-year-old mare Shotgun Hottie (Gun Runner), who was second in the GII Fleur de Lis Stakes at Churchill Downs, is the 3-2 second choice for trainer Cherie DeVaux.
“I don't think it is impossible for us,” Abreu said. “We'll give it a try. Every horse has a lucky day.”
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