Breeders' Cup Distaff

Is Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) the 2024 Horse of the Year? That will undoubtedly be the most-asked question in racing from now until the Eclipse Awards in late January. In a year where Thorpedo Anna's name has seemingly never been far from any racing conversation, the brilliant 3-year-old filly showed why she absolutely should be under heavy consideration for Horse of the Year honors with a sublime victory in Saturday's $2-million GI Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar. The race was hers to lose and the task made considerably less...

DEL MAR, CA - Maiden Special Weight, for 2-year-old fillies that sold or RNA'd for $45,000 or less in their most recent sale. British Idiom (Flashback), a $40,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling graduate, met that criteria and successfully kicked off her career with a stylish, 3 1/2-length debut victory as the 7-2 favorite for trainer Brad Cox at Saratoga in the summer of 2019. The Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb and The Elkstone Group colorbearer, of course, followed up with a win in the GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland and...

DEL MAR, CA - The 'Grizzly' is sitting on go. After a light training session on Tuesday, 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) turned in her first local gallop in the pre-dawn hours at Del Mar on a brisk Wednesday morning. The GI Kentucky Oaks heroine and GI Breeders' Cup Distaff 4-5 morning-line favorite displayed her typical high energy and was an absolute handful beneath exercise rider Danny Ramsey throughout her powerful 1 1/2-mile gallop. "Good?," trainer Kenny McPeek asked Ramsey as Thorpedo Anna was heading off the track....

Tuning up for next Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar, four-time Grade I winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) breezed five furlongs beneath regular exercise rider Danny Ramsey in 1:01.24 (1/3) over Saratoga's Oklahoma training track Saturday morning. The move was recorded in company with her multiple stakes-placed Ken McPeek-trained stablemate and 4-year-old gelding Denington (Gun Runner). After purchasing a total of 21 yearlings earlier this month--five at the Tattersalls October Yearling sale and 16 at the Fasig-Tipton October Yearling sale--McPeek was back in town...

Bolstered by a record 80 entries from the connections of horses based overseas--smashing the previous mark of 60 set just last year--some 212 horses have been pre-entered for the 2024 Breeders' Cup World Championships to be held Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1 and 2. For the third time, the festival will take place at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, which hosted the event for the first time in 2017 and again in 2021. "The record number of outstanding international contenders pre-entered this year speaks to the truly global nature of...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- The 'Grizzly' is gearing up for the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. Amid a backdrop of some spectacular fall foliage, 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) posted her second workout since capturing the GI Cotillion Stakes in dramatic fashion at Parx Sept. 21, breezing five furlongs in 1:02.63 (1/2) after the break over a sun-splashed Oklahoma Training Track on a delightful Saturday morning in Saratoga Springs. Raring to go beneath regular exercise rider Danny Ramsey, the GI Kentucky Oaks heroine and painful GI Travers Stakes runner-up...

Insel Racing's Awesome Result (Justify) made Tuesday's $365,264 Listed Breeders' Gold Cup her seventh victory from as many trips to the post and likely earned a trip to Del Mar for the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff Nov. 2. The same race was used as a springboard to victory in the same event by Marche Lorraine (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) at the seaside oval in 2021. Favored at 1-10 off a maiden stakes success in the Listed Empress Hai at Kawasaki May 8, Awesome Result broke a bit sideways, causing Yutaka Take...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- Once the $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes is history, 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) will head back to running against fillies. Trainer Kenny McPeek said he has no plans on running his talented miss against the colts after the centerpiece of the summer meeting at the Spa. "No, no, no," McPeek said outside of his barn at annex off the Oklahoma Training Track Thursday morning. "A 3-year-old filly against the colts in the Breeders' Cup Classic? Unless it fell apart." The plan moving forward for...

It's a Grade I bonanza Saturday afternoon at Saratoga Race Course, as the track plays host to a trio of elite-level races--short and long, turf and dirt. The richest of the three events is the $1-million Whitney Stakes, offering the winner a fees-paid berth into the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar on the first Saturday of November. National Treasure (Quality Road) is the 9-5 favorite on David Aragona's morning line and can further tighten his grip on the handicap division with a victory. The $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling...

With one Japanese raid on America just completed, another looks set for the fall, as Awesome Result (Justify) will be pointed towards the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar in November after making virtually all the running in Wednesday's Listed Empress Hai at Kawasaki Racecourse. The victory, the first black-type success for the 4-year-old filly, takes her record to a perfect six-from-six. Contested over 2100 metres (about a mile and five-sixteenths), Awesome Result bounced well from gate 10 beneath Yutaka Take and was initially taken in hand to sit...

Champion filly Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief) will return to the scene of her greatest triumph when she kicks off her 4-year-old campaign in the May 3 GI La Troienne S. at Churchill Downs. Pretty Mischievous won last year's GI Kentucky Oaks, a win that went a long way toward her earning an Eclipse Award as the nation's outstanding 3-year-old filly. "She's been doing great and working very well," trainer Brendan Walsh said. "We're very happy with the way she has progressed from three to four. We won't know until we...

Last year's champion older female and GI Breeders' Cup Distaff heroine Idiomatic (Curlin), sportingly put back in training for a 5-year-old campaign, could potentially kick off her season in the GI La Troienne S. on the GI Kentucky Oaks undercard May 3. The Juddmonte homebred posted her third workout of 2024 for trainer Brad Cox at Fair Grounds Thursday morning, stopping the clock for four furlongs in :49 (17/43). "For starters, (the late Juddmonte founder) Prince Khalid (bin Abdullah) was never afraid to run horses, colts or fillies," Juddmonte USA...