The Week in Review: Fillies Vs. the Boys, Is it Really That Hard?

Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) deserves all the credit in world for her game performance in the GI DraftKings Travers Stakes. Facing off against one of the toughest Travers fields in memory, she beat everyone but Eclipse Award winner Fierceness (City of Light), losing by a diminishing head. She finished ahead of the GI Toyota Blue Grass winner and GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) and GI Belmont S. and GI Haskell S. winner Dornoch (Good Magic) and four other males. It was a special effort by a special filly.

“I'm just proud of the team and everything. We've had a lot of fun with her, and she's been great,” said her trainer Kenny McPeek. “Everything really went to plan other than one horse in her way. She's so special, and we're just really proud of her.”

No filly has won the Travers since 1915, a 109-year drought. That doesn't mean fillies are inferior to colts. It's more a matter that so few have tried to win this race in recent times. Only four fillies–Hall of Famers Cicada (last in 1962), Chris Evert (third in 1974), and Davona Dale (fourth in 1979), and most recently Canadian Horse of the Year Wonder Gadot (last in 2018)–have competed in the Travers since 1960.

Had McPeek taken the conventional route, Thorpedo Anna would have run in the GI Alabama Stakes against fillies, where she no doubt would have won, earning $330,000 for the victory. But McPeek, one of few trainers in this sport willing to take chances and think outside the box, had so much faith in his filly, the grizzly bear, that he was practically guaranteeing a Travers win. For finishing second, she earned $250,000, but more importantly she only enhanced her reputation, in the midst of a run that will very likely end with an induction into the Hall of Fame. In a loss, she was a big winner.

And, of course, McPeek won the 2020 GI Preakness S. with filly Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil).

Though overshadowed by the Travers, Friday's King's Plate at Woodbine proved to be another example of a race where most fillies are obviously not overmatched. The winner was Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach), the only filly in the field. That was hardly a surprise as she became the 39th filly to win the race and became the fourth filly to win the race since 2017.

Canadian trainers have figured out what their American counterparts have not, that running a really good fillies against males is not that daunting of a task.

European trainers are also more willing to take chances with their fillies. Females won Europe's most prestigious race, the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, five straight times from 1979 to 1983. And they have more than held their own in Breeders' Cup races. French-based fillies Miesque (Nureyev) won back-to-back runnings of the GI Breeders' Cup Mile in 1987 and 1988.

In Australia, it's not at all unsual to see fillies win the country's biggest races. The G1 Melbourne Cup has been won 14 times by fillies, most recently in 2021 when the race was won by Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed {NZ}). There was also the marvelous Makybe Diva (GB) (Desert King {Ire}). She won the race three straight years from 2003 to 2005.

In some regards, it's understandable why more American-based fillies don't square off against males more often. The purses for races for fillies can be quite lucrative and, yes, it is easier to win a race against fillies than it is against colts. Even McPeek, has said that Thorpedo Anna will not face males again this year. So there are reasons to keep fillies versus fillies, but it seems that most trainers are doing so for the wrong reason, that they simply underestimate how good these star fillies can be.

Pace Makes The Race

The Saratoga jockey colony is the best in the world, but there's one thing they can't, as a group, seem to figure out. We see it time and time again in marathon grass races, where the early pace is so slow that the front-runners have a big advantage and closers don't have a prayer.

Never was this more evident than in Saturday's GI Sword Dancer at Saratoga. A five-horse race run at a mile-and-a-half, there was not a lot of speed in the race, but it appeared that one of the two Charlie Appleby runners, Measured Time (GB) (Frankel {GB} or Silver Knott (GB) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), would take the early lead. Instead William Buick on Measured Time and Flavien Prat on Silver Knott chose to restrain their horses early on. They played right into the hands of Joel Rosario on Far Bridge (English Channel). The horse had never been close to the early lead in his 11 career starts. But when no one else seemed to want the lead, Rosario pounced. The fractions were :24.86, :50.92 and 1:17.21, and Far Bridge was able to steal the race, beating two superior opponents.

The Kentucky Downs Effect

With its gargantuan purses, Kentucky Downs is obviously starting to impact racing at other venues. There were five horse in the Sword Dancer, a race that has a $750,000 purse. But as much money as that is it can't compare with what they're doing at Kentucky Downs. How many horses skipped the Sword Dancer in order to run in the Sept. 7 GII Kentucky Downs Turf Cup? Like the Sword Dancer, the race is run at a mile-and-a-half, but the purse is $2 million. The races on the GI Arlington Million card run at Colonial Downs also had a tough time attracting horses. Six went in the Million and the GII Secretariat S. Only five started in the GII Beverly D.

Meanwhile, the three graded stakes on next Saturday's card at Kentucky Down, drew, including also-eligibles, 44 horses. Fourteen were entered in the GIII Nashville Derby, now worth a staggering $3.1 million. The GII Ladies Turf Sprint has 16 entered and the GIII Ladies Turf drew a field of 14.