By Jill Williams
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 complex with the withdrawal the week prior of reigning Distaff winner Idiomatic (Curlin) and the vet scratch Saturday morning of unbeaten Japanese invader Awesome Result (Justify), but that wasn't Thorpedo Anna's fault and she just kept on doing what she's been doing all year, proving herself the best of all female rivals.
“She's the best filly in the country this year,” said regular rider Brian Hernandez, Jr. “We wanted to ride her accordingly. The biggest question is just make sure she stood up in the gates, left there in good order. When she did that, it made my job so much easier. What I have to do after that fact is stay out of her way, stay on her back more than anything.”
That precisely what Hernandez did. With the ease that comes from knowing one is on the best horse, Hernandez guided the Brookdale Racing, Mark Edwards, Judy B. Hicks, and Magdalena Racing runner immediately to the front. While usually in the first flight of runners, the dark bay hasn't been on the lead since the GI Kentucky Oaks. Thorpedo Anna did it effortlessly Saturday, ears flicking back and forth, as GI Personal Ensign Stakes winner Raging Sea (Curlin) stuck like glue to her outside flank. Traveling comfortably, the 2-5 choice set :23.81 and :47.99 fractions, then simply pulled clear in the stretch to put both daylight on the field and an exclamation point on her inevitable crowning at the 3-year-old filly champion. Hernandez raised his crop in a quick salute at the wire, then brought the star filly to the winner's circle accompanied to voluble cheers from the crowd.
Thorpedo Anna got the Distaff's nine furlongs in 1:49.10. Raging Sea held second, while GISW Candied (Candy Ride {Arg}), who has now finished on the board in four straight Grade I races, was up for third.
“[Thorpedo Anna] keeps it rolling, doesn't she? It was workmanlike,” said trainer Kenny McPeek. “She just went out there and did her thing. There wasn't a whole lot that was complicated about it. I didn't have too many doubts. Just didn't want anything silly to happen. Just let her do her thing and Brian [Hernandez] did great. She just does everything so easily.”
It was the first Breeders' Cup win for McPeek, who came into the 2024 Breeders' Cup weekend 0-37. Of course, six months ago, McPeek hadn't won a GI Kentucky Derby or an Oaks either and those turned out pretty well. In addition to Thorpedo Anna winning the Oaks for McPeek, Mystic Dan (Goldencents) won the Derby. Hernandez, who won his first Breeders' Cup in 2012 with Fort Larned in the Classic, has been aboard for each of the big wins.
“This is a humbling business; it's not something that you can ever expect,” said McPeek regarding his first Breeders' Cup victory. “I was actually proud of a lot of seconds and thirds I have had in the Breeders' Cup because we have done it in many ways with modest money. We are pretty much outspent by a lot of players, but we run well. That's all you can do.”
Named a 'TDN Rising Star' after a second consecutive open daylight victory at two last year, Thorpedo Anna closed her juvenile campaign in 2023 with a runner-up finish in the GII Golden Rod Stakes. She kicked off her sophomore season with another daylight win in the Mar. 30 GII Fantasy Stakes, then romped with authority in the Oaks, the GI Acorn Stakes, and the GI CCA Oaks. Despite all the elite-level victories, her best race may have been her only loss of 2024, when she faced the boys in the GI Travers Stakes, running last year's champion 2-year-old colt Fierceness (City of Light) to a head and earning a sensational 111 Beyer Speed Figure, co-tops for the year going into Saturday. Fierceness would go on to finish second in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic later on Saturday's card with Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), third in the Travers behind Thorpedo Anna, winning the Classic. All three were 'TDN Rising Stars'.
While neither Fierceness nor Sierra Leone ran between the Travers and Breeders' Cup, Thorpedo Anna added a GI Cotillion Stakes win Sept. 21. It wasn't her top performance and her winning neck margin raised plenty of questions, but it was still a win and her Distaff coronation likely silenced any straggling doubters. Thorpedo Anna's record now stands at eight victories and two seconds from 10 lifetime starts.
McPeek confirmed the plan is to race Thorpedo Anna next year at four.
“We have every intention to run her next year. She is a filly that likes to do it and, hopefully, we'll entertain a lot of people with her in 2025. Anytime you run a horse like her, it's emotional.”
Pedigree Notes:
Co-owner Hicks bred Thorpedo Anna in Kentucky out of the unraced Sanford Robertson-bred mare Sataves, a daughter of Coolmore's Uncle Mo, who has 23 stakes winners as a broodmare sire. Sataves traces directly to 1974 Broodmare of the Year Cosmah and has a 2-year-old colt named McAfee (Cloud Computing), who debuted Friday at Churchill Downs with a 3 1/4-length maiden special weight victory for trainer Dick Dutrow. 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 Mar. 15-foaled Known Agenda filly 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.
Thorpedo Anna wins the $2 Million @LonginesEq #BreedersCup Distaff! Congrats to her connections! #BC24 pic.twitter.com/RRE4eNhLT5
— Breeders' Cup (@BreedersCup) November 2, 2024
Saturday, Del Mar
LONGINES BREEDERS' CUP DISTAFF-GI, $1,780,000, Del Mar, 11-2, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/8m, 1:49.10, ft.
1–THORPEDO ANNA, 121, f, 3, 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. $1,040,000. Lifetime Record: 10-8-2-0, $3,843,663. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Raging Sea, 124, f, 4, by Curlin
1st Dam: Stormy Welcome, by Storm Cat
2nd Dam: Welcome Surprise, by Seeking the Gold
3rd Dam: Weekend Surprise, by Secretariat
($300,000 RNA Ylg '21 KEESEP). O/B-Alpha Delta Stables, LLC (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $340,000.
3–Candied, 121, f, 3, by Candy Ride (Arg)
1st Dam: Toni Tools (SW, $193,339), by Roaring Fever
2nd Dam: Patine, by Smart Strike
3rd Dam: Burnish, by Menifee
($165,000 Ylg '22 FTKJUL). O-Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Bobby Flay; B-Buck Pond Farm, Inc. (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $180,000.
Margins: 2HF, 3 3/4, HF. Odds: 0.40, 4.10, 7.80.
Also Ran: Alice Verite (Jpn), Sugar Fish, Che Evasora (Arg), Honor D Lady. Scratched: Awesome Result, Batucada, Miss New York.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
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