By Tim Wilkin
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With one dominating win after another so far this season, it was time for a new challenge for the imposing 3-year-old filly Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna).
Her trainer Kenny McPeek gave it to her on Saturday when he announced that Thorpedo Anna will make her next start in the $1.25 million Grade I Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 24.
McPeek made the announcement during the Fox Saratoga Saturday broadcast.
“We are headed to the Travers, and I'm going to give you a list of reasons why,” said McPeek, who urged fans attending Travers Day who are rooting for Thorpedo Anna to wear pink to the races that day. “I spoke to David O'Rourke last Sunday or Monday, reached out to him, you know how do we approach this if we do this? I'm a big believer that the sport needs stars. It needs to be promoted, it needs to be lifted. She can do that and we're lucky that she's there to do that. The Alabama was a race that is going to be really boring if I run in it. Nobody is going to run against me, I'm pretty sure of that. She could go out there and knock out a third one for us, but I don't think that's a big enough challenge for her.”
McPeek said that Thorpedo Anna had worked against future Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan (Goldencents) all winter long. “She made him huff and puff on a regular basis. She helped him win the Kentucky Derby because she got him ready. He would come back and go, `woah, what is that?' And then she's worked against Gould's Gold (Goldencents) and he can't handle her at all. She gallops out way in front of him. So we're going to get a little bit of a barometer on that today (in the Jim Dandy). It's a challenge, it hasn't been done in a long time, she's a great eater, she loves what she does every day and she's here on what I'm going to call her home track now, with two wins over the track. So let's give NYRA a chance to prepare for everything, let's give the Alabama (time) to draw enough entries because it's still a great race and let's see if we can do something magical.”
At 6:30 Saturday morning, McPeek schooled Thorpedo Anna in the starting gate at the Oklahoma Training Track. He said then that he would huddle with owners Nader Alaali, Mark Edwards, Judy B. Hicks and his wife Sherri (Magdalena Racing) later in the day before announcing the decision.
Thorpedo Anna has won all four of her starts this year-all against fillies-by a combined 18 ¾ lengths. She was last seen winning the GI Coaching Club American Oaks by 41/2 lengths at Saratoga on July 20. She won with ease despite hopping at the start.
“There is a little bit of added pressure,” McPeek said Saturday morning about running against males. “But she is such a superstar. She is so great to be around. (Jockey Brian Hernandez) hasn't laid the whip on her all year. We really don't know how good she is.”
In her seven career starts, Thorpedo Anna has won six times.
The last filly to run in the Travers was Wonder Gadot, who finished 10th, and last, in 2018.
In the 154 prior editions of the Midsummer Derby, fillies have won it four times. It hasn't happened since 1915 when Lady Rotha did it.
McPeek said he also considered keeping Thorpedo Anna with her own kind. The $600,000 GI Alabama is the biggest race for 3-year-old fillies on the Saratoga calendar. The Alabama, like the Travers, is run at 1 ¼ miles.
“If we were to run her against the fillies, the Alabama probably would be a bit of a non-event, which is wonderful, I suppose,” McPeek said. “But is it good for the sport? The (Travers) purse is twice as much and I get five pounds. I'm not scared to do it.”
McPeek said one of the reasons he schooled Thorpedo Anna in the starting gate was because of the start in the CCA Oaks. He said he will take her to the gate again a couple more times before the Travers.
Thorpedo Anna is scheduled to work next Saturday, McPeek said.
“I think it's fun doing this kind of stuff,” he said. “It just makes the sport more interesting, doesn't it?”
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