Breeders’ Cup notes: Monday updates on Distaff horses

This was the reported activity Monday for fillies and mares entered in the Breeders' Cup Distaff.

Awesome Result

Trainer: Yasutoshi Ikee

Jockey: Yutaka Take

Morning activity: Light work on the main track and paddock-schooled with a pony

Planned activity: Will gallop Tuesday morning

Batucada

Trainer: Saffie Joseph Jr.

Jockey: Ricardo Santana Jr.

Morning activity: Galloped 1 1/4 miles under exercise rider Omar Tapia

Planned activity: Same routine Tuesday

Joseph: “She ran beyond our expectations (in the Grade 2 Beldame on Oct. 6), and that’s why we are giving her a chance here. With Idiomatic out, Raging Sea is obviously the second or third choice, so off that run, why not? There’s a lot of upside and not a lot of downside.”

Candied

Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Jockey: Irad Ortiz Jr.

Morning activity: In transit from Kentucky to Del Mar.

Planned activity: To be determined

Aron Wellman, president and founder of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners: “It's been a bit of a challenge this year with her because her schedule got interrupted when she didn't gain entry into the Kentucky Oaks (G1). But that being said, she's added a stakes win to her Grade 1 win and Grade 1 placing last year, in addition to three more Grade 1 placings, including the two most prestigious races for 3-year-old fillies at Saratoga, the CCA Oaks (G1) and then the Alabama (G1). The Alabama was a real heartbreaker, not to get that job done, but she certainly lost nothing in defeat.

“We decided to take her to Keeneland to run against older fillies in the Spinster (G1), knowing that Idiomatic would certainly be a force to be reckoned with. And that proved to be the case. The race shape in the Spinster was a bit distorted because we felt as though we needed to be the one to apply pressure on Idiomatic if no one else was going to and that's just really not the way Candied wants to run. She wants to get her legs underneath her, settle early and make a big run late, and she just wasn't able to do that. But I thought it was a pretty good effort, all things considered, for her to be third, her first time against Grade 1 competition against elders.”

Che Evasora

Trainer: Phil D’Amato

Jockey: Tiago Pereira

Morning activity: Light gallop at 5:30 after arriving Sunday afternoon from Santa Anita.

Planned activity: Gallop Tuesday morning.

D'Amato: “In the Zenyatta (Sept. 29 at Santa Anita), she broke sharp and showed a lot of speed that we were not expecting. We have slowed her down to get her back to the style that was so successful for her in South America, and that is to come from way out of it.”

Honor D Lady

Trainer: Saffie Joseph Jr.

Morning activity: Galloped 1 1/4 miles under exercise rider Peter Leiva

Planned activity: Same routine Tuesday

Joseph: “Her last race obviously wasn’t her best, and she’ll have to improve from a fitness standpoint, which she has. We got two really strong works into her. She’s tightened it up and lost some weight – she was much better from a fitness standpoint and we’re optimistic she’s going to get back to her normal form.”

Miss New York

Trainer: Jorge Delgado

Morning activity: Trained on main track at Del Mar

Raging Sea

Trainer: Chad Brown

Jockey: Flavien Prat

Morning activity: In her first day since shipping in from New York, Raging Sea had an easy clockwise trot down the chute and then around the perimeter of the Del Mar main track.

Planned activity: Will have a light gallop Tuesday morning. Brown: “It would be really satisfying to win the Distaff, especially with her. She’s been a very consistent horse for us, and I’m very proud of how she’s developed. She just keeps getting faster and I do think she’s coming into the race the right way.”

Sugar Fish

Trainer: Jeff Mullins

Jockey: Tyler Baze

Morning activity: Jogged a mile at Santa Anita

Planned activity: Ship to Del Mar on Tuesday

Thorpedo Anna

Trainer: Kenny McPeek

Jockey: Brian Hernandez Jr.

Morning activity: Walked the shedrow after arriving from New York Sunday evening

Planned activity: Will jog a mile and gallop a mileTuesday

McPeek: “She was a bundle of energy today, That’s typical of her. She is probably the most energetic horse I have ever handled. She has been that way her whole life. When I was walking her this morning, she was walking me. She pulled me all the way around there. It was good exercise for an old horse trainer.”

The first time Kenny McPeek saw Thorpedo Anna, it was love at first sight. It was at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale, and McPeek bought her for a bargain, paying $40,000 for her.

“I was just like, ‘whoa,' ” McPeek said, reliving the moment. “She just had this presence and a fantastic confirmation.”

McPeek, though, wasn’t thinking back then that he would have a filly who is on the cusp of being named the champion 3-year-old filly and perhaps even horse of the year.

Thorpedo Anna has ripped off five wins in six starts this year, four of them Grade 1s. Her lone loss came by a heartbreaking head when she tried the boys and lost the Travers (G1) by a head to Fierceness, who is a major player in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. She will end her season when she runs in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff as the heavy favorite.

“She has been a trainer’s dream, really,” McPeek said.

McPeek has shown a keen eye for fillies in the past, and he has not had to empty the wallet to get them. His first star distaff runner was Take Charge Lady, who he got for $175,000 in 2000. She earned more than $2 million in a career in which she won 11 of 22 starts.

He purchased Swiss Skydiver for $35,000 and she beat the boys in the 2020 Preakness and was also a $2 million earner.

“All of my career, I have been a middle- or even lower-market yearling buyer,” McPeek said. “In a way, it’s a good thing because there is no pressure. It’s all upside ,and I have been able to sharpen my eye doing this in the middle to lower market.”

Thorpedo Anna, who was bred by Kentucky’s Judy Hicks, who also is part of the ownership group, is a daughter of the late sire Fast Anna and out of the Uncle Mo mare Sataves.

“I have had three fillies in my career that have been exceptional,” McPeek said. “I never felt I would have a filly as good as Take Charge Lady and then along came Swiss Skydiver. And now Anna. I don’t know if there were any expectations at the beginning. She built all the expectations.”

McPeek is sure in his ability to spy out good horses and he has been rewarded. The Grade 1s on her resume are the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, the Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga and the Cotillion at Parx.

McPeek was so confident in her that he gave her the chance to run against the best 3-year-old colts at Saratoga and she nearly pulled it off.

“She has done everything we have asked her to do and even when we asked a lot out of her in the Travers, she gave us everything she had,” McPeek said.

McPeek has dragged out the line he used before Thorpedo Anna and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. won the Kentucky Oaks, that being the competition better had bring a bear because he was bringing a grizzly.

“We are ultra-confident,” he said.