Thorpedo Anna makes winning 2025 debut in Azeri Stakes
Avoiding all the bear traps, reigning horse of the year Thorpedo Anna opened her 2025 campaign with a workmanlike, 3 1/2-length victory in the Grade 2, $400,000 Azeri Stakes for older fillies and mares Saturday afternoon at Oaklawn.
Nicknamed Grizzly by her trainer Kenny McPeek, Thorpedo Anna broke on top, fought off a challenge from Free Like a Girl turning for home before pulling away for a comfortable victory as the overwhelming 1-9 favorite.
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“It looked to me like she was getting a little leg weary there, and then she rebroke,” McPeek said. “Of course good horses do that. I think we’re going to keep an eye on how much water she drinks out of this race. Her fitness level needs to go to another level the next race. Fingers crossed it does. She’s going to go back to New Orleans (Sunday) or Monday, and then she’ll train down there through the month of March and maybe into April. And then we will cycle her back up here to Oaklawn from Fair Grounds.”
McPeek said Thorpedo Anna will be pointed to the $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles April 12 at Oaklawn.
“As long as everything’s good with her, health-wise, she is going to run in the Apple Blossom. (Fitness level was) probably 85, 90%. The problem with training a filly like this is finding a horse that can keep up with her in the morning. I had (Kentucky Derby winner) Mystik Dan last year. This year I really didn’t have (that) horse, … so finding her workmates is the hard part.”
Free Like a Girl, the leading Louisiana-bred money winner in history, finished second, 5 1/2 lengths ahead of Recharge in the 1 1/16-mile race. Alpine Princess and Jody’s Pride completed the order of finish.
The field was reduced to five following the scratches of Bow Draw and Wild Bout Hilary, who reared and unseated jockey Rafael Bejarano. Wild Bout Hilary, an expected pace factor, was coming off a head victory over Free Like a Girl in the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) at 1 1/16 miles Feb. 8 at Oaklawn.
The absence of Wild About Hilary left Thorpedo Anna, who broke from the rail and set modest, pacesetting fractions of 24.27, 48.59 and 1:12.99.
Free Like a Girl, on the outside, tracked Thorpedo Anna from the start and inched closer to the champion near the three-eighths pole. Free Like a Girl was at Thorpedo Anna’s neck approaching the quarter pole but was unable to match strides through the stretch.
“When I saw it was Free Like a Girl next to me going down the back side, when I got to the middle of the second turn, I’m like I need to get some separation from her, because she’s made $2 million,” winning jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. said. “She’s going to be a tough filly to run from. She’ll be able to run us down, if anybody can. When I didn’t get the separation right away like I thought I was going to, I went like uh-oh. We may be in for a fight. But then Thorpedo Anna switched leads, and she was off and running.”
Thorpedo Anna ran the distance over a sealed, wet-fast surface in 1:44.02. Thorpedo Anna carried 119 pounds, two fewer than Free Like a Girl, who failed in her 12th attempt to win a graded stakes. She paid $2.20, $2.10 and $2.10.
Free Like a Girl returned $6.00 and $4.00, and Recharge paid $4.60 to show.
Thorpedo Anna moved to $4,083,663 in career earnings following her ninth victory from 11 starts. She is a seven-time stakes winner with five Group 1s to her name.
McPeek trains Thorpedo Anna, a daughter of the late Fast Anna, for a partnership that includes her breeder Judy Hicks, McPeek’s wife Sherri doing business as Magdalena Racing and Kentucky attorney Mark Edwards. Kenny McPeek bought Thorpedo Anna for just $40,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale.
Thorpedo Anna was a unanimous choice as the U.S. and Canada champion 3-year-old filly and was a runaway winner for horse of the year after compiling a 7: 6-1-0 record and earning $3,653,050 in 2024. All six victories were stakes, including Oaklawn’s $750,000 Fantasy (G2) in her 3-year-old debut last March.
Following the 1 1/16-mile Fantasy, Thorpedo Anna raced exclusively in Grade 1 events the rest of 2024 and secured year-end honors with victories in the Kentucky Oaks, Acorn, Coaching Club American Oaks, Cotillion and Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 2 at Del Mar in her last start. The 1 1/8-mile Distaff marked Thorpedo Anna’s first race against older horses.
Thorpedo Anna became the first reigning horse of the year to win the following season since 2017 champion Gun Runner took the 2018 Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1).