It might have been a sloppy wet track for the 150th Kentucky Oaks, but Thorpedo Anna — who has never run on a wet track — took to the wet conditions just like her namesake, co-owner Mark Edwards’ granddaughter, competitive swimmer Anna Thorpe. The three-old filly broke well from pole position #5, moved into the lead, then held off challenges from Fiona’s Magic, Ways and Means and then in the stretch dug in to hold off champion 2-year-old filly Just FYI for a 4 3/4-length wire-to-wire victory.
“I had been quoted repeatedly all week,” said trainer Kenneth McPeek. “They better bring a bear, because I’ve got a grizzly. It wasn’t Babe Ruth calling his shot, but maybe.”
“We kind of had a game plan going into it that if she left there running, just let her go forward under the wire the first time,” said jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr. “Once she did that, I was like, man, they’re going to have trouble beating her.” And while they tried, she pulled off her first wire-to-wire victory.
This was the first Kentucky Oaks victory for McPeek and jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr., but they are no strangers to the Kentucky tracks. In 2020 McPeek won the 2020 Preakness with Peter Callahan’s Swiss Skydiver. Now he’s considering a similar move with Thorpedo Anna. “I have said all week that I wasn’t scared to even run her against colts,” he said. “I mean, she’s that good.”
Now for a bit of horse racing trivia. Races for fillies are called “Oaks” because the first was the Oaks Stakes for mares at Epsom Downs in England in 1779. “The Oaks” was the name of the nearby estate of the Earl of Derby. In 1780, a second race was added to Epsom Downs open to male horses, called the Derby Stakes, named after the Earl.
Weather conditions are likely to be sloppy again for tomorrow’s Kentucky Derby, so it will be interesting how the race plays out. I’ve been dealing with some family issues so haven’t been following the prep races like I normally do. Off to do some research!