Thorpedo Anna might return sometime in the coming months to Saratoga, where she won two Grade 1s last summer and nearly took down Fierceness in the Travers Stakes – but probably not next month.
Trainer Kenny McPeek said he’d nominated Thorpedo Anna to the Ogden Phipps on June 6 at Saratoga but is much more inclined to stay home at Churchill Downs and await the Fleur de Lis Stakes on June 28.
The larger point: Thorpedo Anna, after finishing last of seven May 2 as the 2-5 favorite in the La Troienne at Churchill, seems set to resume racing next month.
Thorpedo Anna on May 17 worked a half-mile in 47.80 seconds, her first breeze since the La Troienne and confirmation that the 4-year-old filly, Horse of the Year in 2024, had been given a clean bill of health after her surprising defeat.
“It was a rough day, but she came out of it and wasn’t injured,” McPeek said.
McPeek said in the days after the La Troienne that he rued running Thorpedo Anna back just three weeks after she’d won the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park. The filly also got bumped hard and thrown off stride into the first turn. McPeek, with nothing else to go on, tends to believe the early trouble led to the late fade.
“Just that squeeze into the first turn threw her off, was the only thing we could figure,” McPeek said. “All the bumper cars knocked a little wind out of her somehow.”
While Thorpedo Anna, who won the 2024 Kentucky Oaks, went the wrong way in her last start, Mystik Dan, whose last win came in the 2024 Kentucky Derby, went the right direction in his.
A well-beaten sixth Dec. 26 in the Grade 1 Malibu at Santa Anita, his first start since the Triple Crown, and all but eased a month later in the Pegasus World Cup, Mystik Dan was beaten just a nose May 3 at Oaklawn in the Lake Ouchita Stakes by Grade 1 winner Saudi Crown, equaling his career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 101.
Mystik Dan will start May 31 in the $275,000 Blame Stakes at Churchill.
“I think I was too ambitious with him in his first two starts. I made a mistake taking him to California for the Malibu,” McPeek said. “In hindsight, it didn’t work, but we’ve had time to regroup with him.”
McPeek also reported that $3.4 million earner Rattle N Roll, most recently eighth in the Dubai World Cup on April 5, which was preceded by a fifth in the Saudi Cup, is scheduled to resume training in about three weeks.
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