HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna breezed five furlongs in 1:01 on Monday morning at Oaklawn Park as she continues preparations for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap.
The 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares is April 12 at Oaklawn.
Thorpedo Anna came out in the first set, on a crisp morning in the mid-50s. She backtracked to the sixteenth pole and worked by herself. The track was rated fast.
Oaklawn’s clockers carried Thorpedo Anna through fractions of 24.40 seconds for the opening quarter and 49 seconds for the half-mile, then followed her galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.60.
Thorpedo Anna’s time of 1:01 was the fastest of eight moves at the distance at the midway point of training Monday.
The work was the first published move for Thorpedo Anna at Oaklawn. She was based at Fair Grounds when she shipped in to win last year’s Grade 2 Fantasy and this year’s Grade 2 Azeri in her 4-year-old debut March 8.
Thorpedo Anna galloped between races on Saturday at Oaklawn to the cheers of the estimated 68,500 patrons ontrack for Arkansas Derby Day. Last year, she won 6 of 7 starts, including the Kentucky Oaks and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Kenny McPeek trains Thorpedo Anna for Brookdale Racing, Mark Edwards, Judy Hicks, and Magdalena Racing.
McPeek also worked Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan three-eighths in 36 seconds Monday in his first published work since January.
A number of other stakes horses worked Monday, among them Booth. He went a half-mile in 50 seconds. Booth owns the two highest Beyer Speed Figures at the current meet – a 105 and 107 – for his respective wins in the Commodore overnight stakes and Grade 3 Whitmore.
Trainer Steve Asmussen said Sunday that Booth would make his next start in the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on April 12 at Oaklawn.
Others on the Monday tab included Disarm, who went five-eighths in 1:02. Asmussen said after the horse’s last start that he could run back in either the Oaklawn Handicap or the Alysheba at Churchill Downs.
Red Route One, winner of the recent Essex Handicap at Oaklawn, is in the same division and Asmussen said Sunday he wants to keep the horse and Disarm separated and at this point has not made a decision on next race plans for Red Route One.
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