Photo:

Shamela Hanley / Eclipse Sportswire

Thorpedo Anna’s early 2025 racing schedule could include two races at Oaklawn, trainer Kenny McPeek said Wednesday afternoon.

McPeek said Thorpedo Anna, an Oaklawn stakes winner and leading candidate for 2024 horse of the year, is under consideration for the Grade 2 Azeri Stakes on March 8 and the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) on April 12. Both races are 1 1/16 miles.

The Azeri is Oaklawn’s final major prep for the Apple Blossom, one of the country’s biggest two-turn events for older fillies and mares. McPeek said Thorpedo Anna also is a candidate to challenge males again in the $10 million Dubai World Cup (G1) on April 5 in the United Arab Emirates.

Thorpedo Anna resumed training this month in Florida in advance of her 4-year-old debut.

“We’re not going to rule out her making the Azeri,” McPeek said. “She’s such a natural athlete, and she’s bouncing out of her skin already. It’s not going to take long to get her ready. And if I thought she was ready, I would probably prep her somewhere in the South, between Gulfstream and Fair Grounds, and bring her in for the Azeri. And that would give her a race under her belt before what would be either the World Cup or the Apple Blossom, although I would tell you we’d probably lean strongly to the Apple Blossom.”

Thorpedo Anna hasn’t started since a front-running 2 1/2-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 2 at Del Mar. The 1 1/8-mile Distaff marked Thorpedo Anna’s first race against older horses and her sixth victory, all stakes, in seven starts last year.

Thorpedo Anna returned to the track Jan. 6 at Gulfstream Park, where she was reunited with retired two-time Oaklawn riding champion Robby Albarado, who regularly galloped her last year in Hot Springs. McPeek, Oaklawn’s leading trainer so far this season, said Thorpedo Anna is approaching her first breeze of 2025.

“You could have walked her off the farm and worked her half a mile and she would have said, ‘Sure, no problem,’ ” McPeek said. “She’s just a natural athlete. We’re going to give her a couple, three weeks of nice gallops. Robby Albarado gets on her every day. We’ll let her run the lane this weekend a little bit at Gulfstream. We’re just, right now, taking it a step at a time.”

Thorpedo Anna dominated the 3-year-old filly division, winning Oaklawn’s Fantasy Stakes (G2), her 2024 debut, in late March. She then recorded three consecutive Grade 1 victories, including the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, before testing males for the first time in the Travers Stakes (G1) at 1 1/4 miles Aug. 24 at Saratoga. Thorpedo Anna finished second, beaten a head by champion Fierceness, in the midsummer derby.

Thorpedo Anna bounced back to win the Cotillion Stakes (G1) Sept. 21 at Parx in her final start before the Breeders’ Cup.

A Kentucky-bred daughter of Fast Anna, Thorpedo Anna has a record of 10: 8-2-0 and earnings of $3,843,663. Thorpedo Anna races for a partnership that includes her breeder, Judy Hicks, and McPeek’s wife, Sherri of Magdalena Racing.

Albarado, who was galloping horses for McPeek earlier this season at Oaklawn, also is getting on 2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan at Gulfstream Park in advance of a possible start in its $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) at 1 1/8 miles on Jan. 25.

Mystik Dan, another McPeek trainee, ran in three of Oaklawn’s Kentucky Derby qualifying races last year, scoring a runaway victory in the Southwest Stakes (G3).