Photo:

Alex Evers / Eclipse Sportswire

Trainer Ken McPeek enjoyed a breakthrough year like no other.

He had fillies run well but not quite get there with three second-place finishes in 14 previous tries in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks before front-running Thorpedo Anna got there in style, controlling the premier race for 3-year-old fillies by 4 3/4 lengths with Brian Hernandez Jr. as a comfortable passenger.

McPeek had been chasing the Kentucky Derby since Tejano Run came with a tremendous closing kick but could not quite overtake Thunder Gulch in the 1995 edition. Then the combination of a brilliant, ground-saving ride by Hernandez and a valiant horse who would not be denied allowed 18-1 Mystik Dan to stick his nose in front in a pulsating three-horse photo finish with Sierra Leone and Forever Young in the 150th Derby.

As everyone knows by now, Thorpedo Anna and Mystik Dan allowed McPeek to become the first trainer to complete the Oaks-Derby sweep in the same season since legendary Plain Ben Jones accomplished that with Real Delight in the Oaks and Hill Gail in the Derby in 1952.

McPeek, 62, knew both of his hopefuls were doing well leading into that massive weekend at Churchill Downs. Yet, even as he looks ahead to 2025, it continues to feel a bit surreal.

“We had laid the foundation for a while, going back as far as when we had Tejano Run. I had knocked on the door in the Oaks, and I’d had some chances in the Derby in the past,” he said. “But to do both of them in the same year, I don’t think anybody could have predicted that.”

For someone who had grown up in Lexington, Ky., finding a way in one of the tightest finishes in the Derby’s rich history means everything. “It’s just a goal he had set forever,” said his wife, Sherri. “It’s really a sense of relief. ‘Oh, my gosh, I finally did it.’ ”

The same overwhelming sense of relief swept over him when almost-certain horse of the year Thorpedo Anna, a $40,000 yearling purchase for the keen-eyed McPeek, again strutted her stuff in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Before she rolled gate to wire, McPeek had described himself to Daily Racing Form as the “best worst trainer in the Breeders’ Cup.”

He had gone winless with his first 37 starters, an oh-fer that told only part of his exasperating story. He had placed second seven times and had 10 third-place results. Atigun had been the only favorite he saddled, in the 2012 Marathon. Breeders’ Cup no longer offers that race.

“I think I’d been really unlucky in the Breeders’ Cup,” McPeek said. “I’ve taken some horses over that ran well.”

Thanks to Mystik Dan, McPeek is one of five living trainers with a personal Triple Crown. He had pulled one of the great upsets in Belmont Stakes history when 70-1 Sarava denied stumbling Triple Crown threat War Emblem in 2002. Then the filly Swiss Skydiver, a $35,000 find, beat the boys in the Preakness in 2020 to brighten an otherwise dim pandemic season.

McPeek is the first to say that this year’s resounding success reflects the skilled team he meticulously assembled through the years. He will continue to rely on that. “I want to stay steady and surround myself with good people,” he said.

With his services in demand as never before, he is intently focused on upgrading his stock.

“It does give us the luxury of some selectivity of not only clients but horses and their potential talent level,” he said. “It’s quality over quantity. Once you know a horse doesn’t have a high level of talent, you’ve got to be prepared to give some of those horses up to other trainers or sell them, whatever it takes.”

McPeek is confident the future holds more Oaks, Derby and Breeders’ Cup triumphs.

“We’ll probably get 60, 70, 80 horses coming in each year as 2-year-olds,” he noted. “That’s going to lead us back there again over time.”

He is not saying it all will happen again in the same year. No one would ever say that.