The Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) at Del Mar Nov. 2 will have a different look and feel than what many had anticipated just days ago.

Rather than the heavyweight clash between 2023 champion older dirt female Idiomatic  and potential Horse of the Year candidate Thorpedo Anna , fans will still get an exciting field but they will also be left wondering what could have been.

The recent retirement of Idiomatic, who is the race’s defending winner, no doubt took plenty of wind out of the Distaff’s sails. Any time you lose a headliner whose résumé is as impeccable as Idiomatic’s, there is bound to be a measure of disappointment. On top of being a champion, the race loses a mare who is 12-3-2 from 17 starts, top six in wins and earnings last year, and has eight graded wins including five grade 1s. Her absence will keep the number of two-time Distaff winners at four: Bayakoa (ARG) in 1989 and 1990, Royal Delta in 2011 and 2012, Beholder in 2013 and 2016, and Monomoy Girl  in 2018 and 2020. 

The decision by owner/breeder Juddmonte to retire the 5-year-old star after she was found to be lame the morning of Oct. 25 is a blow but it doesn’t deny the Distaff of its 3-year-old sensation and likely biggest attraction.

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Thorpedo Anna has put together an especially strong 3-year-old campaign, likely already locking up a divisional Eclipse Award. The filly grabbed everyone’s attention with a scintillating performance in the Kentucky Oaks (G1). The nearly five-length triumph led to questions of whether or not trainer Kenny McPeek would put her up against males in the Preakness Stakes (G1).

“We always had high expectations for after her 2-year-old year,” said McPeek. “But all the things that she’s been able to accomplish have been amazing. She’s just loved what she does every day. She really makes our job easy. And every horse trainer ought to get lucky enough to have a horse like her, because she’s the key to it all.”

Instead, McPeek used caution and continued to challenge her within her division resulting in decisive victories in the Acorn Stakes (G1) and the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1). Only then did he raise the stakes. 

In the Travers Stakes (G1), she went up against some of the best American 3-year-old colts—Fierceness , Sierra Leone , and Dornoch  . Her late rally ultimately came up short by a head, but that runner-up finish to Fierceness only added to her accomplishments. She’s raced once since then. While her margin of victory (a neck) in the Cotillion Stakes (G1) at Parx Racing may not look impressive, her turn of foot once finding an opening helped produce a career-best 112 Equibase Speed Figure. 

The Distaff will be her first opportunity to run against older competition.

“I’s always challenging, going from 2-year-olds to 3-year-olds to 3-and-up,” McPeek said. “And, yeah, I think it’s not a given but I think she’s the kind of filly that does step up to whatever level she needs to be at. I’m sure she’ll go out there and run a great race.”

One of those older females is Alpha Delta Stables’ homebred Raging Sea , who needed a little bit of time to find herself but for the last year-plus, has been firing on all cylinders. A 4-year-old daughter of Curlin  , Raging Sea had a couple of high-profile grade 1s in her rookie campaign. She finished third in the Alcibiades Stakes (G1), where she was disqualified and placed fourth. In her next start, she was third by four lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).

Brown thinks that as good as his late-running filly has been, it might take a scenario similar to the Personal Ensign for her to prevail. In that race at Saratoga Race Course, Idiomatic and another Brown charge, Randomized , took something out of each other and opened the door for Raging Sea.