2024 Eclipse Awards: Judy Hicks

Sataves, the dam of Horse of the Year candidate Thorpedo Anna, had a premature and troubled start to life, requiring painstaking care. Her survival and subsequent success as a broodmare was largely due to hands-on care by Judy Hicks. The breeder of Thorpedo Anna is an Eclipse Award finalist herself, recognized among the nation’s outstanding breeders.

Sataves is by classic sire Uncle Mo and out of the Stormy Atlantic mare Pacific Sky – in turn a daughter of multiple Grade/Group 1 producer Aldebaran Light. She was bred in the name of Sanford Robertson, who had Pacific Sky boarded at Hicks’s Brookstown Farm in Versailles, Ky., which she and her husband bought in 1983. Sataves was foaled in January 2015, seven or eight weeks premature – a stage at which foals have between a 10 percent to 20 percent chance of survival. Hicks recalled that the newborn was 45 inches tall and weighed just 60 pounds. Robertson gave the filly to Hicks, who had volunteered to keep her and nurse her to health, which she did successfully.

:: Full list of 2024 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Sataves was unraced, owing to her rough start, hock problems from her early delivery, and small size. But the well-bred filly did overcome the odds to become a healthy broodmare at Brookstown. To date, she has produced three winners from as many starters.

Hicks selected Grade 1-placed sprinter Fast Anna, by Medaglia d’Oro and out of champion Dreaming of Anna, as one mating for Sataves, and Thorpedo Anna was born in 2021. The following year, she sold for $40,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale. Hicks liked the filly so much she asked trainer Kenny McPeek to negotiate her staying in for a piece of the action. Thorpedo Anna now races in partnership for Brookdale Racing, Mark Edwards, Hicks, and the McPeek family’s Magdalena Racing – and she put together a stellar campaign for that partnership in 2024.

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