2025 Eclipse Awards: Thorpedo Anna

It’s not easy to win an Eclipse Award. It’s even tougher to repeat.

Thorpedo Anna entered 2025 with lofty expectations, having won eight stakes in 2024 and earning Eclipse Awards as outstanding 3-year-old filly and Horse of the Year. Even though her 4-year-old campaign did not quite stack up to the year before, it was a success.

Thorpedo Anna won four graded stakes, including two Grade 1s and a pair of Grade 2s, from six starts in 2025, a campaign that makes her a deserving Eclipse Award finalist as outstanding older dirt female. It’s a nice way to go out. Thorpedo Anna is retired from racing.

Kenny McPeek trained Thorpedo Anna, who was sired by Fast Anna. She was bred by Judy Hicks, who retained a share in the filly after auctioning her at Fasig-Tipton for $40,000 as a yearling in October 2022. For most of her career, Thorpedo Anna was owned by a partnership that included Hicks, Brookdale Racing, Mark Edwards, and Magdalena Racing.

After winning the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar, Thorpedo Anna took a four-month winter vacation, during which time she underwent oral surgery to remove a piece of dead bone from her jaw. The procedure was minor, and McPeek geared her up for 2025.

Thorpedo Anna would have a target on her back all season. She started as the odds-on favorite in all six starts, beginning with her comeback in the Grade 2 Azeri Stakes in March at Oaklawn Park.

:: Full list of 2025 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Racing on a wet track, Thorpedo Anna wired the field by more than three lengths. Five weeks later, in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at the same track, she produced the same result. Racing on a fast surface under regular rider Brian Hernandez Jr., Thorpedo Anna pressed the pace and won by more than four lengths. She looked unstoppable.

But there are no guarantees in racing, and Thorpedo Anna subsequently tossed in a clunker in the Grade 1 Fasig-Tipton La Troienne Stakes in May at Churchill Downs. She encountered trouble on the first turn, pressed the pace, and finished last of seven. The trouble and an abbreviated three-week break between starts provided alibis.

Questions remained, however. Was Thorpedo Anna the same filly she was the year before? Redemption occurred in June at Churchill Downs. Despite her last-start misfire, Thorpedo Anna was heavily favored in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs. She did not disappoint.

Facing a small field, Thorpedo Anna won by three lengths. Soon after, Brookdale Racing sold its ownership share to Hill ’n’ Dale Racing. Former star NFL running back Marshawn Lynch took a minority share, and Thorpedo Anna shipped to Saratoga for the Grade 1 Personal Ensign.

Thorpedo Anna won the Personal Ensign by a nose, then subsequently finished off the board in the Grade 1 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes at Keeneland. Her fourth-place finish under Flavien Prat, who was subbing for an injured Hernandez, turned out to be the final start of her career.

Thorpedo Anna retired with 12 wins and $5,440,913 from 16 starts. Plans call for Thorpedo Anna to be bred this spring to Gun Runner.

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