Thorpedo Anna so strong McPeek has to alter training plan

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Kenny McPeek had a plan for Thorpedo Anna’s training session Wednesday morning. Thorpedo Anna was not cooperative.

After drawing the rail for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes and noting that Thorpedo Anna had gotten antsy in the gate and broke poorly before winning the Coaching Club American Oaks here last month, McPeek was going to let Thorpedo Anna gallop out of the starting gate on the Oklahoma training track.

The idea was to have exercise rider Danny Ramsey back Thorpedo Anna to the eighth pole, gallop to the quarter pole, and then pull up and go to the gate from where Thorpedo Anna would break and gallop once around the training track.

But when Thorpedo galloped around the far turn, she was too strong and Ramsey couldn’t get Thorpedo Anna pulled up until well past the finish line.

Thus, McPeek canceled the plan to gallop Thorpedo Anna out of the gate and simply stood her in there instead.

“Sometimes, things don’t always go to plan,” McPeek said. “Before we galloped her, I had Danny come into the office and I said ‘Danny, here’s your toughest job ever. Can you pull her up by the gate?’ He said ‘I can do it, I can do it.’ I said ‘All right, meet you over there.’ He comes back and said ‘She’s too strong. I couldn’t pull her up.’ ”

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Ramsey said Thorpedo Anna “wore me out. Usually I get the jump on her, this morning she got the jump on me.”

McPeek said his other option was to simply back Thorpedo Anna up straight to the gate, but said she wouldn’t have had much of a warm up.

“I don’t like jumping horses without a warm-up,” he said. “The good news is she’s so strong right now.

“She’s doing super. I wasn’t surprised at all.”

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