Churchill Downs will honor 2024 Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna on Sunday before she retires to Hill \u2018n\u2019 Dale Farms.<\/p>\n
LOUISVILLE, Ky. \u2014 Thorpedo Anna, the reigning Horse of the Year whose speed and grit defined two racing seasons, will take one last walk at Churchill Downs on Sunday, Oct. 26, before beginning a new chapter as a broodmare in Lexington.<\/p>\n
The 4-year-old filly will be honored during Race 6 at Churchill Downs, a farewell ceremony marking the end of her standout career before she ships to Hill \u2018n\u2019 Dale Farms at Xalapa.<\/p>\n
The 4-year-old ends her three-season career with 12 wins in 16 starts and more than $5.4 million in earnings. She\u2019ll walk over with the field for Race 6 at about 3 p.m. and stay in the paddock for roughly 20 minutes while the race runs.<\/p>\n
Trainer Kenny McPeek announced her retirement Oct. 15, closing the book on a run that included seven Grade 1 victories \u2014 among them the Kentucky Oaks and Breeders\u2019 Cup Distaff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve used this analogy a lot in my career: horses are like surfing, and you\u2019re trying to catch a big wave. This filly has been the most amazing wave I\u2019ve ever been on,\u201d McPeek said.<\/p>\n
Thorpedo Anna, a daughter of Fast Anna purchased for $40,000 as a yearling, retires as a 10-time graded stakes winner for owners Hill \u2018n\u2019 Dale Equine Holdings of John G. Sikura, breeder Judy Hicks, Mark Edwards, and Sherri McPeek\u2019s Magdalena Racing.<\/p>\n
A 20% ownership share of the filly is set to be auctioned Oct. 29 at Keeneland\u2019s Championship Sale at Del Mar.<\/p>\n
Her 3-year-old campaign was among the best in recent memory, with victories in the Fantasy, Kentucky Oaks, Acorn, Coaching Club American Oaks, Cotillion, and Breeders\u2019 Cup Distaff. She also came within a head of winning the Travers, finishing just behind Fierceness, the 2023 Champion Two-Year-Old Male, with eventual 2024 Champion Three-Year-Old Male Sierra Leone another 1\u00be lengths back in third.<\/p>\n
This year, Thorpedo Anna added wins in the Azeri, Apple Blossom, Fleur de Lis, and Personal Ensign before a fourth-place finish in the Spinster at Keeneland on Oct. 5, her final start.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s 11-race card marks opening day of Churchill Downs\u2019 26-day fall meet, which begins at 1 p.m. The program is headlined by the $200,000 Street Sense and $200,000 Rags to Riches as part of the track\u2019s 21st annual \u201cStars of Tomorrow I\u201d day for 2-year-olds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Churchill Downs will honor 2024 Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna on Sunday before she retires to Hill \u2018n\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-218753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}