Stakes Advance - Azeri Stakes 2025
Compiled by Robert Yates
For just the third time, a reigning Horse of the Year will run at Oaklawn when Thorpedo Anna makes her 4-year-old debut in Saturday’s $400,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) for older fillies and mares.
An ancient set of past performances points to a close finish. The modern version screams blowout.
Favorite Trick and Azeri (Saturday’s race honors her Hall of Fame career) are the only reigning Horse of the Year winners to compete at Oaklawn since the Eclipse Awards debuted in 1971.
Favorite Trick, the 1997 Horse of the Year, was unbeaten in nine career starts when he ran in the $500,000 Arkansas Derby (G2) for 3-year-olds in 1998. Favorite Trick, at odds of 2-5, finished third, beaten two heads by Victory Gallop.
Azeri won 8 of 9 starts, including the $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1), en route to 2002 Horse of the Year honors. Azeri, also 2-5, opened 2003 in the Apple Blossom and ran down the Kenny McPeek-trained Take Charge Lady in the final 100 yards to win by a head.
Now, 22 years later, McPeek has the 2-5 (program) Azeri favorite in Thorpedo Anna.
“I just hope I’m not on the same side of the photo this year,” McPeek said Friday morning.
The 1 1/16-mile Azeri headlines an 11-race card that begins at 12:30 p.m. (Central). Probable post time for the Azeri, the 10th race, is 5:25 p.m. Weather permitting, the infield will be open.
The Azeri is Oaklawn’s final major prep for the $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) at 1 1/16 miles April 12.
The seven-horse Azeri field from the rail out: Thorpedo Anna, Brian Hernandez Jr. to ride, 119 pounds, 2-5 on the morning line; Alpine Princess, Cristian Torres, 119, 6-1; Jody’s Pride, Ricardo Santana Jr., 119, 8-1; Wild Bout Hilary, C.J. McMahon, 124, 15-1; Recharge, Keith Asmussen, 121, 12-1; Free Like a Girl, Julien Leparoux, 121, 15-1; and Bow Draw, Rocco Bowen, 119, 30-1.
Thorpedo Anna’s accomplishments tower over her six rivals.
Thorpedo Anna was a unanimous choice for North America’s champion 3-year-old filly and a runaway winner for Horse of the Year after compiling a 6-1-0 record from seven starts and earning $3,653,050. All six victories were stakes, including Oaklawn’s $750,000 Fantasy (G2) in her 3-year-old debut last March.
Following the 1 1/16-mile Fantasy, Thorpedo Anna raced exclusively in Grade 1 events the remainder of 2024 and secured year-end honors with victories in the $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, $500,000 Acorn at Saratoga, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga, $1 million Cotillion at Parx and the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff Nov. 2 at Del Mar in her last start. The 1 1/8-mile Distaff marked Thorpedo Anna’s first race against older horses.
The only other graded stakes winners entered in the Azeri are Recharge and Wild Bout Hilary, who exit victories in the $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic (G3) Jan. 25 at Sam Houston Race Park and the $250,000 Bayakoa (G3) Feb. 8 at Oaklawn, respectively.
Thorpedo Anna has recorded triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in two of her last three starts, including a career-best 111 in her only loss last year, a runner-up finish against males in the $1.25 million Travers Stakes (G1) Aug. 24 at Saratoga. Thorpedo Anna was beaten a head by champion Fierceness in the 1 ¼-mile “Midsummer Derby.”
Jody’s Pride (95) owns the second-highest last-out Beyer, that coming in a third-place finish in the $215,000 Inside Information Stakes (G2) for older fillies and mares at 7 furlongs Jan. 25 at Gulfstream Park.
“That’s really the idea to run her (Thorpedo Anna) in this race, to bring her into the Apple Blossom,” McPeek said. “This is just prepping her for that. All of her races, there’s a lot of energy around them. She’s had that since she won the Oaks. It definitely puts you on the edge of your chair, but that’s fine. That’s where you want to be.”
Thorpedo Anna returned to the track in early January at Gulfstream Park to begin preparations for her 4-year-old debut. She tuned up for the Azeri at Fair Grounds, where she has four published workouts since Feb. 8, including a 5-furlong drill in 1:00.80 March 1.
Thorpedo Anna romped to a four-length victory in the Fantasy off a similar layoff.
“She is doing very well,” said Hernandez, who has ridden Thorpedo Anna in all 10 career starts. “(Retired jockey) Robby Albarado gets on her every morning and he just keeps saying how well she is doing. She (was) down here in New Orleans for about a month. I have worked her three times down here in New Orleans. Her final work was last Saturday, by herself. She was her normal professional self. Worked a really good (five-eighths) and had a big gallop out all the way around the turn.”
The only time Thorpedo Anna broke from the rail was in the Travers, when she brushed the “near side stall at the start,” according to footnotes from the official race chart. Hernandez said he’s not concerned about Saturday’s rail draw.
“We just need to make sure she is ready to leave the gates in good order and go from there,” Hernandez said.
McPeek said his instructions to Hernandez will be straightforward.
“I’ll tell Brian to just let her run,” McPeek said. “Don’t get fancy. That’s the way it was in the Oaks. Looks like we might get a sloppy track. She likes a sloppy track. We’ll leave it with her.”
Free Like a Girl was second, beaten a head, in the Bayakoa, her 11th attempt to win a graded stakes race. The leading Louisiana-bred money winner in history ($2,173,438), Free Like a Girl finished second to reigning champion older dirt female Idiomatic in the $1 million La Troienne Stakes (G1) at 1 1/16 miles last May at Churchill Downs. Idiomatic was making her 2024 debut in the La Troienne.
“That’s what everybody’s been asking,” said Chasey Deville Pomier, who co-owns and trains Free Like a Girl. “I said if I ever want to face a champion filly like this (Thorpedo Anna), it’s definitely the first race off of a layoff. But I would not want to face her again, for sure. She’s a monster. If anything, we’re going to be running for second, but our goal is to get there and be as tough as we can be.
Thorpedo Anna arrived late Thursday afternoon at Oaklawn. She visited the indoor paddock and galloped 1 ½ miles after the surface renovation break Friday morning under Albarado, her regular exercise rider and Oaklawn’s leading jockey in 1996 and 1997.
Albarado said Thorpedo Anna has been “professional” since returning to Oaklawn.
“She basically trains herself,” Albarado said. “You don’t have to make her do anything. She’ll train herself.”
Thorpedo Anna, a Kentucky-bred daughter of the late Fast Anna, has an 8-2-0 overall record and earnings of $3,843,663. Thorpedo Anna races for a partnership that includes her breeder, Judy Hicks, McPeek’s wife, Sherri (Magdalena Racing), and Kentucky attorney Mark Edwards. Kenny McPeek purchased Thorpedo Anna for just $40,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale
