With another year coming to an end, BloodHorse staff members were asked to reflect on what they had seen over the past 12 months and vote on the best races of 2024.
The Top 10 countdown started Dec. 20 with No. 10, the Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T), followed by No. 9, the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T), No. 8, the Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1), and one of two races that tied for sixth, the Preakness Stakes (G1).
Today we look at the second race that tied for the sixth spot, the Kentucky Oaks (G1) May 3 at Churchill Downs.
How it played out
The Kentucky Oaks was not just the premier race of the year for 3-year-old fillies; it was the coming out party for the year's belle of the ball, Thorpedo Anna.
Trained by Ken McPeek, Thorpedo Anna came into the Kentucky Oaks off a win in the Fantasy Stakes (G2) that netted the daughter of Fast Anna her initial graded stakes victory. Then, in the 1:50.83 it took for her to blow 13 rivals off their feet, a star was born.
The only drama in the race was whether she was running too fast on the front end. She motored through fractions of :22.87 and :46.79 in the opening stages with a narrow lead and then turning for home, when it seemed likely that fatigue would set in and the closers would pounce, she found another gear and pulled away to cross the wire 4 3/4 lengths ahead of the favorite, the 2023 2-year-old champion filly Just F Y I.
It was a dazzling performance that became a sign of things to come.
Quotable
Ken McPeek, trainer Thorpedo Anna: "We went into the race expecting her to win and would have been quite disappointed if she lost, but we were ultra-impressed with the way she performed and it was a great race for her. She really stamped herself that day."
Impact
The Kentucky Oaks put Thorpedo Anna on top of the 3-year-old filly division and she stayed there throughout the course of winning six of seven 2024 starts for owners Brookdale Racing, Mark Edwards, breeder Judy Hicks, and McPeek's Magdalena Racing. She also won the Acorn Stakes (G1), Coaching Club American Oaks (G1), Cotillion Stakes (G1), and Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) while finishing second against males in the Travers Stakes (G1). A cinch to be named the champion 3-year-old filly, she is considered the favorite to be named Horse of the Year.
Notable
McPeek became the first trainer since Ben Jones in 1952 to win the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby (G1) in the same year ... Thorpedo Anna became the first filly to win the Kentucky Oaks and the Breeders' Cup Distaff in the same year since Monomoy Girl in 2018.
