Saratoga Notebook, Presented by NYRA: Thorpedo Anna Getting Ready for Personal Ensign

[Wandering Eyes]

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Trainer Kenny McPeek wanted 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) to work during her work on Sunday morning. And that is what she did. Maybe a little bit more

The charismatic 4-year-old, ridden by Luis Rivera Jr., stepped onto the Oklahoma Training Track just after 7:30 a.m. and did her thing. Working with stablemate Midnight Concerto (Mendelssohn) and Danny Ramsey, Thorpedo Anna went five furlongs in 1:01.80 (3/11).

However, the work had a wrench tossed into it when Midnight Concerto far in front of Thorpedo Anna, which was not by design.

“The workmate was supposed to be four or five lengths in front and Danny [Ramsey] got a little extended,” McPeek said back at his barn. “But they engaged at the three-furlong pole, and it actually worked out ok. She needed a workmate, and she got it and she got it to the wire. But no, it wasn't exactly as we planned.”

Midnight Concerto was clocked in 1:03.10.

McPeek is targeting Thorpedo Anna to the GI, $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 23, Travers Day.

If all goes well there, Thorpedo Anna, owned by Brookdale Racing Inc., Mark Edwards, Judy B. Hicks, and Magdalena Racing (Sherri McPeek), will then be pointed to the GI, $650,000 Spinster Stakes on Oct. 5 at Keeneland.

And then back to the Breeders' Cup.

A year ago, Thorpedo Anna won the GI Distaff to complete a season with six wins in seven starts, the only loss coming against the boys (Fierceness (City of Light) in the GI Travers Stakes.

What race she goes in this year depends on how she does in the next two.

The choices would be a return to the Distaff or a try against the boys in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

“It's too early,” McPeek said about a Breeders' Cup decision. “We'll think about it (Classic). She would really have to romp in these next two. But I don't expect it to be easy. There will be good fillies in the Personal Ensign.”

McPeek also said that he was encouraged with Mystic Dan's (Goldencents) fourth-place finish in Saturday's GI Arlington Million Stakes at Colonial.

“He ran respectable, if you like being fourth,” he said. “We wanted to run a little bit better than that, but he has been a real good horse. He has overachieved all his life and I think it was worth the try. At the head of the lane, it looked like he was going to win.”

McPeek said that Mystik Dan, owned by Lance Gasaway, 4 G Racing LLC, Daniel Hamby III and Valley View Farm LLC, may ship back to Kentucky from Colonial. A final decision on where he goes will come when McPeek decides where his next start will be.

 

Sandman Takes to Grass, Will Head to Kentucky Downs

That didn't take long.

After watching his 3-year-old Sandman (Tapit) work on the grass–for the first time–Sunday, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse is sending the colt into the deep end of the pool.

After wrestling with the idea of running Sandman in the $1 million GI Pennsylvania Derby at Parx next month, Casse nixed that idea. Instead, Sandman will head southwest to Kentucky Downs and be pointed to the GIII, $3.5 million Nashville Derby at 1 5/16 miles on Aug. 30.

“The only way we weren't doing it was if I wasn't happy today,” Casse said at his barn on the Saratoga main track. “I was very happy with him. More importantly, he was very happy. He was like a kid in a candy store.”

Sandman, with jockey Jose Ortiz on board, worked four furlongs in :49.70 (21/76) on the turf course at the Oklahoma Training Track.

In his last start, Sandman was a non-threatening fifth in the five-horse GII Jim Dandy Stakes by Sovereignty (Into Mischief). In six starts this year, he has one win (GI Arkansas Derby) and was also seventh in the GI Kentucky Derby and third in the GI Preakness Stakes.

Casse said that he and Ortiz–who has ridden Sandman in five of his 11 career starts–had an idea the horse would take to the grass. They went into the work with the plan that he would not be doing a lot, just enough.

“He did everything the right way,” Ortiz said. “We wanted to go an easy half.  It seemed like he was having fun.”

Casse was hopeful that he would see good things from Sandman, owned by D J Stable, St. Elias Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds and J Stables on the grass. He is out of the Distorted Humor mare Distorted Music and is a half-brother to She Can't Sing (Bernardini), who won three stakes races on grass.

“We had a pretty good idea,” said Casse, who added that Sandman would likely work on the grass next week. “We've been doing this for a little while. Let's put it this way: I would have been shocked and disappointed if he didn't get over it because every indication, he has ever given me was that he would like grass.”

 

Scottish Lassie Waiting for Cotillion

There was no surprise Sunday morning when trainer Jorge Abreu said that Scottish Lassie (McKinzie) was definitely going to skip Saturday's GI, $600,000 Alabama Stakes and wait for the GI, $1 million Cotillion at Parx on Sept. 20.

“I just have to give her the time,” Abreu said at his Saratoga barn Sunday morning after Scottish Lassie worked four furlongs in 50.99 on the Oklahoma with Hall of Fame jockey Josel Rosario up. “The work was good. I told Rosario to go in 50 and she went in 50 4/5. Nice and smooth.”

Sunday's work was her first since romping to a 15 ½-length win in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga on July 19. Abreu was not going to go to the Alabama with just one work.

“Even though she won the last race by 15 lengths, I think it took a little bit out of her,” Abreu said. “I wasn't seeing her doing the same things that I saw her doing before the Coaching Club. This breeze will put her back to where I want her to be.”

Abreu said he never thought about the Alabama after the Coaching Club American Oaks romp.

Steve Weston of Parkland Thoroughbreds, who owns Scottish Lassie along with Sportsmen Stable, Photos Finish LLC, Corms Racing Stable and Abreu, said the original plan was to point to the Alabama, not the Coaching Club American Oaks.

“We were going to wait for the Alabama, but we felt there would be a small field in the Coaching Club (there was, four) and Jorge thought she was ready,” Weston said. “Once we went to that plan, even though the Alabama was our original goal, we decided to skip it and go to the Cotillion.”

Scottish Lassie has one win in three starts this year. She has given Abreu, a former assistant to Chad Brown, both of his career Grade I wins. She also won the GI Frizette last year.

 

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