Considered the “Midsummer Classic,” the Travers Stakes perennially is one of the best 3-year-old races in the country. And this year’s edition at Saratoga has an interesting plot twist—filly Thorpedo Anna—who will try to be the first filly to win the 1 ¼-mile Travers in more than a century.
You have the reigning Belmont Stakes and Haskell Stakes champion in Dornoch. The colt who finished second in the Kentucky Derby, second in the Jim Dandy Stakes and third in the Belmont in Sierra Leone. And you have the Jim Dandy winner, not to mention the Florida Derby winner (by 13 ½ lengths) in Fierceness.
And none of them are the story entering Saturday’s $1.25 million Grade 1 Travers Stakes, the flagship race on the Saratoga calendar and one of five Grade 1 races on Saturday’s 14-race card from the Spa. The “Midsummer Classic” regularly sends out one of the best 3-year-old fields of the season—Triple Crown races included.
This edition of the 1 ¼-mile Travers comes with that gilded field of the aforementioned. But it also comes with an interloper who is trying to make her mark on Saratoga history.
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Fantastic Filly
Key word—“her.”
That would be Thorpedo Anna, who is trying to be the first filly in 109 years—or since Lady Rotha won the 1915 Travers—to win Saratoga’s most prestigious race. While seven fillies won the Travers in its first 46 runnings, none found the winner’s circle in the last century and change. In fact, only four have entered the Travers starting gate since 1960, with Chris Evert (third in 1974) finishing the best of that lot.
None of that has fazed trainer Kenny McPeek in the slightest. After all, this is a trainer who didn’t blink when it came to entering filly Swiss Skydiver in the 2020 Preakness Stakes. She put away eventual 2020 Horse of the Year Authentic in a stretch run for the ages.
With Thorpedo Anna, McPeek’s optimism equals his audacity. And with good reason. The filly is 6-for-7 lifetime and unbeaten in four 2024 starts—by a combined 18 ¾ lengths. Three of those were Grade 1s: the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, the Acorn and the Coaching Club American Oaks, both at Saratoga. Nobody came within 4 ½ lengths of her in any of the three.
“She’s been so dominant over the 3-year-old fillies up to this point, it didn’t’ look like there was a whole lot of challenges there,” McPeek said on a National Thoroughbred Racing Association. conference call. “I think if we had run in the (Grade 1) Alabama, there is a very good chance we would have won there. … I’m not overly intimidated by this group of colts.”
McPeek’s optimism is not only born of Thorpedo Anna’s speed, but one of her stablemates—Mystik Dan, who nipped Sierra Leone at the wire to claim that Kentucky Derby. He said she’s always given him “everything he can handle and maybe more” during workouts.
Creative Challenge
She’ll have “everything she can handle” from the rail post. Thorpedo Anna’s 3-1 morning-line odds are equal to Fierceness and second to favored Dornoch (5-2). The Danny Gargan colt is trying to be the first horse since Point Given in 2001 to win the Belmont, Haskell and Travers. Throw in a victory in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth in February and Dornoch can lock up the Eclipse Award as Champion 3-Year-Old with a victory here. His Belmont and Haskell scores helped cleanse Gargan’s palate of a disappointing fourth in the Grade 1 Blue Grass and a 10th in the Derby.
“If you throw out his Derby, where he got just a really rough trip, he’s done nothing wrong his whole career,” Gargan said. “He just was a little green when he was a 2-year-old and took a little while to focus on running straight and switches leads, when he switches, he finds another gear.”
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If Fierceness finds the gear that brought him that Florida Derby and Jim Dandy, along with the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last November, he’ll swamp this field. Even Gargan said, “if he shows up, we’re all in trouble.” It’s that “if” variable that spoils Fierceness’ racing equation. His four victories are equally bookended by four also-ran finishes. None more disappointing than a 15th as the 3-1 favorite in the Derby. Fierceness has never won back-to-back races.
Fearsome Fierceness
If you’re wondering, Fierceness returns to the Saratoga starting gate a month after a length victory over Sierra Leone in the Jim Dandy, the traditional Travers prep race.
“I hope he’s getting tired of it. That’s what I need. I need him to step up,” Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher said.
You could say the same about Sierra Leone (7-2). He was 1 ½ lengths behind Dornoch in the Belmont and a nose hair behind Mystik Dan in that photo-finish Derby. Add in the second-by-a-length finish to Fierceness in the Jim Dandy and the $2.3 million Gun Runner progeny not only needs to run to his price tag, he needs to show he can finish against the best colts—and filly—in his class.
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“I’ve felt good every time I’ve run him. With his running style, he’ll have to work out a trip. He’s consistently getting faster with his numbers,” trainer Chad Brown said. “It seems he runs into a horse on their best day every time, but that’s horse racing. Often times it’s been his best number, too.”
Sierra Leone is one of two Brown candidates trying to get the Hall of Fame conditioner his first Travers score. He’s joined by unbeaten Unmatched Wisdom (8-1).
But again, those two, Fierceness and even favorite Dornoch could be chasing a page from history instead of making their own. The distaff shadow Thorpedo Anna casts here is a legitimate one.
“She might be the best horse that I’ve ever taken over there,” McPeek said. “If she beats Dornoch, Fierceness and Sierra Leone … just walk her over to the Hall of Fame.”
