Skip to main content

By winning the fourth race in her five-start career, Thorpedo Anna (by Fast Anna) carried on the classic potential of her pedigree, which is notable for classic producers and performers.

The handsome bay filly is from the last crop of the Medaglia d’Oro stallion Fast Anna, who was euthanized due to laminitis at age 10 on Feb. 8, 2021. Thorpedo Anna was born later that spring from the previous year’s covers, and according to statistics from the Jockey Club, Thorpedo Anna was one of 46 foals in the stallion’s final crop.

Fast Anna’s sire, Medaglia d’Oro, got 2006 Kentucky Oaks winner Rachel Alexandra, also winner of the Preakness and Haskell against colts, and another multiple champion in Songbird, winner of 13 of her 15 starts lifetime. Medaglia d’Oro is still an active sire for Darley at Jonabell Farm in Kentucky, and the 25-year-old stallion has sired 147 stakes winners to date, according to data from Equineline.

In addition to Medaglia d’Oro and his male line extending back through leading juvenile and leading sire El Prado to the great Sadler’s Wells (Irish 2,000 Guineas) and his sire, Northern Dancer (Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Queen’s Plate), this is the Phalaris male line through Nearco, and it is the preeminent male line in the Thoroughbred world.

The Phalaris line is so prevalent in breeding that a dozen of the 16 stallion lines in the fifth generation of Thorpedo Anna’s pedigree are Phalaris, mostly through the unbeaten Nearco. This is the dominant male line because it combines high speed with classic potential.

The same may be said for the female line of Thorpedo Anna.

Thorpedo Anna’s second dam is a half-sister to Eskendereya (Giant’s Causeway), who won four of his six starts, including the G1 Wood Memorial, and was favored for the 2010 Kentucky before a soft-tissue injury ended his career. Another sibling was Balmont (Stravinsky), a top English juvenile who won the G1 Middle Park Stakes and G2 Gimcrack.

They were all produced by Aldebaran Light, a daughter of Triple Crown winner and leading sire Seattle Slew, and Aldebaran Light’s second dam is Stellar Odyssey, a daughter of Kentucky Derby winner Northern Dancer and a half-sister to Kentucky Derby winner Cannonade.

As a Keeneland July yearling in 1985, Stellar Odyssey was an RNA for $1.425 million and never raced. Branches of this family through Stellar Odyssey’s dam Queen Sucree (Ribot) kept this family popular among breeders, and now this branch has come alive again with Thorpedo Anna.

Getting to the Kentucky Oaks winner, however, was not a simple process.

Bred in Kentucky by Judy Hicks, Thorpedo Anna is out of the Uncle Mo mare Sataves, who is unraced and was almost not a broodmare either. But the Kentucky Oaks winner is the second foal and second winner out of the mare, whom the breeder described as “having Uncle Mo’s body and a pony’s legs.”

The reason for the mare’s short stature was that Sataves was born nearly two months prematurely, the breeder said, and “weighed only 60 pounds. There were fractures in her hocks.

“You couldn’t put a cast on hocks; instead, she spent several months in a stall; otherwise, her hocks would have had more problems,” Hicks said. “The main thing was supplements for maintenance of her bone development and limiting her exercise. I needed to keep her as quiet as I could.

“The good thing was that she was so light that she didn’t put too much weight on those hocks,” Hicks said. “Now she has unsightly hocks, but she gets around fine.”

Without the ability to get out and exercise like a foal normally will, and compromised from her premature birth, Sataves did not develop like a regular Thoroughbred yearling and 2-year-old, but she has become a broodmare without undue difficulty.

The first foal out of Sataves is Charlee O (Tourist), who won $103,586. The mare won her debut as a 2-year-old at Belmont Park going six furlongs on the turf. Charlee O led all the way and won by a half-length as the longest price on the board.

In similar fashion, her half-sister Thorpedo Anna put the family back in the winner’s circle for a classic with her victory in the Oaks on May 3, and that success is begetting other opportunities for her immediate family.

Charlee O has become a premium broodmare prospect, and Sataves is counting days to confirm pregnancy after her second cover to Horse of the Year and leading sire Gun Runner.

Recommended for You